Chief Executive Robin Hayes told CNBC last Tuesday that despite the rising COVID-19 cases across the U.S., JetBlue’s demands for the upcoming holidays have not yet declined.
“We continue to see a fair bit of interest for travel around the Thanksgiving and holiday period. You have got a lot of kids coming back from college. A lot of people are seeing friends and family they haven’t seen for a long time. We’ve been in a rising case count here for a couple of weeks, and so far, we haven’t seen any impact on bookings.”
Chief Executive Robin Hayes
The comments from Hayes on Tuesday came after JetBlue reported their results for the third quarter. Excluding items, the airline’s loss per share was $1.75, which was better than the analysts’ forecast of $1.96. From an estimate of $466 million, their actual revenue surpassed it and gained $492 million. The shares of the New York City-based JetBlue closed more than 5%.
Bill de Blasio, New York City’s mayor, encouraged the city residents not to travel outside the state for the nearing holidays.
“Realize that by doing that, unfortunately, you could be putting yourself and your family in danger and also the risk of bringing the disease back here.”
NY City Mayor Bill de Blasio
For those who do travel, de Blasio asked that they should get tested for COVID-19 and follow with the policy of the state of New York, which requires individuals to have a 14-day quarantine if they arrive from countries that have specific infection rates. There were more than 40 countries on the quarantine list as of Tuesday.
Around the holidays, the physical testing sites will be in operation at John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.
“We want to make it easy and clear that anyone coming off a plane should immediately get tested as well.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio
Last Tuesday, the State University of New York system also announced that all students who utilize on-campus facilities should test negative within ten days before departing for their Thanksgiving break.
Due to the coronavirus’s possible spread through back-and-forth travel, most schools in the 64-institution SUNY system and others across the United States are shifting to full remote learning to finish the academic term after Thanksgiving.
Currently, there 36 U.S. states experiencing an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Last Monday, there was another record high for the average number of new infections.
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