There's an investor's day presentation on 10/2. I have no idea whether anything related to this will be announced then,however based on the past investor days, something will be announced.
The last investor day presentation in 2016 was the announcement of the cost reduction program. The investor day prior to that was in 2014 when the seat densification and other revenue initiatives were announced.
The $5 bag fee increase was already announced, but we could see more revenue accretive programs introduced. I think there's less potential for further structural cost reductions since we already seem to have cut costs down to the bone and beyond in some places.
Network changes, reallocating low profit margin flying to higher margin routes, is another way to boost earnings. Jetblue is primarily a point to point airline,so market share in each focus city is more important than the overall network.
The less planes fly, the higher the CASM. I'm not too worried about a reduction in the amount of flying we're doing, especially as we just issued an increase in our RASM forecast and are seeing load factors increasing as well.
I don't like the prospect of network reductions, but Jetblue's main goal isn't to fly to the most destinations. Its goal is to maximize the profit flying to destinations within the range of a 190 or 320/321 and soon to be 321neo. This management team has already made some moves that were unheard of before: buying another airline, charging for bags, etc. I wouldn't assume there's any sacred cows left.
Already this summer we reached a conclusion to our contract negotiations and the 190 fleet review. Pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place. We don't know enough about the future right now, but I think we'll have a clearer picture on 10/2.
03-17-2023
AIRLINE
