Earnings Labs

JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 29, 2013

$4.98

+0.71%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the JetBlue Airways Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Therese, and I will be your operator for today's call. We have on the call today, Dave Barger, JetBlue's CEO; and Mark Powers, JetBlue's CFO. And also on the call for Q&A is Robin Hayes, JetBlue's Chief Commercial Officer. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference call is being recorded. As a reminder, this 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. This call also references non-GAAP results. You can find the reconciliation of these non-GAAP results in JetBlue's earnings press release on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at jetblue.com. I will now turn the call over to Dave Barger. Mr. Barger, you may begin.

David Barger

Analyst

Thank you, Therese. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us all today. We're very pleased to report our highest ever quarterly income of $71 million or $0.21 per diluted share. This marks our 14th consecutive quarter of profitability. Operating margin was 10.5%, an increase of 1.9 points compared to last year. Total revenues grew by 10.4% year-over-year as we saw a healthy demand environment and strong revenue performance throughout our network. We generated record revenues and achieved year-over-year improvements in yield, fare and load factor while growing capacity 5.1%. We ended the quarter with $954 million in cash and short-term investments. These strong results reflect the success of our network strategy and high-value geography and our focus on offering customers a differentiated product while maintaining competitive costs. Of course, running a safe, reliable operation with high-quality customer service is the best way to improve profitability in a consistent and sustainable fashion. Although we faced operational challenges during the peak summer travel period, we're very focused on improving our operational performance going forward. I would like to thank our 15,000 crew members for their hard work and continued dedication to serving our 30 million annual customers. The combination of our unparalleled JetBlue experience and strong brand once again allowed JetBlue to generate a revenue premium versus our competitors in many of our key markets. As Mark will discuss in greater detail, maintenance costs continued to drive the majority of our third quarter nonfuel unit cost inflation. While we faced significant cost challenges this year, we recognize maintaining a relative unit cost advantage versus the legacy carriers is critical to profitable sustainable growth. To that end, we have several structural cost initiatives underway in lowering unit costs over the long run and improving margins. These initiatives include the Sharklet retrofit…

Mark D. Powers

Analyst

Thank you, Dave. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I apologize for the slightly weak voice. Note to self, when visiting Minnesota, take a coat. Anyway we are so pleased to report third quarter operating income today of $152 million. This is an increase of 35% compared to the third quarter 2012. These results are a credit to our 15,000 crew members, who do a great job taking care of our customers. Third quarter year-over-year passenger unit revenues, or PRASM, increased by 5.4% on a capacity increase of 5.1%. A solid demand and yield environment contributed to our record quarterly average fare of $164. That's a year-over-year increase of 6.5%. Although we saw strength throughout our network during the quarter, yield and unit revenues in Latin America and the Caribbean markets outpaced our system average. Today we continue to be very pleased with our success in this important region. Today we announced daily service from the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood-focused cities to Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, beginning in May 2014. Boston short hauls also continued to perform well as we build relevance and increase corporate travel penetration. To that end, we recently announced 3 times daily service from Detroit and Boston commencing March 2014. We are now relevant to roughly 65% of Boston customers. We measure relevance as the number of routes JetBlue serves on a nonstop basis relative to the total number of domestic and international routes flown by travelers in Boston. Increased relevance has been an important driver of our strong revenue performance in Boston. We also continue to be very pleased with our revenue performance in our hometown of New York. We recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of our award-winning Terminal 5 at JFK airport. Construction of T5i, our international expansion at…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Mike Linenberg with Deutsche Bank.

Michael Linenberg - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Analyst

I have 2 questions. Mark, I want to go back to the deferrals of the EMBRAER 190s, and then, of course, there's some additions of some A321s. You mentioned that through 2016, you would see a benefit of, I think, $200 million on the CapEx side. I guess that's presumably between now and 2016.

Mark D. Powers

Analyst

Yes.

