Earnings Labs

JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU)

Q4 2009 Earnings Call· Thu, Jan 28, 2010

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the JetBlue Airways fourth quarter and full year 2009 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded. We have on the call today Dave Barger, JetBlue's CEO and Ed Barnes, JetBlue's CFO. As a reminder, this morning's call includes forward-looking statements about future events. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to many factors and therefore investors should not place undue reliance on these statements. For additional information concerning factors that could cause results to differ from the forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's annual and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Dave Barger.

David Barger

Management

Thank you, Helda. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. We’re very pleased to announce our fourth consecutive quarterly profit. This morning we reported fourth quarter net income of $11 million or earnings of $0.04 per diluted share as compared to a $58 million net loss in the fourth quarter of 2008. For the full year 2009 we reported net income of $58 million or $0.20 per diluted share. This results represents an improvement of $143 million over 2008. 2009 presented many challenges to the airline industry, including significant pressures on revenues as a result of the recession, continued tightening of the credit markets, and volatility in the price of fuel. Nevertheless, we generated positive free cash flow for the first time in JetBlue’s history and we are one of only a few US carriers to achieve a profit in all four quarters of 2009, all while delivering an experience to our customers that is unrivaled in the industry and well deserving of our fifth consecutive JD Power award for service excellence. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our 12,000 crew members for helping us to achieve these strong, impressive results. Our 2009 results demonstrate the benefits of slower growth which we started in 2006. While we were originally scheduled to take 36 aircraft in 2009, the steps we took to sell, defer, and lease aircraft helped us to enhance our liquidity, reduce capacity and capital expenditures, and optimize our network. These actions, combined with a $450 million year-over-year decline in fuel expense resulted in our highest net income since 2003. We also achieved many operational successes throughout 2009, improving for instance, on time performance by 4.6% compared to 2008. We also continued to enhance the JetBlue experience for our customers. We launched an improved…

Edward A. Barnes

Management

Thank you, Dave. Good morning everyone and thanks again for joining us today. As Dave said, we are very pleased to be one of the few US carriers to report a profit in all four quarters of 2009. The actions we have taken over the past few years to build our brand, control growth, -+ liquidity, and strengthen our financial position have clearly helped us face the challenges of a weak economy. Operating income for the fourth quarter improved $15 million year-over-year driven by a $56 million decline in fuel expense and a $21 million increase in revenues offset by a $62 million increase in non-fuel costs. Overall, our operating margin for the quarter was 7.6%. Fourth quarter unit revenues declined 4% compared to a year ago. This is a significant improvement from the 8% year-over-year decline we experienced in the third quarter. Yield during the fourth quarter was down 5% and load factor was up about 1% on a 6% more capacity. These results were generally in line with the guidance that we provided at the end of October. As we expected, demand during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday travel periods held up relatively well. Fares during the December holiday travel period were similar to levels to last year when as Dave said we experienced record fare levels. While the positive pricing traction during peak travel periods has been encouraging, the off peak periods remain a challenge as aggressive pricing across the airline industry has had a significant impact on yields. We continue to be encouraged by the success of our ancillary revenue initiatives. When we combine all of our ancillary revenue reported in the passenger revenue line with those in the other revenue line, total ancillary revenue for the fourth quarter was about $20 per passenger. I’d like…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Michael Linenberg - Bank of America.

Michael Linenberg - Bank of America

Analyst · America

You indicated that the hold back went to zero. What was the hold back before and then what was the trigger? I did see you got a couple upgrades from the various rating agencies.

Edward A. Barnes

Management

The hold back prior to that was $30 million and I think the primary trigger was really I think the current cash position of $1.1 billion as well as the sustainable growth and free cash flow model that we’re operating on today.

Michael Linenberg - Bank of America

Analyst · America

As we look at your fleet plan, we saw the changes with the 190s and that definitely smooths that out. When I look out over the next couple years, it looks like you do have a decent number of A-320s. I think it may be 8 airplanes in 2011 and maybe 13 in 2012. That’s a decent number. Is the thinking, would you take a similar view to the bigger airplanes as you look out to 2011 and 2012 and beyond?

