JetBlue Airlines 2005 Annual Report Download

Dear Fellow Shareholders,
In 2005, JetBlue’s sixth year of operations, we experienced significant growth and enjoyed exceptional
customer loyalty, but we also faced difficult challenges which resulted in the disappointing first
quarterly and first annual loss since becoming a public company in 2002. Record high fuel prices and a
very challenging yield environment combined to make 2005 the fifth year in a row in which the airline
industry as a whole endured substantial losses. For the year, total industry losses for North American
carriers were over $10 billion. We were not immune to these industry-wide forces. Fuel costs increased
52%year-over-year and had the price of fuel in 2005 stayed at 2004 levels, we would have spent
$167 million less on fuel last year.
Against the backdrop of this highly challenging environment, our outstanding crewmembers, now
more than 10,000 strong, continued to take great care of our customers, and we continued to
strengthen our powerful brand during the past year. We flew a total of 14.7 million customers in 2005,
a25%increase from the year before, and those customers responded very positively to the JetBlue
Experience. For the fourth year in a row, the readers of Conde Nast rated JetBlue ‘‘Best Domestic
Airline.’’ We were also ranked #1 in the University of Nebraska – Wichita and Wichita State
University Airline ‘‘Quality Rating’’ study for the third straight year and Air Transport World
Magazine granted us the ‘‘Passenger Service Award.’’ We deeply appreciate our customers for their
exceptional brand loyalty and are thankful for our crewmembers and their hard work, passion and
dedication.
Accolades and awards are meaningful and appreciated, but we also know that in the eyes of our
customers, we are only as good as our last flight. Customers choose JetBlue because we offer
attractive fares and a great experience, and 2005 saw a continued expansion of our network. We
welcomed four new cities to our network: Burbank, CA; Ponce, PR; Portland, OR; and Newark, NJ,
and we introduced new nonstop service between already-established JetBlue cities, such as our ten
daily flights between Boston and our home base at New York’s JFK International Airport. In 2005,
JetBlue established itself as the leading airline between New York and Florida, and between New
York and the West Coast, offering more flights than any other airline. Customers in these markets
benefited with low fares and convenient schedules, which greatly helped us achieve an 85.2%load
factor for the year.
We built upon the core elements of the JetBlue Experience in 2005, which includes all-leather seats
with personal television screens featuring 36 channels of free DIRECTV programming, free onboard
snacks and beverages, and a selection of premium FOX Inflight™ movies. We introduced the JetBlue
Card from American Express in 2005, offering card members more ways to earn TrueBlue points
while building an important new revenue stream for us. The JetBlue Card was an immediate success,
outperforming our expectations and contributing almost one million new TrueBlue members, raising
membership to close to 4 million customers. We introduced JetBlue Getaways in 2005, our one-stop
shopping website that offers affordable customizable vacation packages to hotels and resorts. We also
asked Joshua Wesson of Best Cellars to be our ‘‘low-fare sommelier,’’ to offer quality wines that rival
those served in first class on other airlines.
The key to the JetBlue Experience, of course, is driven most significantly by our crewmembers’ ability
to deliver what we believe is the best customer service in the industry. Our crewmembers continue to
do an outstanding job taking care of our customers, as evidenced by our exceptional brand loyalty,
and we cannot thank our crewmembers enough for their diligent efforts.