Why Airline Stocks Are Falling Today
The airlines mostly avoided the nightmare cancellation scenario over the holiday weekend, but investors are in no mood to celebrate. Shares of United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ: UAL), Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), and JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) all traded down as much as 5% on a tough day for broader markets.
Heading into the July 4 weekend, airlines and their investors were bracing for the worst. The industry is grappling with a shortage of pilots that's causing issues with scheduling. The fear was that any mechanical issues or bad weather on such a busy travel weekend would lead to thousands of cancellations.
The airlines had proactively trimmed their schedules in hopes of avoiding the worst. While there were some flight disruptions over the weekend, it was mostly Air Canada making headlines on Tuesday morning due to poor performance. The U.S. carriers significantly reworked their schedules heading into the weekend, so they probably left some revenue on the table but appear to have survived without a systemwide meltdown.
Source Fool.com
