JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ:JBLU) reported an increase in preliminary traffic, capacity and load factor for the month of April, due to a rise in passengers and trips flown.
Revenue passenger miles, or traffic, grew 14.5% to 2.86 billion, while capacity measured in terms of available seat miles increased 7.1% to 3.36 billion. Load factor rose 5.5 percentage points to 85.2%.
Revenue passengers carried for the month of April grew 13.3% to 2.476 million. Average stage length for April marginally declined 0.2% to 1,084 from 1,086, while departures increased 7.9% to 22,262.
JetBlue's preliminary completion factor was 99.9% and its on-time performance was 86.7%.
JetBlue's preliminary passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) for the month of April increased 9% year over year. For the month of May, PRASM is expected to increase between 3% and 4% year over year.
For the year-to-date of 2012, traffic grew 14.3% to 10.77 billion while capacity increased 10.7% to 12.89 billion. Load factor rose 2.6 percentage points to 83.5%.
Revenue passengers carried for the year-to-date grew 13.4% to 9.33 million. Average stage length for the year-to-date rose 0.1% to 1,079, while departures increased 11.0% to 85,808.
JBLU is trading down 0.40% at $4.71 on Thursday. The stock has been trading between $3.40 and $6.38 for the past 52 weeks.