Michael Linenberg - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Analyst

Can you just give us the base, what the number is, where it is and what it's going to?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst

In terms of our number of aircraft deliveries, I think that's probably in the press release. But I would say, just going through '14, 15' and '16 real quick... Mark Streeter - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: I mean, the base of CapEx. The CapEx -- yes, the CapEx.

Mark D. Powers

Analyst

Sure. And I believe we also have -- when we do file our 10-Q, this will also be disclosed. It does increase our CapEx by $1.8 billion. Now let me put that in perspective. Most of that $1.8 billion occurs post-2018. So when you -- even if you look at the exhibit on the press release today, you'll see that with the -- essentially, the deferral of the E190s offsets the 15 incremental classic or ceo additions. And so post '18, with the -- which is when, of course, the neos start delivering, that's when we have the additional -- the neos that we're ordering today, coupled then with the scheduled delivery starting in 2020 of the EMBRAER aircraft.

Michael Linenberg - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Analyst

Okay, great. And then just my second question. This is probably for Dave and/or Robin. When we think about capacity growth next year, maybe an early read on what you think what that number will be, and then how the Fort Lauderdale ramp-up fits into that. I've seen -- Dave, I know I've seen some of your tweets, Fort Lauderdale 100. And I think today, what are you at, 40, 45 departures or so. So that 100, how does that figure into next year's ASM growth plan? Anything on that would be great.

David Barger

Analyst

Great. Michael, it's -- obviously, we won't provide guidance on what our growth is looking like in 2014. That said, we remain committed to something that looks like, again, mid-single digits plus in terms of growth on a year-over-year basis on ASMs. That's what we've been saying over the last several years. We've been demonstrating that. You look at this year's capacity for the full year, so as you look at 2014 and beyond, I think that that's -- it will give you a feel, right, for our continued focus on that growth level. Specific to Fort Lauderdale, interesting in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, in the Dania area, right, I mean, it's a lot of fun spending time down there. The -- we were as low as the high 40s over the course of the summertime frame. We're as high the mid-60s going into the winter schedule that's currently published. And so when we look at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international Airport and its growth plan with FLL 100, I mean, today's announcements are indicative of what we're doing. I mean, when you start to take a look at connecting the dots with Montego Bay with Punta Cana, cities that we currently fly, very efficient as we've added service into Colombia, into Costa Rica, throughout the Caribbean. By the way, as we're adding service into the United States, I mean, hooking up places like Western and Central Mass. I mean, the -- we think when we're looking at focusing our growth pattern on South Florida, think a lot about what we did up in Boston, but it's a different type of schedule. I mean, we're committed to it. We're going to grow it. We're going to move briskly. And, Mike, I think it's -- we're sharing this well. I just can't think of another airport in the United States where $2.3 billion worth of investment is taking place with the expansion of the southern runway, with a new international arrivals facility, with airside improvements in addition to the runway and land site improvements. And the cost for employment to use that airport relative to Miami with a superior experience, I mean, it's just not even close. And so we're really -- these aircraft next year -- again, we're still building Boston. We're still building South Florida and can't be more excited than what we're looking at doing with Fort Lauderdale 100.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of John Godyn with Morgan Stanley.

John D. Godyn - Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Analyst · Morgan Stanley.

Dave and Mark, I was hoping to just follow up on the Mint service that's coming in 2014. And I was hoping that -- not for the purposes of guidance or anything, but just -- I was hoping you could offer sort of a simple framework for thinking about how that's going to kind of hit the numbers? What are the main moving parts? I mean, I have to imagine that CASM x fuel, it's a little bit of a mix negative in that sense. Is it accretive to PRASM? Is it margin accretive? How are you thinking about the spool time there? Of course, it's a market that you kind of have a presence in. Has there been any response already? Is there anything that you could kind of tell us as we look out to 2014 and start to sort of -- start to think about modeling this?

David Barger

Analyst · Morgan Stanley.

