Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback

Dive Brief:

Spending for air travel and lodging has slowed amid general economic uncertainty, Visa executives told analysts as they reported quarterly results. Weaker currencies and a shift in the Easter and Ramadan holidays into the April quarter also affected travel volume, Visa said.

“Obviously the situation is quite fluid, and we’re monitoring the data very closely,” Visa Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh said Tuesday, noting “a meaningful slowdown” in Canadians traveling to the U.S.

San Francisco-based Visa, the largest card network, also said that in early April consumers chose to “pull forward” some of their planned expenditures in certain categories, including electronics. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on U.S. trading partners are widely expected to boost prices on many goods, unless they’re reversed or mitigated, which likely prompted the pre-impact spending burst Visa and other companies have noted

Dive Insight:

Visa executives sought to emphasize Tuesday that U.S. consumers are still spending – and showing no signs of a broad retrenchment – despite the lack of macroeconomic clarity into 2025.

“Consumer spending has been resilient and strong, but there’s much uncertainty,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said.

JetBlue Airways, citing Mastercard data, on Tuesday also highlighted a reversal in travel demand that it’s seeing. The carrier detected the travel demand slowdown primarily in the Northeast and used data from its bank partner, Barclays, along with consumer spending data from Mastercard, JetBlue President Marty St. George said Tuesday on a quarterly conference call with analysts.

“It is clearly showing that as far as the cut in air travel, it is very much focused on the Northeast, and to a lesser extent, the West Coast,” he said. That data is also informing JetBlue’s capacity cuts, which are “pretty aggressively” focused on the weaker demand periods of Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday evening, St. George said.

The New York-based airline also recently canceled plans to begin seasonal flights from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Long Island to Boston, one of the rare instances he said JetBlue has scrubbed routes before flights had begun.

“Of the trends we’re seeing in U.S.-Canada demand, and more importantly, what we’re seeing in the bookings on the airplane, it was not going to be accretive for us anytime soon, so we figured we’d better rip off the Band-Aid now and move forward,” St. George said.

Visa’s fiscal second-quarter net income decreased 2% over the year-ago quarter to $4.6 billion, as net revenue rose 9% to $9.6 billion, according to the report. Visa also said the constant dollar value of payments rose 8% over the previous quarter, with credit volume climbing 6% and debit volume increasing 9%.

“Durability and diversification is on display and yields an attractive investment proposition in Visa despite prevalent macro deterioration concerns in the market,” TD Cowen analysts wrote Tuesday in a client note.

Visa’s results “remind us just how impressive its network model is, replete with pricing power, economic shock absorbers, steady organic revenue growth, free cash flow and profitability,” William Blair analysts Andrew Jeffrey and Christopher Kennedy wrote in a note to clients.

Also Tuesday, Visa said it had recently passed $200 million in cumulative stablecoin settlement volume. Visa is using its “Tokenized Asset Platform” to help banks issue stablecoins, with its first bank partner, BBVA, planning to debut a stablecoin later this year on the Ethereum blockchain, McInerney said.

“We do see real potential, which is why we’ve been investing in the crypto space for many years now,” he said. “We are optimistic about the U.S. government passing more clear and pragmatic regulations” with other countries doing the same for cryptocurrency, he said.

US Stock Market LIVE Updates: Dow Jones falls 30 points on escalating Israel-Iran conflict, weak retail sales

By CNBCTV18.COM Jun 17, 2025 7:56 PM IST (Updated)

US Stock Market LIVE Updates: US stocks are slipping on Tuesday (June 17) following signals that one of the US economy’s main engines, spending by households, is weakening, while Israel’s conflict with Iran may be worsening. The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 129 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower.

