Why Airline Shares Are Falling Today

Airlines, as expected, enjoyed a holiday season surge in travel. But the traffic levels were still well off historical highs, and the industry continues to struggle. That is putting airline stocks under pressure on the first day of 2021 trading, with shares of Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE), Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) leading the downward push.

The airline industry and its investors will be glad to see 2020 in the books. The pandemic led to a dramatic falloff in travel demand and caused revenue to plummet.

The Transportation Security Administration screened about 324 million passengers in 2020, down dramatically from the 824 million passengers screened in 2019. And while the passenger counts have trended upward in recent months and should continue to do so as the COVID-19 vaccines are distributed, the industry is not expecting to see a recovery to prepandemic travel volumes for years.

Source Fool.com