John, it's -- a couple of comments, and I'll queue Robin up for additional color. Again, keep in mind that Mint between Kennedy Airport and LAX and SFO, that service really commences into Southern California in midyear June of 2014. So we're still a fair piece away from actually that making its way into the landscape in any meaningful way with its numbers. Now all that said, prior to today's announcement, 11 of 30 A321s are dedicated to the Mint product. So there will be exclusive Mint between -- again, that experience between JFK and LAX and San Francisco. Why are we doing it? We're doing it because, as we've shared in the past as recent as our Investor Day earlier this year, we were lagging when we look at our Net Promoter Score, which is a direct relationship to unit revenues in the transcontinental markets and not just because of the lack of a premium experience. I'm not going to use the word cabin, a premium experience, but because we also didn't have Wi-Fi. And so the Wi-Fi, and I'll queue up Robin at this point, that issue combined with Mint as it makes its way into Southern California earlier, Northern California, later into 2014, 2015 because of aircraft deliveries, there's no doubt, it will have a higher cost structure on those aircraft, no doubt. But we're doing it because we absolutely see a very nice improvement from unit revenue. Robin, additional color.

Robin Hayes

Analyst · Morgan Stanley.

Thanks, Dave. John, if I remind you what we shared at our investor update in terms of a commitment to get to industry PRASM while growing, now one of the areas where we shared where we underperformed industry within transcon, as Dave said, a large part of that was not having access to the paid, stress the word paid, premium market, particularly in very rich and very deep markets like New York-LA, New York-San Francisco. So we think by developing a Mint product, first of all, we get access to that. Secondly when we look at the transcon pricing environment today, and I don't want to get into what I think competitors may or may not to do because I just don't know, but people are clearly overpaying for what they get. And so I think our ability to come in and disrupt that market, create a much lower price point and significantly expand the premium market, I think is so core to what we do today and so core to who we are. So I have no doubt that we'll be successful in doing that, and we will see a significant margin bump because of it. In terms of thinking about the costs and the margin side as well, think about we have 320s flying yesterday. With the 321, we already touched on the very low incremental cost of the 321 versus 320. So the cost of -- incremental costs of like flying a 321 in that market versus a 320, when we think about the significant revenue enhancement that we're going to get for that extra fun experience, I won't use the word cabin, when you throw those together, you can see that it's going to be very accretive to earnings.

John D. Godyn - Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Analyst · Morgan Stanley.

Okay, that's very helpful color. And, Dave, you sort of mentioned that before today's announcement there are 11 A321s dedicated to Mint. And I couldn't help but notice that in some of Mark's comments, he was sort of very specific on some of the A321 operating stats in single-class configuration. I mean, should we be viewing this fleet reorg here a little bit in the context of a continued expansion of Mint service across your aircraft types? I mean, are we laying the foundation for that?

David Barger

Analyst · Morgan Stanley.

Not necessarily at all, John. It's -- I think when we look at, again, markets in the world where the customer actually pays, right, for a premium experience, we know for sure that there's 2 that we fly in at Southern California and Northern California, so LAX and San Francisco, specifically. And so we're going to be very focused on rolling that product out. And who knows if there's additional opportunities, right, as we have shared most recently. As we were traveling, hey, listen, we'll take a look at that, as you know, as we were up in Boston recently. We're a large operation in Boston. I mean, we're as high as 116 trips, 52 nonstop city pairs. I mean, there is already quite a bit of interest in that product up there. But this transaction, the transactions that we're announcing today, the fleet issues -- I tell you just to comment on this core product, and again, I stay away from the word coach, I mean, the core experience 321, think high-density, Northeast down to Florida, the Caribbean, let alone allowing us the opportunity to have the geography to also offer Mint on 11 of those aircraft. I mean, this is a perfect aircraft for the high-density markets and to better utilize our slot portfolio up in the Northeast, specifically in New York, and that's behind the additional A321s at this point in time.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Fintzen with Barclays.

David E. Fintzen - Barclays Capital, Research Division

Analyst · Barclays.

