JetBlue Reports $58 Million Profit for 2009; $11 Million Profit for Q4

JetBlue reported a profit for the fourth quarter 2009, its fourth consecutive profitable quarter. For the full year 2009, JetBlue reported net income of $58 million, a significant improvement over last year’s net loss of $85 million. The airline also reported net income for the fourth quarter of $11 million, compared to a fourth quarter 2008 net loss of $58 million.

For the fourth quarter, revenue passenger miles increased 7.4 percent year-over-year to 6.3 billion on a capacity increase of 6.3 percent, resulting in a fourth quarter load factor of 79.4 percent, an increase of 0.8 points year over year.

JetBlue CFO Ed Barnes said the airline’s transition to a new reservation system and the timing of certain aircraft maintenance expense will pressure costs during the first half of the year (the airline announced earlier this week that all of its reservations and booking services will be unavailable from 12 p.m. EST on Friday to Saturday afternoon).

However, Barnes said JetBlue expects these unit cost increases to be offset by higher revenue from product and network initiatives in the second half of the year. JetBlue joins a short list of airlines making money for 2009; the two others are also low-cost carriers, Southwest and Air Tran.