US Stock Market LIVE Updates: US stocks are slipping on Tuesday (June 17) following signals that one of the US economy’s main engines, spending by households, is weakening, while Israel’s conflict with Iran may be worsening. The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 129 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% lower. Treasury yields also nudged lower in the bond market after a report said shoppers spent less last month at US retailers than the month before and than economists expected. Solid such spending has been one of the linchpins keeping the economy out of a recession, but part of May’s drop may have simply been a return to more normal trends. In April, some shoppers had rushed to buy automobiles to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Watch this space for all the live updates.

Listen to this article Listen to this article

THE BLUEPRINT: JetBlue cancels planned Boston to Islip route due to low bookings

Airline cites soft travel demand and economic uncertainty

Islip airport sees continued growth from other carriers

Impacted passengers can get refunds or rebook through JFK

JetBlue has cancelled service between Boston Logan International and Long Island MacArthur Airport.

The anticipated daily nonstop route was supposed to begin Thursday. But bookings for the route had not met expectations, according to JetBlue.

“While we were excited to launch summer seasonal service between Islip and Boston, we are cancelling our launch of this route because bookings have not met expectations,” the airline said in a statement. “This is one of the steps we are taking to manage our business through softer-than-expected travel demand this year and economic uncertainty.

The route cancellation comes at a time when airlines are seeing a drop in demand for domestic flights.

“The Islip team has been watching economic indicators that historically affect the aviation industry,” the Town of Islip said in a statement. “Most notably, consumer confidence has decreased, discretionary credit card spending is declining, and the total cost of leisure travel i.e., hotel and airfare is up.”

JetBlue began offering daily flights to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and West Palm Beach in October. And Houston-based Avelo Airlines is adding MacArthur as a new destination, offering flights to North Carolina and Florida, beginning in May.

The airport “has experienced a 13 percent increase in seat growth, and a 20 percent increase in capacity with the launch of JetBlue’s service, which has increased the frequency of two of its three inaugural destinations launched in October 2024, and the announcement of Avelo Airlines’ service to three new destinations” Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter said in a statement.

“The airport’s niche brand for convenience continues to drive customers,” she said.

“The town and airport are committed to supporting its air carrier partners through its marketing efforts in Long Island and at the destination,” Carpenter said.

“We work very hard to promote air carrier services and products through our marketing efforts,” she added.

Carpenter had touted the route publicly in an effort to inform travelers about the anticipated service.

“We immediately began promoting jetBlue’s ISP to Boston … service to raise awareness among Long Island travelers,” Carpenter said. “But our efforts are only a part of a new destination’s success. We need to put people in seats to keep and retain routes.”

JetBlue said it is working with customers who booked flights on the cancelled route.

“We know this change may be disappointing for those who had already booked travel, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience,” the airline said. “All impacted customers will have the option of a refund or will be booked on a flight between Boston and New York JFK.”

Angered by President Trump’s tariffs and rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state , Canadians have been canceling travel plans to the United States . In March, the number of Canadians traveling to the US dropped by 13.5 percent for air travel and 32 percent for land travel compared to the same period in 2024, according to Statistics Canada .

” While we were excited to launch summer seasonal service to Halifax, we are pausing our entrance into the market because bookings have not met expectations,” a spokesperson for JetBlue said in an email. “This is one of the necessary steps we are taking to manage our business through softer-than-expected travel demand this year and economic uncertainty.”

Two months before launching a seasonal Boston-to-Halifax route, JetBlue quietly dropped the Nova Scotia city from its summer lineup. A Canadian boycott of travel to the United States has led to a reduction in demand for flights between the two countries.

Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up

The airline said it will refund those who purchased Halifax tickets and look at offering the city as an option next summer.

Advertisement

On Wednesday, JetBlue announced that it would debut new seasonal routes to Norfolk and Wilmington instead. Flights to those cities begin this week and will continue through Oct. 25. This continues the airline’s trend of focusing on East Coast leisure destinations, prioritizing vacation-oriented routes over business travel.

