B6 to Sell FIVE A-320s

[JP4user]

Here's the most important part of the post:


"Neeleman yesterday repeated an earlier forecast that the carrier will make money in the second, third and fourth quarters this year."

Bash away!!

This is a little more important:

"The low-cost carrier said it failed to respond quickly enough to rising fuel prices, expanded too fast and didn't manage its fare system well enough."

"Still, he said JetBlue may consider selling more planes."

Two losing quarters forces asset sales. They are saying they expanded to fast yet still plan a 20 - 22% growth rate. Interesting.

 

[JP4user]

What % did People's Express grow by?

Eventually zero after an equally aggresive expansion plan. They also started dumping assets almost immediatley after their first quarterly losses.

 

[32LT10]

The company is being pro-active instead of re-active.

Being proactive would have been to sell these before the company started losing money. As it stands now it is more reactive and reorganizing of the company to get it back into the black.

 

[curtaindriver]

It's interesting how JBLU gets blasted for expanding too quickly, then when it seems to make some adjustments we still get blasted. Nobody at JetBlue is excited we are selling aircraft, but I'm sure the majority is pleased that our management team is taking logical steps before things get really nasty.

There is just no pleasing the flightinfo crowd, but that would be boring if we all agreed and talked nice to each other. ha ha

CD

 

[ExpWayVis31]

It seems to me that Neeleman is overly concerned by the JBLU stock price.
Perhaps George Sorros came knocking on his door late one night.

 

[Lear70]

is this a move to save cash so they dont have to keep raising prices?

WHAT??

You don't "save cash to keep from raising prices", especially by selling aircraft (which is what is generating your revenue).

If they combine this sale of aircraft by redistributing existing aircraft to routes where the yields are higher and/or RAISE prices (which is how you make money in aviation), then the move will be well worth it.

If they can't get their yields up, then you might see more of this happen as their new aircraft come online unless they can defer deliveries for a while. An all-ERJ fleet won't help things either... Almost identical operating cost from what I hear.

They HAVE to get their yields up (which happens to be a problem everyone has right now, including SWA as their hedging goes lower and lower each quarter).

 

[JP4user]

It seems to me that Neeleman is overly concerned by the JBLU stock price.

Very astute observation.

 

[Purpledog]

Armchair economists. Cracks me up. I can hardly stand to read this drivel. That said, I agree with one point. If your a painter and you sell your ladders to pay the truck note, that doesn't quite smell right. Good luck, hopefully they know what their doing and aren't just appeasing Wall Street.

 

[Dragonbravo]

Can't remember where I heard this, so take it with a grain of salt. (Unlike the other stuff you hear on the internet) Although B6 is selling five aircraft, they are continuing to take deliveries of 320's this year. As for why sell one and buy a new one, beats me. Maybe they want to sell off some of the aircraft that the mx agreement with Bus has expired and see some advantage to a aircraft with free mx. Like I said, a grain of salt.

 

[32LT10]

Can't remember where I heard this, so take it with a grain of salt. (Unlike the other stuff you hear on the internet) Although B6 is selling five aircraft, they are continuing to take deliveries of 320's this year. As for why sell one and buy a new one, beats me. Maybe they want to sell off some of the aircraft that the mx agreement with Bus has expired and see some advantage to a aircraft with free mx. Like I said, a grain of salt.

I agree that this is a cost of use issue. However, like trading in late model cars you will find yourself upside down on the return side. So this entirely could be a very short term gain for a some long term debt. Add to this some of the spending frenzy that B6 is going through with Terminals, Hangars, Hotels and you have the perfect storm brewing for some not so great finances. The bills come due at some point and whether Needleman will have the cash on hand at the time or pull a Kerry Skeen and excerise his "genius" to put the finishing touches on the B6 future.