Airline Trying To Re-Route Financial Future Through Dominance In Fort Lauderdale.
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2026 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — JetBlue Airways is still losing money, but not by quite as much as it feared a few months ago. The airline reported a second-quarter net loss of $247 million, or 66 cents per share, a wider loss than the $74 million it lost a year earlier, even though revenue jumped nearly 15% to $2.7 billion. JetBlue has now lost $566 million through the first half of 2026.
The bigger loss came almost entirely from fuel, according to its financial report released Tuesday morning and sent to BocaNewsNow.com. JetBlue paid $4.23 a gallon for jet fuel in the quarter, a 76% jump from a year ago, which helped push total operating expenses up more than 20%. Strip out fuel, though, and the numbers look better: unit revenue climbed 10.9% year-over-year, and the airline said it recovered nearly half of its higher fuel costs faster than expected — proof, executives said, that their “JetForward” turnaround plan is gaining traction.
Nowhere is that plan more visible than at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where JetBlue is racing to fill the void left by Spirit Airlines’ collapse. Spirit shut down abruptly in May, leaving Terminal 4 largely empty and thousands of former passengers scrambling for new flights. JetBlue has moved aggressively into that gap, growing capacity at FLL by nearly 40% while still posting 11% revenue-per-seat growth there, and the airline plans more than 150 daily departures out of Fort Lauderdale this winter as it pushes to become the airport’s dominant carrier.
JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said the quarter reflected “the strength of our JetForward strategy,” and the company used Tuesday’s earnings report to set a new long-term target: at least $1 per share in profit by 2028, assuming jet fuel prices hold near $3 a gallon. For now, JetBlue is still bleeding cash, but executives say the back half of 2026 should show meaningful improvement as fare and loyalty revenue keep climbing.
