U.S. Airlines Shares Rise In Hope Of Airline Rebound

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Speaking at an investor conference hosted by JPMorgan on Monday, executives from American Airlines, United, Delta and JetBlue all reported strong bookings ahead of the traditional break, and several said they were also selling an increasing number of tickets during the summer.

“The past three weeks have been the best three since the pandemic hit,” US CEO Doug Parker said of advance ticket sales. “We are getting closer to 2019 levels in terms of total bookings.”

Parker warned that incomes are still below pre-pandemic levels, due to fewer bookings from more lucrative business trips and trips abroad. But rising ticket orders, along with a recent sell-off of corporate bonds and another round of industry aid under the new stimulus package, mean Americans are not looking to lift. additional cash for the first time since the pandemic struck.
United (UAL) stocks dominated the sector, rising nearly 8% in midday trading, American (AAL). JetBlue (JBLU) was up 5%, while Alaska Air (ALK) gained 4% Delta (OF) stocks rose about 3%. Among the major carriers, only South West (LUV) was behind schedule, up just 1%. Dallas-based Southwest warned its February traffic was down more than expected due to bad winter storms, particularly in Texas. But March traffic was stronger than expected.

Current bookings and traffic appear to be the beginning of the end of the pandemic’s impact on air travel, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said at another event on Monday. But he also warned that he had never experienced such a difficult time in planning future travel.

“Our hope is that by the time we get to June, when a large part of the population has had access to vaccines, we will at least have a chance of breaking even,” he said. Southwest reported its first annual loss since 1972 last year.
More than one million travelers have passed through security checkpoints at U.S. airports in the past four days, bringing the number of passengers screened to 5.2 million, according to the Transportation Security Administration. That’s the biggest four-day total since U.S. air travel nearly stopped at the end of March 2020.

Although the TSA tally from Thursday to Sunday was equal to 78% of its level during the same period last year, it is only about half of the total for the same period in 2019.

But there was more good news from the airlines beyond passenger numbers. United said they believe their “core cash flow” will be positive in March for the first time since the start of the pandemic. This measure relates to money the airline spends other than on aircraft purchases. The airline was burning $ 19 million a day on those expenses in the fourth quarter, and it does not yet predict when it will report a return to profitability.

Closing of the window on free modifications to the cheapest airline tickets

“We know we can’t put Covid in the rear view mirror just yet,” United CEO Scott Kirby said. “Demand for business travel will not really start to recover until 2022 and will not return to 2019 levels until the summer of 2023.”

But all airline executives have pointed to signs of improving demand, just in time for the important spring and summer travel seasons.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” said Robin Hayes, CEO of JetBlue. “As people get vaccinated, they jump on planes to see people they haven’t seen in a year.”

– CNN’s Gregory Wallace contributed to this report

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