Just another question to kind of follow up on a couple of the previous questions around fleet. And when we're looking at this revised order book over the next couple of years, I mean, it feels like, obviously, the shell count is lower. But if we just kind of take the current utilization, I mean, it feels like ASM production out of this fleet, this revised fleet, should be about the same as what we were thinking, and it just seems like you're kind of set up for the 7% to 8% ASM growth range over the next couple of years. Is that the right -- I mean, I know you don't want to have explicit guidance, but is that kind of the right way to think about it, or is there something underneath in terms of maybe 320s coming out that's changing, that we're not entirely seeing?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Barclays.

No, you broke the code. It's -- there's nothing else coming out. We do have -- just a footnote, but we do have the flexibility to return some aircraft, actually, throughout this entire period from '16 all the way through '24. And so the dynamic of -- the ability to respond better to what Robin and the network team want to do in terms of capacity remains there. Having said that, these -- the lease rate -- the lease return and lease rate markets are pretty favorable to airlines right now.

David E. Fintzen - Barclays Capital, Research Division

Analyst · Barclays.

Okay. Okay, that helps. And then just maybe a quick -- just a quick followup on -- you guys have done some really -- some tactical adjustments to September, holding capacity flat. I mean, I know October, there is a lot to weed through in terms of Sandy impact. But it just looks like in the schedule, some of that continues. And I'm just kind of curious how that sort of experiment in September played out relative to your expectations, and then how much of that can we expect to see carry forward.

Robin Hayes

Analyst · Barclays.

Yes. David, it's Robin. I'll take that. I mean, I think it -- if we think about September, and I think we've said this, you've got to remember the September before showed some very big increases on the year before. So to a certain extent, I think it was just about kind of getting September back in line. I look at September 13 and I look at September 11 and really think about that over 2 years. For October, November, December, it -- our capacity does look quite choppy. I mean, I think part of that is to do with the Sandy hangover, which Mark talked about, which certainly took a slug of ASMs out. And then even into December, you're seeing significant passenger increases in December versus November. You've got to remember, as Mark touched on, 2 of our peak days of flying moved from November into December, which has quite a big impact on capacity. We also have the 321s coming to the fleet right at the end of the year. That will be flying over the peak holiday period as well. And so both of those, I think, go to quality of those ASMs that you're seeing in December is extremely high.

David E. Fintzen - Barclays Capital, Research Division

Analyst · Barclays.

Okay. So really, the -- really, that was a September phenomenon, and it's a little bit back to more, call it, normal scheduling with all the caveats and calendar moving around?

Robin Hayes

Analyst · Barclays.

Sure, yes. Absolutely.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jamie Baker with JPMorgan. Jamie N. Baker - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Dave, when I look at the other U.S. names that I follow, it's comparatively easy to pick out what the drivers of margin improvement are going to be in 2014. You've got momentum at Delta; potential for some margin recovery at United; depending on your fuel view, you could see a nice tailwind at Airways. But it's not clear to me where the 2014 drivers are for JetBlue. So first, what confidence do you have that you can break out of the 7% operating margin range next year where you've basically been for 3 years now? And second, what should we expect those drivers to be? Sharklets are 2015. The E190 changes don't seem to impact next year. Higher density 321s probably help on the margin. How should we be thinking about the incremental drivers in '14?

David Barger

Analyst

Sure. And, Jamie, I think it's a -- first of all, as I look at this year, and granted, we're obviously talking about Q3 today, but I look at this year as a tale of 2 semesters. I mean, in the first half of the year, it was disappointing as we look at cost challenges, specific to 3 -- the CF34, right. That's how we started the year. And then we had a President's weekend that didn't materialize at all as we're closing out the second quarter -- the sluggish first quarter -- excuse me, the second sluggish quarter as we were trailing the pack, when we talk about operating margins. And then I think of -- as you look at the operating margin in this quarter, as we're looking at strength that Robin talked about with the bookings early for December but the bookings going into Q4, I think that continues as we move into 2014. One of the levers -- I think the levers continue to be -- when we look at, first of all, the network, it's maturing of places like Boston. I mean, it's a -- we're very pleased with year-over-year performance as we look at the investments that we've made in places like Boston. And just going down the coast, I mean, New York continues to perform quite well for us even though there's quite a bit of OAL activity taking place in New York. When we look at Florida, this investment -- not just when we think about South Florida, the investment -- by the way we're doing that off of a very profitable base, unlike what we had in Boston where we had to build, really, a corporate network to support what we're doing in Boston, first time ever for business flyers in…

David Barger

Analyst

Yes. It's -- Jamie, let me let Robin talk a little bit about that.

