JetBlue's Stock Rallies After March Traffic Data

JetBlue Airways Corp. reported Wednesday a 2.9% increase in traffic to 4.08 billion revenue passenger miles, coupled with 4.2% growth in capacity to 4.76 billion available seat miles. That knocked load factor for the month down to 85.7% from 86.8%. For the first quarter, revenue per available seat mile is now expected to decline 4.8%, compared with previous guidance of a decline in the range of 4% to 5%. The stock, which surged 1.9% in premarket trade, has lost 3.9% year to date through Tuesday, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has gained 0.6% and the S&P 500 has tacked on 5.1%.