Why Airline Stocks Are Up Today
It's another good day for airlines, with their stocks again gaining altitude as part of the so-called "reopening trade" as investors flock to companies that figure to benefit as the pandemic subsides. Shares of United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ: UAL) were up as much as 10% on Wednesday, while shares of American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) both traded up more than 5%.
The airline industry, after a miserable 2020, is staging a comeback. The pandemic wiped away travel demand and sent airlines into the red, but as vaccine rollouts continue, there is growing optimism that we will see pent-up demand for at least leisure travel by this summer.
That optimism has airline stocks up off the mat. Some airlines lost more than half of their value in the early days of the pandemic, but a combination of government assistance and relatively healthy balance sheets coming into the crisis allowed the U.S. industry to avoid major bankruptcies and steadily progress higher in the months that followed.
Source Fool.com
