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In the past week, United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) and JetBlue Airways (JBLU - Free Report) announced plans to boost services during the Thanksgiving vacations. Alaska Air Group (ALK - Free Report) also dominated headlines with the information that its long serving CEO Brad Tilden will retire on Mar 31, 2021. He will, however, continue to serve as the carrier’s board chair.
Meanwhile, Latin American carriers Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and Azul (AZUL - Free Report) reported their respective traffic numbers for October, which showed better results from the September levels..
Synopsis of the Past Week’s Key Events
1. United Airlines, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), is adding more than 1,400 domestic flights to cater to the anticipated increase in demand for Thanksgiving travel. Additionally, the carrier is keeping track of bookings in real time so that it can meet demand emanating even at the last minute by switching to a larger aircraft. The airline expects the week of Nov 23 to be its busiest since March.
2. JetBlue intends to add 25 flight services to fulfill the anticipated surge in demand for travel in the Thanksgiving phase. These flights include additional nonstop flights from New York, Newark, NJ and Westchester County, NY airports. The airline will also add services connecting Newark with the Florida cities of Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa. The 25 new flights will operate between Nov 20 and Nov 30.
3. Owing to the gradual recovery in air-travel demand, consolidated traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) at Azul ascended 41% in October on a month-over-month basis. Both international and domestic traffic soared 38% and 41.3%, respectively. Consolidated capacity (measured in available seat kilometers/ASKs) jumped 42.6% owing to 41.3% domestic expansion and 57.5% international expansion from the September readings.
The year-over-year weakness was also evident from the fact that Gol Linhas incurred a loss in third-quarter 2020. The report was discussed in the previous week’s write-up.
5. Alaska Air Group announced that Ben Minicucci will succeed Tilden as the company’s CEO. Minicucci is currently the president of its subsidiary Alaska Airlines and a board member of Alaska Air Group. He is widely experienced, having been associated with the company for 16 years in various capacities. He has been serving as Alaska Airlines’ president since 2016.He was also named the CEO of Virgin America following its acquisition by Alaska Air Group in 2016.
Performance
The following table shows the price movement of major airline players over the past week and during the past six months.
The table above shows that all airline stocks have traded in the green over the past week, buoyed by the positive news on the COVID-19 vaccine candidate being co-developed by Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) and BioNTech. Shares of Hawaiian Holdings (HA - Free Report) have gained maximum during the period.
As a result, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index has rallied 19% over the past week. Over the course of the past six months, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index has appreciated 66.5%..
What’s Next in the Airline Space?
Investors will look forward to the third-quarter 2020 earnings report of Azul on Nov 16.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2021.
Image: Bigstock
Airline Stock Roundup: UAL & JBLU's Thanksgiving Plans, Azul's Traffic & More
In the past week, United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) and JetBlue Airways (JBLU - Free Report) announced plans to boost services during the Thanksgiving vacations. Alaska Air Group (ALK - Free Report) also dominated headlines with the information that its long serving CEO Brad Tilden will retire on Mar 31, 2021. He will, however, continue to serve as the carrier’s board chair.
Meanwhile, Latin American carriers Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and Azul (AZUL - Free Report) reported their respective traffic numbers for October, which showed better results from the September levels..
Synopsis of the Past Week’s Key Events
1. United Airlines, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), is adding more than 1,400 domestic flights to cater to the anticipated increase in demand for Thanksgiving travel. Additionally, the carrier is keeping track of bookings in real time so that it can meet demand emanating even at the last minute by switching to a larger aircraft. The airline expects the week of Nov 23 to be its busiest since March.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
2. JetBlue intends to add 25 flight services to fulfill the anticipated surge in demand for travel in the Thanksgiving phase. These flights include additional nonstop flights from New York, Newark, NJ and Westchester County, NY airports. The airline will also add services connecting Newark with the Florida cities of Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa. The 25 new flights will operate between Nov 20 and Nov 30.
3. Owing to the gradual recovery in air-travel demand, consolidated traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) at Azul ascended 41% in October on a month-over-month basis. Both international and domestic traffic soared 38% and 41.3%, respectively. Consolidated capacity (measured in available seat kilometers/ASKs) jumped 42.6% owing to 41.3% domestic expansion and 57.5% international expansion from the September readings.
4. Taking advantage of the improved demand scenario in the domestic market, Gol Linhas operated 363 flights per day on average in October compared with 270 in September. Despite this recent uptick, traffic is well below the year-ago levels with the metric declining 47.6%.
The year-over-year weakness was also evident from the fact that Gol Linhas incurred a loss in third-quarter 2020. The report was discussed in the previous week’s write-up.
5. Alaska Air Group announced that Ben Minicucci will succeed Tilden as the company’s CEO. Minicucci is currently the president of its subsidiary Alaska Airlines and a board member of Alaska Air Group. He is widely experienced, having been associated with the company for 16 years in various capacities. He has been serving as Alaska Airlines’ president since 2016.He was also named the CEO of Virgin America following its acquisition by Alaska Air Group in 2016.
Performance
The following table shows the price movement of major airline players over the past week and during the past six months.
The table above shows that all airline stocks have traded in the green over the past week, buoyed by the positive news on the COVID-19 vaccine candidate being co-developed by Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) and BioNTech. Shares of Hawaiian Holdings (HA - Free Report) have gained maximum during the period.
As a result, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index has rallied 19% over the past week. Over the course of the past six months, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index has appreciated 66.5%..
What’s Next in the Airline Space?
Investors will look forward to the third-quarter 2020 earnings report of Azul on Nov 16.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2021.
Click here for the 6 trades >>