Robin Hayes

Analyst

Yes. Jamie, what we would do is -- as we think about the 321s from the book we have, we would just convert the 321s that are scheduled for delivery after these 11. Converting those as they come out the factory from what we call high density to the low density is very straightforward. So they arrive in-service in the configuration we want.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Savi Syth with Raymond James. Savanthi Syth - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Just a few small followup questions, really. In the A321s, are the first 11 A321s all going to be with the Mint configuration?

David Barger

Analyst

No. The first 4 are actually coming in high density, and then the 11 thereafter will be coming in the low-density configuration. Savanthi Syth - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Got it. And is the pilot wage rate, is there a difference between A320 and A321, or is it the same?

David Barger

Analyst

No, same. Savanthi Syth - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Okay. And then just my last quick followup question was on the pilot arbitration issue. Is there any update there?

David Barger

Analyst

Actually, the -- I think we've pretty much said it all last quarter, not much to add. Lawyers are still engaged in substantial motion practice on the various elements of the damages phase where they seem to be fully ensconced in the damages phase and more to follow, I guess.

Operator

Operator

Your question comes from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth with Evercore.

Duane Pfennigwerth - Evercore Partners Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Most of my questions have been asked. Just a couple quick ones here. Can you repeat what you said about November? And historically, how much is Thanksgiving return travel worth to the month?

Robin Hayes

Analyst

I'll take that. It's Robin. We haven't matched the -- I know other -- some other carriers do this. We don't actually break out the value of the Thanksgiving return. Although we're not certainly guiding, let me use some kind of words to try and help with how we're looking at November and December. So a bit more color on November, there is clearly a good guide. I think I recollect last year, we said around a $25 million revenue hit to November because of Sandy. I don't think we converted that to a PRASM number, but I mean, that can kind of -- I guess you can kind of back into that. The 2 of our top 10 revenue days are those Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving. And so both of those slide into December. So as I think about November, it's choppy and, I guess, kind of not terribly exciting as we think about revenue when we look at those 2 things combined. When we look at December though, the combination of the Thanksgiving return and the holiday period, which is a traditional period of strength for JetBlue, as we look at those now, and of course, the weather can always throw a spanner in the works in December, but as we look at those now, December is looking extremely strong.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Hunter Keay with Wolfe Research.

Hunter K. Keay - Wolfe Research, LLC

Analyst · Wolfe Research.

Dave, did I hear you add the words "on average" when you said you're looking for ROIC improvement of 1 percentage point per year? I think that's new. I thought before you just said you're going to improve your return on invested capital by 1 percentage point per year. Is that a change?

David Barger

Analyst · Wolfe Research.

No.

Hunter K. Keay - Wolfe Research, LLC

Analyst · Wolfe Research.

Are you going to hit it this year?

David Barger

Analyst · Wolfe Research.

Well, it's early in the year. By the way, let's go back to wordsmithing, Hunter. There, as we have said, on a year-over-year basis, improving our ROIC by 1 point, on average, on a year-over-year basis. So that's been very specific. The -- and regarding the year, hey, listen, we're sitting here closing out October, moving into November. It's early. There's no doubt additional color I gave it earlier on the call, not pleased regarding what transpired with maintenance costs tied on to the EMBRAER or not having a President's Day weekend. So there's tale of 2 semesters, weak, disappointing in the first half of the year and then strength into the second half of the year. So again, this fiscal remains very much bedrock in terms of how we're running the company, how we're allocating capital, how we're driving executive compensation. So I mean no wordsmithing. I mean, this is how we're running the business.

Hunter K. Keay - Wolfe Research, LLC

Analyst · Wolfe Research.