David Barger

Management

I think it’s safe to say that we’re very committed to free cash flow. We realize there’s a lot of airplanes coming at us in these later years and I think you’ve seen us in the past be very flexible with our fleet planning and working with the manufacturers to accomplish that, so I think that’s probably what we’ll do on a forward basis.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Hunter Keay - Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. Hunter Keay - Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc.: I feel like I’m getting some sort of mixed signals from you in the prepared remarks. You talked a lot about uncertainty in the economic recovery but you’re pulling forward aircraft. You’re pulling forward the 190s, you’re growing your ASMs by about 7%, with a lot of that down to the Caribbean. Delta referenced specifically some weakness in the Caribbean and Central America because of excess capacity as they framed it. Why should we not be concerned with your ability to meet your PRASM guidance because it looks like you’re baking in a pretty solid second and third quarter period following the 1Q flattish guidance.

Edward A. Barnes

Management

A couple thoughts. First of all I think embedded in the prepared comments are really some significant change, investments that are going on. I think specific to JetBlue versus the rest of the airline industry, one is the conversion to Sabre platform, that is a very significant change. We’re obviously being very guarded regarding the conversion even though the planning has gone quite well so there’s additional cost associated with that. There’s also from the standpoint of revenue opportunities that we believe are back end loaded. We won’t see that day one with the conversion; it takes a period of time. So right behind it is the runway construction at JFK as well, our home base of operations. I think the theme is a tale of two semesters, the first six months of this year continued significant investment right in our back yard or in our airline and then reaping the benefits of that into the second half of the year. I think from the standpoint of your comments, uncertainty, let’s face it, we’re fresh out of a recession and I think that we want to be pragmatic about how we’re looking at the world. All that said, when I look at sequentially PRASM minus 8% year-over-year, Q3 minus 4% year-over-year, Q4, and then our guidance that we issued today for the first quarter and for the year. We’re fairly optimistic that maybe there is going to be some stickiness to what we’re seeing with the rebound. But that’s just a comment that I would share regarding uncertainty. We’re fresh out of a recession and probably the most significant recession that we’ve been living in, in our lifetime. The last thought, ASM growth, I can’t speak for other carriers, but our continued investment in Boston, our continued investment in the…

Edward A. Barnes

Management

I wouldn’t read into there’s an overnight change into a [first back fee]. We know that’s something in our arsenal if we opt to go that way. I think really with Sabre, first and foremost, it’s scalability in our network as we grow the airline. That was first and foremost the reason for the change. The e-ticketing platform, that does allow us to really start to maximize the opportunities, whether it’s coach air, [inter line] agreements, and with our basic Kennedy, focus areas like Boston, Orlando, and others, very, very positive. I think it’s fair to say that the ancillary revenues streams through the booking flow and the ability to optimize things like package travel. We’re really excited about the capabilities Sabre gives us as we look into 2010 and beyond. Maybe just a comment as well, I think again that the planning that’s going into this conversion, the training, the things like the Verizon call center as a backup, our business partner, things such as again planning the schedule accordingly, load factors accordingly for this weekend, a slower time frame as well, I think bodes very well for again, our confidence to make the conversion, it’s difficult, but in a very professional manner.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Duane Pfennigwerth - Raymond James.

Duane Pfennigwerth - Raymond James

Analyst

Just with regard to your RASM/PRASM guidance and ancillary guidance of 10%, what does that assume in terms of new products on the ancillary front, and how willing would you be to sort of guide to new products ahead of a systems migration?

Edward A. Barnes

Management

The ancillary revenue is so much of what we saw, was really Even More Legroom, and we’re in a pricing point now, $10, $25, $40 in terms of stage length. We saw the full year’s worth of performance. That doesn’t change as we make the migration into Sabre. I think Sabre again, and not that I’m going to shed any color in terms of some of the additional products that we’re looking at or maybe enhancements. Let’s make sure we get through the conversion professionally as opposed to trying to advertise some of our changes that we’re looking at, put it into place later this year. The commercial team has really made an awful lot of change in terms of the network and things like Even More Legroom, and additional ancillary revenues. I think as you take a look at our growth over the course of the year with ancillary revenues, I think we’re going to be well placed. Probably later in this year you’ll hear much more about some of the ideas that we’ve been working on as we put them into reality with ancillary revenues.

