JetBlue shares tumble as it cuts growth plan

Bloomberg

JetBlue Airways Corp, hammered by delays and cancellations this year, is cutting its summer schedule by more than 10% from original plans and reining in growth ambitions for the full year.
The Long Island City, New York-based carrier is reducing flights for a second time this year as it now projects growth of between zero and 5% and works to restore operational reliability. It originally sought to increase flying capacity as much as 15% this year from 2019 to meet surging demand for domestic flights, JetBlue said in a statement.
“We had to act quickly and decisively” to address the problems, Robin Hayes, the company’s chief executive officer, said. “We have to get back to basics and back to delivering a reliable operation. This reset is going to help us achieve that.”
JetBlue’s flying disruptions and steps to help remedy them will cost the carrier as much as $180 million this year, and reduce expected second-quarter revenue growth by about 4 percentage points, Hayes said.
Like many carriers, JetBlue has been hit hard by attrition and a backlog in pilot training.