Yes. No, I wasn't -- to be clear, Dave, I wasn't trying to get cute with words. It just seemed like it was a different thing that I haven't heard from you guys before, and I thought maybe the implication was that you weren't going to get there this year. And it's not that early in the year, I would just say. I mean, it's November. I think we should have a pretty good picture of whether or not that's going to happen right now. But I guess the followup question is if you're not going to hit the ROIC target of 1 percentage point expansion, why are you ordering aircraft? I know you're deferring in the near term. But what hurdle rate has been hit to justify another $1.8 billion of capital committed?

David Barger

Analyst · Wolfe Research.

Well, again, as we -- I think as we explained earlier and even into -- you take a look at some of the documents -- first of all, a lot of those numbers, Hunter, when you take a look at the A321 and the neo platform, it's a -- those airplanes are 2018 and beyond. And so when we think about the ability to be in the order book for a very popular aircraft and power plant, it's very important for us to be out there. So I think that, first of all, the $1.8 billion, I would really draw your attention more to what's happened over the course of the next 3 years as Mark commented about $200 million less CapEx, as we're talking about what we believe is the rightsizing of the EMBRAER fleet. Again, we're very appreciative of EMBRAER in helping us build a place like Boston to the largest level that an airline has ever had in Boston, using those aircraft to cross the Caribbean. And then when you take a look at opportunities to grow Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, specifically, with the addition of these current engine options and, again, later today, we'll show you the years in which these aircraft are being delivered in '15, '16 and '17, we think this is the right decision for us. So there is a -- we're really pleased with not just 321s and even rightsizing the 320s because there's conversion, rightsizing the 190s, but also the Sharklet retrofit. This is a big deal in terms of retrofitting over 100 of our aircraft. We're seeing performance today that's north of 3% fuel saving. So, Hunter, as I look at how we're building the company, we think this is absolutely the right move on behalf of the shareholders.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan McKenzie with Buckingham Research.

Daniel McKenzie - The Buckingham Research Group Incorporated

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

A couple of questions here. Number one, Mark, can you talk about the relationship with ViaSat and whether or not there's an economic component tied to that partnership?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

There's nothing new to announce. It's the relationship with, I think, ViaSat, we described in our sourcing agreement, and that's pretty much what it is right now.

Daniel McKenzie - The Buckingham Research Group Incorporated

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

Okay, all right. And then -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

No, please go ahead.

Daniel McKenzie - The Buckingham Research Group Incorporated

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

Secondly, the -- I guess you referenced corporate revenues in the commentary. And I'm wondering if you can elaborate a little bit further, specifically how you're measuring the corporate revenues, what benchmark you're using and what the goals are and, essentially, what initiatives are underway currently to help drive those results?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

Robin, do you want to take that? That's...

Robin Hayes

Analyst · Buckingham Research.

Sure. Thanks, Dan. It is actually good timing. We're on the back -- last Tuesday, Dennis Corrigan and I and others spent some time up in Boston with our sales team and over 20 corporate travel managers of our largest corporates in Boston, really hearing them from directly what are some of the things that we need to be talking about and thinking about in the next 12 to 18 months as we develop this business stream, things like as we've added network relevance in Boston. We're up about 70% now with the announcement of Detroit. As we think about some of the enhancements we've made to the TrueBlue program in the last 12 months, whether that be the introduction of Mosaic, whether that is the move of expiry on points and, finally, the ability for families to pool points, we continue to expand a number of corporate agreements we have contracted directly with the corporates. We have some things we'll be announcing next year in terms of small-medium corporate space that we think is going to give us more traction there. So overall, very, very pleased with the progress that we're making. And I talked a lot about Boston, but we do also have corporate business elsewhere across our network. And we're seeing good growth in all of those, but particularly in Boston, where we fly to, by far and away, more nonstop than any other carrier out there.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Glenn Engel with Bank of America.

Glenn D. Engel - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Analyst · Bank of America.

