JetBlue (JBLU): Power Failure Causes Flight Disruption
Low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU recently encountered service disruption for nearly two hours after its website shut down owing to power failure.
As per the flight tracking website FlightAware.com, nearly four flights were cancelled and 36 were delayed following the outage. Shortly after the technical collapse, bookings and check-in facilities had been restored. Moreover, the carrier assured that its cyber security has not been compromised.
The widespread disruption was caused by power failure at a data center operated by JetBlue's partner Verizon Communications Inc.
Technical glitches are becoming a growing concern for carriers, often resulting in passenger harassment and messed up schedules. In Oct 2015, nearly 450 out of the 3600 flights of Southwest Airlines Co. LUV were postponed due to a similar software malfunction.
Further, legacy carriers like American Airlines Group Inc. AAL and United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL have also faced such crises last year owing to technical issues.
Coming to air traffic data, JetBlue witnessed a significant improvement in the month of December, 2015. Traffic – measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) – came in at 3.79 billion, up 11.3% from 3.41 billion recorded a year ago.
On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) increased 9.5% to 4.58 billion. Moreover, the load factor or percentage of seats filled by passengers increased to 83% from 81.6% in Dec 2014.
At the end of 2015, JetBlue generated RPMs of 41.71 billion (up 10.3% year over year) and ASMs of 49.25 billion (up 9.5%). Further, the load factor grew 70 basis points year over year to 84.7%.
JetBlue currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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