Duane Pfennigwerth - Raymond James

Analyst

Just to follow up, does your guidance of 10% ancillary growth consider new products you may roll out in the second half?

Edward A. Barnes

Management

I think the 10% has a lot to do with just the year-over-year increase in existing programs. I would say the only thing that we’re working on right now that we really haven’t launched is on board food sales. That’s not going to have a significant impact on ancillary, so I think as we implement Sabre and as we have opportunities to maybe put in additional programs, that may be a little upside potential.

Duane Pfennigwerth - Raymond James

Analyst

Thank you. I think Jim has a question.

James Parker - Raymond James

Analyst

I believe that you’ve gone on record saying the industry has too much capacity in the last few months so JetBlue is increasing capacity 5% to 7% in 2010. I’m curious to these 190s that you’re going to take delivery. Was that a trade off to get the deferrals in latter years?

David Barger

Management

Specific to the Embraers and I won’t go into the discussions that we’ve had with Embraer. What we really wanted to do was just flatten growth. The earlier question about the AirBus delivery stream, the skyline, Embraers with the 190s. We had an awful lot of airplanes that were bunched up that are now much smoother if you will over the course of 2018. I think that JetBlue is also an airline that’s played an awful lot of defense going back to 2006 and rightly so. We’ve really trimmed our growth rate significantly. Last year, for example, 9 aircraft versus 36. I am of the opinion that the industry has too much capacity and I think that some airlines, including JetBlue, have earned the right to grow and I think it’s things like, as we talk about, again, not to disclose a return on invested capital metric, free cash flow, things like our operating margin and those airplanes earning their way under the network. You bet we’re going to take advantage of that. When airlines all of the sudden have been committed to areas like Boston for decades and crew bases are closing and our brand is resonating, you bet we’re going to take advantage of that. It’s the same down in the Caribbean, and I’ll close with – we had a team visiting the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico earlier this year and I don’t mean just an in and out trip, but on an island and in the area for a couple of days and there’s a lot of opportunity that worked very well with JetBlue for the foreseeable future down there. So that’s what’s really driving our footprint, our growth, as we look at 2010.

Edward A. Barnes

Management

I would add to that, that those aircraft are coming in the second, third, and fourth quarters of this year and they’re not a significant factor in our capacity growth. The capacity growth I think has more to do with again going back to the connecting the dots plans that we have in Boston as well as in the Caribbean

James Parker - Raymond James

Analyst

I have your longer term growth rate going forward as the economy is growing again in the next several years, what’s the pace of growth for JetBlue?

David Barger

Management

I think that at your conference in other settings, I’ve been on record as saying that I think that this is a growth story. We have to earn our right to grow. Again, focusing on free cash flow, you’ve heard it several times in the prepared comments and even in the commentary here, but this allows us to grow and I think as we look at the future, I think that this is an airline that can grow 5+% per year and certain years we’re going to be afforded the opportunity to maybe grow more than that but the flexibility with our crew members, with our order book, also allows us to dial it down like we did last year. We were flat last year and I think again it’s one of the best performances this company has had in the last 6+ years. But this is a growth company and we’re running the business that way.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from William Greene - Morgan Stanley.

William Greene - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Just one follow up on a capacity and unit cost question. The growth in unit cost you sort of outlined what some of the drivers are there. How much of the capacity growth is with an eye on that, trying to manage that, because obviously flat capacity is a bit of a challenge, keeping costs flat in that world.

David Barger

Management

I really think that the capacity increase had more to do with opportunities that we see in our network and more to do with our long term network plans so it didn’t really have anything to do with cost guidance.