A couple data questions and a followup on cost. On the data side, can you tell us what the ROIC is in the trailing 12 months, and what the operating cash flow is in the third quarter? And a bigger question is, is this like -- I think we'll be closed to your fifth year, where your costs are growing more than your -- than the industry as a whole. When do you start seeing your costs growing -- starting to gain ground again versus the industry?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Bank of America.

Looking quickly through the script, we did mention the cash from operations, did we not? Is that in the script that we talked about, third quarter cash from operations? I think I may have mentioned it. Anyway we'll look though that while we're doing it. All right, we have not announced and probably wouldn't until at least till the end of the year, where we are with respect to ROIC. It was, I think, a policy decision we made, which is I'd be in a never-ending ROIC tracking game. So we'll be announcing that at the end of the year. And for sure -- I think Dave has said it very, very well earlier, which is the -- some of the cost issues that we've had this year just really are -- we're not really pleased about it at all. For sure, it had a negative impact on ROIC. And just to focus on maintenance, for example, we got on top of that. And all of our risks and exposure on maintenance, we're diligently working to cover with flight-hour agreements. But in -- just beyond not only the flyer agreement with GE and the CF34, but we're looking to better manage the aging of our fleet through flight agreements covering heavy maintenance and the 33K [ph] motors and other key components of the maintenance world, so more to follow on that next year. But for sure, as I indicated, the pace of that cost growth inflation on maintenance, keeping in mind, it's only 15% of total CASM anyway, but -- or CASM x anyway. So we expect that to abate, as I think we've mentioned in the prior things. I think, finally, we also -- Dave, he also mentioned something that more to follow, and I don't think we're in a position to speak as United did earlier this week. But I think there are some really exciting opportunities in terms of cost control just by looking at our operating performance and...

Glenn D. Engel - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Analyst · Bank of America.

Wouldn't though the pilot pay increase and installing Wi-Fi and the premium cabins, wouldn't that all make it very difficult to have your cost below the rate of inflation next year?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Bank of America.

No. I -- when I said inflation, I said the maintenance cost year-over-year of cost inflation rate.

Glenn D. Engel - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Analyst · Bank of America.

I meant and I'm thinking overall cost inflation.

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Bank of America.

For sure, we have some headwinds next year. I mean, absolutely, we are committed to paying pilot peer wages, and there is no doubt that we lag that. We are on -- in process of ongoing conversations with our pilot groups on that particular topic, probably not -- it's probably premature, really, to talk kind of where our thinking is right now on the pilot pay. That's probably a conversation we better -- it's best to have with our pilots first than on an earnings call. But for sure, that will be a source of headwind next year. And the whole Mint thing is on -- other than seats and some of the training and product, I'm not viewing that as candidly, it's not in my top 5 of headwinds as I think about next year. I would caution just a little bit of in the interest of disclosure, our benefits this year have been really, really, if you will, very, very good in terms of claims and whatnot. The -- our people department converted us wisely to a new plan. I don't know the dynamics of deductibles and where people are filing. We may see a bit of an increase on benefits in the fourth quarter of this year, but beyond that, I'm not really expecting anything else.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Helane Becker with Cowen.

Helane R. Becker - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen.

So I just have 1 question, because most of them have been answered, on total healthcare costs for 2014. As you think about guidance for costs, total unit costs for next year, how should we think about healthcare costs with all the changes in the rules and regulations?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst · Cowen.

As I just said, I think we got ahead of it last year. So don't expect sort of this big astronomical change year-over-year, credit to our team. We made the change early. So there it is.

Helane R. Becker - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen.

Okay. And then do you have any concerns about finding pilots with the new change in rules, the sort of 1,500-hour rule that kind of reduces the pilot application pool?

David Barger

Analyst · Cowen.

No. I -- Dave, do you want to take that? I mean...

David Barger

Analyst · Cowen.

Sure, more than happy to. It's -- Helane, no, we believe that, really, the -- when we look at attraction, really, of pilots, we don't believe that's an issue, right. As we look at longer term, and again, Mark commented on it, you look at retaining pilots, right. That's the issue. I think we're well positioned. Again, as the number of applicants that we're seeing and prospective applicants, we feel good about that. We just want to make sure that we're retaining the pilot workforce.

