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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Southwest Airlines, Copa Holdings, Ryanair Holdings, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 18, 2023 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) , Copa Holdings' (CPA - Free Report) , Ryanair Holdings (RYAAY - Free Report) , Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) and American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Airline Stock Roundup: Labor Deals, Traffic Reports & More

In the past week, Southwest Airlines received encouraging news on the labor front when it reached a provisional agreement with the union that represents more than 17,000 of its ramp, operations, provisioning and cargo employees.

Meanwhile, Copa Holdings' traffic report for July was impressive owing to the post-pandemic surge in air travel demand. Owing to the uptick in passenger volumes, European carrier Ryanair Holdings anticipates carrying a higher number of passengers in the current month than in July. If the expectation materializes, RYAAY would establish a new monthly traffic record.

Recap of the Past Week's Most Important Stories

1. The provisional deal inked between LUV's management and the Transport Workers Union Local 555 or TWU 555 provides substantial wage increase, better retirement and other benefits to the concerned employees.  The deal will materialize only if it is approved through the ratification voting process. The details of LUV's current agreement and voting timeline will be directly communicated to Southwest Airlines' members by TWU 555.

2. In July, revenue passenger miles (a measure of traffic) rose in double digits, i.e., 12.5% on a year-over-year basis at CPA. To match the demand swell, CPA is increasing its capacity. In July, available seat miles (a measure of capacity) increased 9.9% year over year. With traffic growth outpacing capacity expansion, the load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) improved to 89% from 87% in July 2022.

Copa Holdings was also in the news when it reported better-than-expected earnings per share and revenues for second-quarter 2023. The news was covered in the previous week's write up.

3. According to a Reuters report, Irish carrier Ryanair Holdings expects to carry more passengers in August than the actual figure in July. We remind investors that Ryanair carried 18.7 million passengers in July, which itself is a record. The load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) in July was as high as 96%.

Per Eddie Wilson, the head of Ryanair DAC, the largest airline in the group, "It should be slightly more (than July) ... people are still travelling." Healthy booking trends have resulted in the upbeat expectation. Ryanair has been benefiting from the stronger-than-expected recovery in air travel demand from the pandemic lows.

Currently, RYAAY carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

4.  In a bid to meet the strong recovery in international travel in the post-pandemic scenario, Delta Air Lines has decided to expand its flight schedule to China. To this end, this Atlanta-based carrier has decided to operate 10 weekly flights to the Shanghai-Pudong International Airport from its hubs in Seattle and Detroit hubs this winter. 

From Oct 29, the airline will operate daily flights from Shanghai and three-times-a-week flights from Detroit. Moreover, Delta intends to resume four-times-weekly flights to the Shanghai-Pudong International Airport from Los Angeles. DAL has not operated on the route since early 2020.

According to a Reuters report, American Airlines has also decided to expand its China operations. The carrier has decided to commence daily flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to Shanghai-Pudong International Airport from January 2024.

Price Performance

All airline stocks traded in the red in the past week. The NYSE ARCA Airline Index declined 5.9% over the period to $63.51. Over the course of the past six months, the sector tracker has increased 3.8%.

What's Next in the Airline Space?

Stay tuned for the usual news updates in the space.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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