William Greene - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

If we look at your headcount, you’ve sort of been the 70 headcount FTs per aircraft for some time. Some of your low cost peers are quite a bit lower than that. Is there an opportunity there or is it just that they’ve outsourced more and you’re kind of about where it’s going to be as you grow?

David Barger

Management

I think it’s partially an outsourcing story but I think it’s also that JetBlue does need to look for additional ways to become more efficient and certainly as we look for ways to automate things or as we connect the dots in our network and make our existing assets more efficient, I think we’ll have the opportunity to do that.

William Greene - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Do you want to hazard a guess how low that could go?

David Barger

Management

Not at the moment.

William Greene - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Lastly, just on the JFK runway closure, is it possible that could have a net P&L positive effect on you if capacity there is reduced?

Edward A. Barnes

Management

I don’t look at Kennedy, that’s possible depending on what plays out with the competitive landscape, but I think what we’re seeing in the [EOAG] for March is going to continue through the summer time frame. The US flags are certainly going to take advantage of moving into the peak traffic period. I think how we look it it though is – and again, planning for this months ahead of time, the re-deployment of these airplanes, Boston is up 30 on a year-over-year basis as we move into the summer time frame. The ability to build a pattern of service for the business customer as well as the discretionary customer. I think we’re pretty optimistic about how that can play out. From the standpoint of slots at JFK and use it or lose it, and we’re hopeful that will be suspended thorough the end of the year, even after the runway rehabilitation project closes out on June 30. But I think there’s no secret, some of the volume that airlines are doing in the New York metropolitan area isn’t necessarily in their best interest because they’re holding slots at places like Newark and LaGuardia and at Kennedy as well. Potentially, that could be the case, but we’re certainly not… It would be nice to see instead of what we’re planning to see.

William Greene - Morgan Stanley

Analyst

Is there any reason to think the new Boston capacity or whatnot could [spool] up profitability-wise faster or should it just follow normal curves?

David Barger

Management

I tell you, we’re so pleased with what we’re seeing in Boston so a normal curve that we’re seeing in Boston is very pleasant to us and it could exceed that. Our growth up there from a JetBlue perspective, our partnership with Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Cape Air, the relationships that we have in the community. It’s very heartening for us. Again, we’re not hoping for something that hasn’t materialized in the past. What is the maturation curve that we’ve been seeing in markets like Boston, Pittsburgh, O’Hare, adding service and planning accordingly. Boston’s been very important to us. In fact, the ASMs are now over 20% across our network.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jamie Baker - J.P. Morgan.

Jamie Baker - J.P. Morgan

Analyst

Forgive my ignorance, but have there been any seamless transitions to Sabre in the last few years? Obviously West Jet’s cutover went poorly and I think there were a couple of other examples. I’m impressed with the contingency planning, I’m just trying to assess if disruption is a foregone conclusion at this point.

David Barger

Management

I love your intro comment, forgive the ignorance. Your point is very well taken. Transitions with any type of customer service system are challenging and so we’ve planned for some level of disruption, some level of delay, but I think the planning that we’ve seen, according to you business partners with Sabre, is they haven’t seen this in the past. The partnership that we’ve had with other carriers. By the way, I called out to West Jet and Sean and his team, they’ve been very helpful to our team in terms of lessons learned. The training that’s been going on for months across our airline, the recurrent training, because the people who went through it six months ago. The preparation for it. I think this weekend, taking down the schedule some level intentionally and load factors intentionally, and I think internally we’re really managing expectations that it takes a period of time before people are proficient more quickly in the airport. It takes a little bit longer in the reservations environment, but I think the belts and suspenders that have been put into place, similar to terminal 5, when we also had questions regarding our ability to basically plug it in, I’m not going to tell you we’re overly confident but I think there’s some really good planning that’s gone into place with this conversion.

Jamie Baker - J.P. Morgan

Analyst

Is it possible to even switch back to Navicare if things don’t get off to a smooth start and secondly, what level of RASM weakness, if any, are related to the cut over is captured by the Q1 RASM forecast? I guess put it differently, if you were sticking with the Navicare, would your Q1 RASM guidance be the same as it is?

