02:08 PM EDT, 10/29/2024 (MT Newswires) -- JetBlue Airways ( JBLU ) on Tuesday forecast a year-over-year decline in its fourth-quarter revenue despite delivering a third-quarter beat.

For the ongoing quarter, the company projects revenue to drop by 3% to 7% from $2.33 billion reported a year earlier. Analysts polled by Capital IQ are looking for $2.31 billion for the December quarter.

Revenue for full-year 2024 is seen falling 4% to 5% over last year's $9.62 billion. Wall Street is looking for $9.29 billion this year. JetBlue ( JBLU ) in July expected revenue to drop 4% to 6%, though its full-year outlook contained in September's JetForward strategy presentation only covered interest expense.

The company posted net losses for the 2023 fourth quarter and full year.

JetBlue's ( JBLU ) shares were down 17% in Tuesday afternoon trade.

For the just-ended quarter, JetBlue's ( JBLU ) adjusted net loss narrowed to $0.16 a share from $0.39 a year earlier, while operating revenue rose 0.5% to $2.37 billion. The Street had projected a normalized loss of $0.21 on revenue of $2.35 billion.

Third-quarter system capacity, as measured by available seat miles, or ASM, fell 3.6% from a year earlier, while operating expense per ASM, excluding fuel rose 4.8%. Unit revenue advanced 4.3% amid factors such as healthy demand in peak periods and improved close-in bookings, according to the airline.

"Our number one goal remains returning to operating profitability, and growing our unit revenue is imperative to reach operating profitability," President Marty St. George said in a statement. "As underlying trends from the third quarter have broadly continued into the fourth quarter so far, we expect unit revenue growth to remain positive and sequentially consistent when adjusting for the CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) benefit in the third quarter and the negative impacts of Hurricane Milton and the election in the fourth quarter."

Last month, the company said it benefited from other airlines' cancellations due to a technology outage caused by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike's ( CRWD ) software update in July.

"As we look to 2025, I am encouraged by the backdrop for our revenue performance to continue improving, particularly as additional JetForward initiatives begin yielding benefits," St. George said Tuesday.

Price: 6.08, Change: -1.25, Percent Change: -17.01