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JetBlue Airways May Traffic & Load Factor Rise, Capacity Up

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JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU - Free Report) , the Long Island City, NY-based carrier reported traffic results for the month of May. Traffic – measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) – improved 3.8% year over year to 3.99 billion.

On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) increased 3.7% to 4.70 billion. Load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers improved marginally to 84.7% in the month. Load factor increased as traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion in May. The low-cost carrier registered a completion factor (system wide) of 97.4% in the month with 67.2% flights on schedule.

On a year-to-date basis, the carrier posted a 4.7% rise in RPMs, while ASMs expanded 4.6%, on a year-over-year basis. Load factor inched up 10 basis points year over year to 84.4%.

JetBlue maintains its projection for revenue per available seat mile (RASM) for the second quarter of 2017 to increase between 4-6%.

JetBlue was also in news last month, when it announced an enhanced flight service between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Mexico City International Airport (MEX) as well as between Orlando International Airport (MCO) and MEX. The new and improved Mexico City service is part of JetBlue’s expansion efforts.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

JetBlue Airways currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in airline space are Air France-KLM SA (AFLYY - Free Report) , Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY - Free Report) and International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (ICAGY - Free Report) . All sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here

Shares of Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa and International Consolidated Airlines gained above 55%, 38% and 7%, respectively, over three months.

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