David Barger

Management

The world is binary. Once you make the decision to convert and over the course of a 24 hour to 36 hour time frame you make the conversion, you’re running on Sabre, and that’s how we’re looking at the world. There’s not an opportunity to run simultaneous systems or to fall back. There are trigger points over the course of the conversion period but it’s very limited over that 24 hour period. Right now, by the way, we’re agreeing. Looking at the weather that’s moving across the Mid-Atlantic, our preparation across the airline, I think it’s fair to say that as we look at the RASM guidance that we’ve given into the first quarter, into the year, it’s probably helpful to take a look at the full year guidance relative to what we think we can continue to see, not just with our core network, but also with optimizing some of the opportunities that a new CSS system gives us. So I think it’s less relevant to look at that first quarter conversion as opposed to maybe looking at it from a full year perspective.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Will Randow – Citi.

Will Randow - Citi

Analyst

A question on your RASM guidance, I know it’s been asked a couple different ways, but what type of improvements assumed relative to kind of run rates that hit your current guidance, and then thinking about it, how does that compare to your industry expectations for RASM?

David Barger

Management

I’m certainly seeing industry expectations at a number that looks like PRASM at 10% across the industry, and I think that we are, as Ed alluded to, we had 8 new markets last year, we’re looking for maturation of those markets and as we build capacity, build frequencies into markets like Boston and we’ve announced Punta Cana, again, we’re not looking to move off the maturation curve in any significant way there, so probably the best way I can answer is again, we’re fairly optimistic with what we’re seeing as we move here into 2010 from a PRASM perspective and RASM perspective and at the same time, we want to be prudent about it. There’s a lot of change going on within JetBlue that I don’t think is impacting other airlines such as the CSS conversion and also the runway project and I think they’ll both go very well but all that said, this is a somewhat [inaudible] semesters at JetBlue if you take a look at first quarter and again, back to Jamie’s question, I would encourage everybody to take a look at our full year because the second half of the year is so different than the first half of the year because of these two projects.

Will Randow - Citi

Analyst

What is some [inaudible] for unit cost in terms of growth related to the JFK runway closure, the Sabre implementation, and some of these other one-off issues and how does that go away when we think about 2011?

David Barger

Management

We did have some one tine costs as we indicated earlier in the first quarter related to Sabre, that was about $10 million in costs that we won’t incur in future periods. On the runway closure, we have some assumptions and maybe a little bit more block time related to the runway closure because we want to make sure that we protect our brand and our culture as they move through that process, but I wouldn’t say that is overly significant.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Gary Chase - Barclays Capital.

Gary Chase - Barclays Capital

Analyst

You said something about Sabre changing revenue accounting. I obviously could understand how that would delay but your release, but it’s not going to change sort of financial accounting for revenue? I just want to be crystal clear on that.

David Barger

Management

No, it’s not changing the way we account for anything.

Gary Chase - Barclays Capital

Analyst

Just kind of going back to this issue that I know everybody’s kind of trying to tease out a little bit on, can you maybe walk us through, are there fundamental changes that you’re making to the network that sort of changed the seasonality where we ought to think differently about how the first half is going to compare to the first half last year versus the second half, or is most of what you’re describing, and I know you’re trying to point people to look at the full year, is most of the acceleration that I think we’re all believing is there, is that a function of initiative, code sharing, the capabilities that you think Sabre is going to bring on?

