JetBlue slides as Latin America woes weigh on sales outlook

JetBlue Airways Corp. said revenue this quarter will fall more than analysts expected as excess flying capacity holds down fares in Latin America, a major portion of the carrier’s international network. Q2 revenue will decline as much as 10.5% year over year, the carrier said in a statement Tuesday as it reported first-quarter earnings. Analysts were expecting a drop of 3.8% on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Non-fuel unit costs, including expenses from a new pilot contract, will climb as much as 7.5%, more than Wall Street had anticipated. The guidance for the quarter and full year “were not nearly as strong as recently reported results from some of the carrier’s full-service peers,” Stephen Trent, a Citi analyst, said in a note. That could cause JetBlue “to relinquish some of its recent share price gains.” Its shares tumbled 9.5% as of 7:32 a.m. before the start of regular trading in New York, pulling down other airlines. JetBlue’s stock climbed 35% this year through Monday. The carrier joins larger rivals Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc. in reporting weaker sales in Latin America after carriers overloaded the market with too many flights, particularly to leisure destinations. Delta and United both have said they expect improvement in the region during the second half of this year. “As we look to the full year, significant elevated capacity in our Latin region, which represents a large portion of JetBlue’s network, will likely continue to pressure revenue and we expect a setback in our expectations for the full year,” JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said.<br/>