JetBlue is not in talks with its creditors or considering restructuring its debt, CEO Joanna Geraghty told Reuters on Tuesday.
The airline has faced growing concerns about its financial viability as it takes on more debt to power its JetForward turnaround plan. Its share price has declined significantly since the summer, and its bonds plunged earlier this month.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that a group of JetBlue creditors is working with restructuring advisers, increasing panic among some investors.
But executives pushed back Tuesday, arguing that JetBlue is improving its margins and recapturing a huge share of its jet fuel costs, which spiked this year amid the U.S.-Iran war.
“We are not in talks with our creditors,” Geraghty told Reuters. “Part of today, as I mentioned, was to really set the record straight that we’re making progress in the underlying business.”
Earlier Tuesday, Geraghty, President Marty St. George, and CFO Ursula Hurley presented an optimistic outlook for the company on a third-quarter earnings call. They pointed to JetBlue’s higher revenues and yields, growth at Fort Lauderdale, Florida – which the CEO called a “generational opportunity” – and the rollout of BlueFirst, the airline’s new first-class product. BlueFirst, which is set to debut in December, is intended to capture some of the growth in premium that has become a major profit engine for larger U.S. airlines.
When asked how much debt the company can sustainably carry, Geraghty said financing is in place to get JetBlue through 2027 to 2028, when positive free cash flow is expected to begin.
“We recognize we need to get to a position where we’re repairing the balance sheet,” she said. “Fuel obviously presents a challenging headwind, but again I think there’s a significant disconnect between the narrative in the bond market and what our financial results are demonstrating.”
The company has about $8.4 billion in debt. It has not reported a full-year net profit since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
JetBlue on Monday posted Q3 operating revenues of $2.8 billion, up from $2.3 billion in the third quarter of 2025. The carrier’s net loss was $257 million, larger than the $143 million loss it reported in the same period last year.
The airline’s share price had recovered to $2.84 as of mid-day Wednesday.