Edward A. Barnes

Management

I think that fundamental changes to the network would not be how I would think about it, how we’re looking at 2010 over 2009, with a couple of exceptions. When you’re growing in a focus place like Boston 30%, year-over-year, that’s significant. When those flights are into markets like Chicago, we’ve been in Pittsburgh, we opened Baltimore, Raleigh, Charlotte, clearly those are geared to business markets, business frequencies, and I think they’ll benefit our core customer base heretofore in terms of the leisure base. That is a way to think a little bit differently about the network. Kennedy is really underneath, a cap if you will, from the standpoint of the runway construction, and we’ve intentionally taken out approximately 10% of the flying up and through the runway construction period, but no changes there. As I look at what we’re doing down in Orlando, down in Ft. Lauderdale, down into Latin America, and out on the west coast, two thoughts, one is we’re continuing to focus into the Caribbean and Latin Americas, no fundamental change in terms of how we’re building that part of our network. As we mentioned in the prepared comments, we believe we’ll be at approximately 25% of our ASMs in that part of the world. Here’s what’s different. Barbados is now into year two. St. Lucia is into year two. Kingston is into year two. Montego Bay and the new frequencies into year two. We’re starting to see Bogota into year two. San Jose, Costa Rica. So the maturation that’s taking place in that part of the world, and there’s certainly seasonality with it. The last comment that I would offer is, and people would say on the west coast and as we take a look at our network and the competitive landscape and carriers that are offering $99 TransCon fares, that certainly is something that impacts us, but it’s core to us, and we’re going to keep flying to places like San Francisco and to LAX and adding frequency into those markets as well. Feel free to follow up on this, because I wouldn’t want you to think that there’s a fundamental change to what we’re doing with the network. It’s more building on our strength and the maturation that we’re seeing, and in some of these places, a very quick maturation such as down in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Gary Chase - Barclays Capital

Analyst

Are you suggesting that off peak, the trans cons have really… Is there something about the way those are behaving in the early part of the year that we should be thinking factors into the guidance?

David Barger

Management

No, I just think that when people take a look at JetBlue and the comparisons that take place to other carriers, that it’s important to also take a look, I know you guys do, but the competitive landscape and as we move throughout the year, the trans cons are still 30% of our ASMs, a little bit less than that seasonally in the first quarter. I wouldn’t want you to draw a conclusion that there’s anything different than usual seasonality going on in the trans con but we do overlap with 14% of our seats are into Virgin America markets and that’s a little bit different than I think many other carriers out there.

Gary Chase - Barclays Capital

Analyst

On this topic of reallocating the seats around, and I know you’ve talked about how that might be “RASM positive.” I could clearly see how that would be RASM positive in JFK but based on the capacity guidance, it looks like the seats are going to be moving elsewhere in the network. When you think about that stuff coming out of JFK and going elsewhere, is it at a system level RASM positive? Because I would think not.

David Barger

Management

I think it could be but the way we’re looking at it more is it’s more from a flat perspective. It could. Kennedy, this 120 day relaxation of the slot rule by the carriers operating out of there, we have every intention of flying those slots when the runways opened up again and building our presence at JFK. So I think that interestingly enough though, it does afford us the benefit to really take advantage of some seismic changes that are taking place in places like Boston. There are airlines that have been there for decades and I mentioned earlier that when crew bases are being ripped out, there’s still an awful lot of flying opportunity in places like Boston, additional gates, additional flying. So it potentially could but we’re not counting on it from the standpoint of a net net. It’s a RASM improvement at a system level.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Helane Becker - Jesup & Lamont Securities Corporation. Helane Becker - Jesup & Lamont Securities Corporation: There’s no way or is there any way to run the website simultaneously while you’re doing the cut off or it does have to just be shut down?

David Barger

Management

It’s binary. So we’ve been out there communicating along those lines. There’s a migration path that takes places really with customer records from one system to the next and then we come up with the new system and so it’s not like you can run two systems simultaneously. You have to migrate the data. Helane Becker - Jesup & Lamont Securities Corporation: I noticed the discussion about moving headquarters to Orlando. Can you just talk a little bit about that or is that just… I was surprised to see that.