It’s been a busy month for the airline as it continues to struggle with profitability and reducing costs by cutting unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft, and generating new revenue sources through higher-priced seats. On Tuesday, the airline withdrew its 2025 earnings forecast, becoming the latest airline to do so amid persistent economic uncertainty and declining demand stemming from Trump’s trade war. Delta, American, Alaska, Southwest, Frontier, and United have all withdrawn 2025 projections.

Advertisement

“We expect softened demand for off-peak travel to continue into the second quarter, where the booking curve is more exposed to macro uncertainty and deteriorating consumer confidence,” Marty St. George, JetBlue president, said on an earnings call this week.

On that same call, St. George told analysts and investors that the company was negotiating a partnership with a domestic airline with a larger network. He did not elaborate.

The airline has been seeking a partnership since a federal judge blocked a JetBlue-American partnership in 2023. A federal judge also blocked a proposed $3.8 billion JetBlue merger with Spirit Airlines. Reuters is reporting that the airline will merge with United, but both airlines declined to comment.

Christopher Muther can be reached at christopher.muther@globe.com. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.

JetBlue is joining other U.S. airlines in cutting capacity in the second quarter and pulling its 2025 forecast due to a murky economic outlook.

JetBlue said Tuesday it is anticipating more softened demand in the second quarter and plans to cut capacity.

Marty St, George, JetBlue’s president, said in a statement that the carrier had seen strong booking trends in January, but that strength started to deteriorate in February and March.

“We expect softened demand for off-peak travel to continue into the second quarter, where the booking curve is more exposed to macro uncertainty and deteriorating consumer confidence,” St. George said.

JetBlue also pulled its 2025 forecast, which most U.S. airlines have done in response to economic uncertainty.

“If we could read the tea leaves and tell you things will get better fast if tariffs go away, I think we’d be in a different industry,” said CEO Joanna Geraghty during a call with analysts on Tuesday.

However, St. George noted that the carrier saw some encouraging trends in premium and international travel, along with loyalty.

Premium and international travel have become increasingly important for airlines as domestic travel demand weakens. United chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said during a call with analysts on April 16 that the airline had not seen a “deterioration in high-end consumers’ willingness to purchase a premium experience.”

JetBlue reported a net loss of $208 million for the first quarter, which was an improvement from its $716 million loss in 2024. The carrier also netted $2.1 billion in revenue, a 3.1% decrease from the same period last year.

For the second quarter, JetBlue forecasts capacity to be down 0.5% to 3.5%.

The carrier said it was “well positioned to manage through a range of economic outcomes,” pointing to its deferral of $3 billion worth of aircraft and its decision to raise $3.2 billion of capital.

A New Partnership for JetBlue?

JetBlue executives said during a call with analysts that they are expecting to make an announcement on a new partnership during the second quarter.

St. George said during the call that the partnership would provide JetBlue customers with greater connectivity.

“If you are a customer in the Northeast and you love JetBlue for leisure, but twice a year, you have to go to Omaha or Boise, these are places that you can’t earn TrueBlue points on now. And when this partnership goes forward, you will be able to,” St. George said.

So far, United Airlines said in regulatory filing that it wasn’t in talks with any airlines about a merger or partnership. American Airlines said Monday that it ended partnership talks with JetBlue and planned to sue the carrier over the collapse of the Northeast Alliance.

Geraghty said JetBlue had not been served with the lawsuit yet and that the carrier had been working with American to wind down the NEA.

“This is not an unexpected turn and it’s part of just truing up any money owed between the parties,” Geraghty said.

Executives at the airline have repeatedly said they want to revive a partnership similar to that of the NEA, which was struck down in federal court on the grounds it was anticompetitive.

The Northeast Alliance was JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines, where the two carriers shared routes, codeshares, loyalty benefits, revenue and joint corporate customer benefits out of the New York and Boston markets.

What am I looking at? The performance of airline sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets including network carriers, low-cost carriers, and other related companies. The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more airlines sector financial performance. Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.