Why Airline Shares Soared Higher in August

It's been a tough year for the airline industry, with the COVID-19 pandemic decimating travel demand and causing carriers to scramble to cut costs. Airline stocks were hit hard early in the crisis, and in the months since have been moving up and down based on developments in the fight to put COVID-19 behind us.

August brought a wave of mostly optimistic headlines about the effort to find a COVID-19 vaccine as well as some positive talk from Washington about additional financial support for the airlines, and the stocks moved higher as a result.

Leading the way for the month was Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), up 23.5% according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) were up 21.7% and 17.4%, respectively.

Source Fool.com