David Barger

Management

Potentially we have crew members hopefully listening to this as well. We are speaking to you from our Forest Hills support center and this lease expires in 2012 and Darien, Connecticut. We have the same dynamic and approximately between 800 and 1000 crew members on these two campuses. We have an exact number but it depends on some other positions that are already being reallocated in the airline. At the end of the first quarter we’ll make a decision whether we remain in New York, whether we relocate. We’ve been very, very pleased with interest from New York officials, from Orlando officials. By the way, we have a large operation in Orlando with our training center. At the same time, we have a lot of history here and its core to the brand from the standpoint of our commitment to our operational center here at Kennedy, so… End of the first quarter, we’ll make a decision and I think we’re placed real well to really seize upon the power of the brand. Again, in either location, but another 60 days out before we decide. Helane Becker - Jesup & Lamont Securities Corporation: Given the expansion that’s going on in Boston, is that a consideration?

Edward A. Barnes

Management

No, we had a process over the last half year and it’s down to New York and Orlando. Boston, we’re going to keep adding gates and frequencies and support space such as hangars and take care of our crew members and customers up there.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Daniel Mckenzie - Next Generation Equity Research.

Daniel Mckenzie - Next Generation Equity Research

Analyst

Just following up on some of your network commentary strategy with respect to Latin America, I wonder if I can just give you a little friendly push back here. I guess what I’m getting at, one the one hand, Bogota is not a typical leisure destination. JetBlue’s pricing in the market has been pretty stagnant over the past year, but on the other, I see JetBlue has adjusted its schedule from an afternoon departure from Orlando to an evening departure which presumably attracts more business travelers, don’t want to cut their day in half. Just for the record, I’ve used the service from Orlando, so from a personal standpoint, I hope you don’t discontinue it, but from what I can tell, Bogota doesn’t appear good, so I’m wondering how committed you are to Latin America in general. I know you’ve made some positive commentary but please feel free to disagree with some of my conclusions here.

David Barger

Management

A couple thoughts. We’re very pleased with how Bogota is ramping up and we also, as we look at how do you feed traffic into Orlando to connect into Bogota, that’s one issue that we look at. We also look at when we arrive in Bogota because there’s many connecting opportunities on South American carriers and to pick the cities, whether it’s [Calle, Cartahania, Mideen], what have you, or over into Venezuela, and it’s kind of interesting what happens there late at night. But we’re very pleased with how Bogota is building and it would be interesting to note that it’s the origin traffic to your point is as we expected, it’s heavily Bogota. Certainly people that are heading into Orlando and the attractions, but it’s the business customer who has a choice as well into our network, whether it’s point to point Orlando or into our network. So we’re pleased with Bogota and again, within the company we talk about being Americas’ favorite airline, that’s s apostrophe, North America, Central America, South America, and Latin America. Interesting with what you’re seeing with the pricing but again we’re very, very pleased with how it’s maturing.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Stephen O'Hara - Sidoti & Company. Stephen O'Hara - Sidoti & Company: I was wondering if you could just talk about your tax rate a little bit. I apologize if you’ve kind of gone over it. It looks like it’s about 45% in the quarter. I know it’s swung around a lot this year and I was just wondering if you could provide some guidance for next year, what we might be able to kind of model in.

David Barger

Management

That information will be in the investor update that we file later today. Stephen O'Hara - Sidoti & Company: In terms of the check bag fees, there’s been a couple of questions here this morning. Southwest has been pretty vocal on it. Can you confirm or deny whether you’ve seen similar movement in passenger preferences to you guys versus other carriers?

David Barger

Management

Anecdotally, yes, we have. We hear from people and people, the ASMs for today, snow birds flying down to Florida, north of 35% of our ASMs this time of year, you bet. People are choosing our brand for lots of different reasons but including the fact that the first bag is free. Anecdotally and potentially more, we’re certainly seeing that and hearing that from our customer base.

Operator

Operator

We have no further questions. This concludes our session with investors and analysts. With that, we would like to turn it over to Dave Barger for closing remarks.

David Barger

Management

Thank you, Helda. Just very quickly, let me close by once again saying thank you for joining us all today on the telephone. Again, I’d like to once again thank our crew members for their excellent contributions in driving profitability in 2009 and even more importantly, in celebration in advance of our 10 year anniversary moving JetBlue into the second decade. So thanks for joining us today, we’ll join you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.