Airline Stock Roundup: Wright Amendment Ends, Southwest Adds Flights from Love Field, Spirit Airlines Cuts Forecast

Over the past 5 trading days, airline stocks have exhibited a negative momentum. While the outbreak of the Ebola virus persists as a cause of worry for the airline industry, Spirit Airlines Inc.’s (SAVE) act of trimming its third-quarter margin expectations also affected airline stocks negatively.

On the bright side, JetBlue Airways’ (JBLU) increase in September traffic and Hawaiian Airlines topping the performance list released by the U.S. Department of Transportation remained in the headlines over the last one week.

Further, expiration of the decades-old Wright Amendment and the subsequent positive impact on domestic airlines such as Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) was also in the limelight.

A Recap of Last Week’s Most Important Stories

1. With the expiration of the Wright Amendment on Oct 13, low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines will fly non-stop to 15 new cities out of the Dallas Love Field airport. The Wright Amendment, established in 1979, originally governed traffic at Dallas Love Field and restricted non-stop flights from the airport to destinations only in Texas and the neighbouring states. (Read More: Southwest Adds Routes at Love Field as Amendment Ends)

2. JetBlue Airways announced traffic results for the month of Sep 2014. While traffic for the month increased 7.1%, airline capacity grew 5.1%. Load factor touched 80.9%, up 140 basis points.

3. Hawaiian Airlines, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (HA), scored the highest rank for on-time performance among all other national carriers, for the month of August, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT.V). The carrier also had on-schedule arrival accuracy of 94% through August, receiving DOT’s top rank for punctuality.

4. Last week, American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) announced its plans to expand its Los Angeles hub by operating new non-stop flights to Atlanta. The carrier will launch flights between Angeles International Airport (:LAX) and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) effective Mar 5, 2015. The new flights are slated to expand American Airlines' network from Los Angeles – a key hub for both domestic and international travel.

5. Last week, Spirit Airlines recorded a drop in its share price after it announced a slash in its forecast for third-quarter profit margin. The news of underpayment of fuel excise taxes, due for several years was a major blow to the stock prices of the company.

Performance

The following table shows the price movements of the major airline players over the past 5 trading days and during the last 6 months:

Over the trailing 5 sessions, a strong bearish trend characterized the airline stocks. The biggest losers for the period were Copa Holdings SA (CPA) and Spirit Airlines with almost 8% decline in share prices of both.

Over the past 6 months, some of the stocks’ performances have remained modest while others traded in the red. Top gainers during this period were Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways with 29.4% and 23.2% increase in share prices. Biggest losers were Copa Holdings and GOL Linhas with 19% and 16% drop in share prices, respectively.

What’s Next in the Airline Biz?

In the current week, we foresee no major significant changes in the airline industry and global economic factors. As a result, we expect stocks to trade in line for the remainder of this week.

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