JetBlue Airways

Oddity Of The Airline Industry Comes Home To Roost

If you invest in turn around situations, you will have spent a lot of time focused on airline stocks during the last five years.

When interviewing airline executives, they universally say the same thing: the airline industry is different than other industries, as you grow there is point at which your costs substantially increase as a percent of sales. The old concept of economies of scale does not work the same way in the airline industry.

This appears to be happening at JetBlue (JBLU). When asking airline executives about JetBlue as a competitor, many said that at some point its costs are going to have to go up.

The JetBlue irony is that the start-up airline is having trouble when legacy airlines are actually raising prices. There is no price war going on.

What are the reasons cited for JetBlue's blues? Regulation, as pilots need to follow federally established rest rules; poor communications -- a big expense; failed reservation systems -- very expensive; employees are in locations where they are unable to provide a helping hand -- more expenses.

JetBlue appears to have reached a size where it needs massive infrastructure investment. It will be interesting to hear if management comes clean on how much all the investments will cost.

The airline had scheduled 600 flights for Presidents Day, more than the 550 to 575 flights on a typical Monday. So far, 139 flights have been canceled.