Helane R. Becker - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen.

Do you have an estimate, Dave, for what it takes to make captain at JetBlue?

David Barger

Analyst · Cowen.

Is that number of years?

Helane R. Becker - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen.

Yes, yes. Sorry about that.

David Barger

Analyst · Cowen.

Roughly 6, 6.5 years is the timeframe, right, in terms of upgrading into the left seat. And again, it's not -- so much of its lifestyle, too, right, you want to live in days and do you want to be on reserve and what have you, right? So it can happen a little bit earlier, and some people do it later.

Helane R. Becker - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen.

No. I mean -- but I would just think that 6 or 6.5 years and new equipment would be a big attraction in terms of retaining.

David Barger

Analyst · Cowen.

Yes. And there is no doubt. And of course, at the end of the day, right, it's job security. It's quality of life, right. It's compensation, and it's benefit, right. So it's -- and as Mark mentioned, I mean, ongoing conversations with our pilots, we'll certainly continue to have and then share right with a larger audience when appropriate.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Bob McAdoo with Imperial Capital.

Bob McAdoo - Imperial Capital, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Imperial Capital.

Just a quick one. Can you back over what the spool-up period is for putting Fly-Fi on?

David Barger

Analyst · Imperial Capital.

Sure. It's a -- and Robin, I'll queue you up a little bit. You've been living with LiveTV and -- but the -- its very nice to have our first A320 through the supplemental type certification process as well, right. And so, Robin, as you move -- I mean, that was really the heavy lift on the A320. But, Robin?

Robin Hayes

Analyst · Imperial Capital.

Yes. No, thanks for the question, Bob. We're in the very final stages of testing now. We believe we're literally just a few weeks away from a commercial launch. We already have 1 aircraft fitted out with this flying around in our network at the moment as a test. We will then start to roll out later this year. The aim is to complete the 320 fleet next year, which is 2014, and the E190 fleet is running about 9 months behind that currently.

Bob McAdoo - Imperial Capital, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Imperial Capital.

So mid-2015 kind of thing?

David Barger

Analyst · Imperial Capital.

Yes. Mid to late 2015, hopefully. 85% of our ASMs will be covered by the end of next year.

Operator

Operator

Our final question comes from Thomas Kim with Goldman Sachs.

Thomas Kim - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Can you give us an idea of initial interest in the Mint service in terms of forward bookings?

David Barger

Analyst

Yes. Robin, as we're -- I mean, it's still a long way out, right, but initial interest?

Robin Hayes

Analyst

So we only put 4 days on sale originally because it was -- it's very much sort of just a test launch. We had an introductory fare. Those went very quickly. And I think we may still have a few seats left, but not many. And then we've put it so far out, obviously. And then when we load the schedule load coming up in November into the next summer, at that point, that's when we'll put more of the Mint products on sale. But again, it's very early. I mean, the people buying this early are really those sort of curious about the product, wanting to try. It's obvious, fairly late booking market overall.

Thomas Kim - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Absolutely. I certainly appreciate the color. And then just a minor question. With regard to the deferral in the E190s, was there any additional cost incurred? And would it have been booked already, or should we anticipate it, it could cost in Q4?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst

The terms of that are confidential, but they were reflective of a great relationship we have with EMBRAER.

Thomas Kim - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Okay. So anything -- so that deferral, did it happen in this -- the Q4 or Q3?

Mark D. Powers

Analyst

Literally signed it a couple of days ago.

Thomas Kim - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst

Okay So if anything happens, we would see it potentially in Q4. So it wouldn't have been reflected last quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Mr. Barger, we have no further questions at this time.

David Barger

Analyst

Thank you so much, Therese. I appreciate that. And I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today on this conference call regarding our third quarter earnings. Specifically, I'd like to thank our 15,000 crew members. This was the highest ever quarter income that we've seen and also our 14th consecutive quarter of profitability. So thanks, folks, much for delivering the JetBlue experience. We'll talk to you again next quarter. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.