JetBlue and Spirit's losses are even worse than expected

No one expected airlines to report good news for Q1. But Spirit's and JetBlue's losses were even worse than analysts predicted. Spirit followed other airlines in announcing it will offer 12m shares at an as-yet-undetermined price, and $150m in debt to raise cash to weather the crisis. It also has reached an agreement to increase a credit line by $30m by May 18. That news, combined with Spirit's adjusted loss of $58.9m, sent Spirit shares down 13% in early trading Thursday. Meanwhile, JetBlue lost an adjusted $116m excluding special items, compared to a $51m profit a year earlier. But JetBlue shares actually gained 5% following comments from executives that they believe the worst of the drop in travel is behind it. "We believe that we've reached the bottom in terms of demand around mid-April," JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty said, though she cautioned it's not a dramatic turnaround. "We expect to have a better sense of the third and fourth quarter of 2020 by early summer. We envision this environment of very limited demand will continue into at least the short, if not medium term." JetBlue was one of the first US carriers to cut its domestic schedule in March in the face of falling demand for air travel. But the drop in traffic in March has been nothing like what has been experienced so far in the second quarter, when demand for air travel has been essentially zero<br/>