| To: Sam who wrote (1808) | 6/27/2023 3:26:52 PM | | From: Sam | | | | Airline stocks pushed higher on Tuesday after Delta Air Lines ( DAL) lifted its second-quarter profit outlook and posted full-year guidance at the high end of its prior range.
Delta Air Lines ( DAL) CEO Ed Bastian pointed to sustained travel demand during his talk at an investor event and said airline customers are still financially healthy. "Everyone is worried about the consumer, Our customer is quite strong," he noted.
Balance sheets may also be getting healthier in the airline sector, with Delta Air Lines ( DAL) guiding for free cash flow for next year of $4B, which is just a shade below the pre-pandemic level.
Even before Delta's ( DAL) guidance update, Bank of America raised its 2023 EPS estimates across the sector due to lower fuel costs in comparison to earlier in the quarter.
The entire U.S. airline sector showed a gain in late afternoon trading on Tuesday: American Airlines ( AAL) +5.90%, Delta Airlines ( DAL) +6.28%, Southwest Airlines ( LUV) +3.77%, United Airlines ( UAL) +5.49%, JetBlue ( JBLU) +9.25%, Hawaiian Holdings ( HA) +19.29%, Alaska Air Group ( ALK) +4.49%, Allegiant Travel ( ALGT) +4.33%, Spirit Airlines ( SAVE) +3.95%, Mesa Airlines ( MESA) +11.25%, SkyWest ( SKYW) +2.29%, Sun Country Airlines ( SNCY) +5.41%, Frontier Group ( ULCC) +7.25%.
seekingalpha.com |
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| From: Sam | 6/27/2023 6:33:59 PM | | | | | | United CEO Faults FAA as Storms Prompt More Flight Cancellations -- 4th Update
Dow Jones Newswires June 27, 2023 05:56:00 PM ET
United Airlines' chief executive blasted the Federal Aviation Administration after severe storms led to thousands of canceled flights in recent days, saying the agency's air-traffic-control problems exacerbated the disruption.
With summer travel in full swing, scattered storms began wreaking havoc on travel in the Northeast on Saturday, and the number of disrupted flights swelled on Sunday and Monday. Airlines had canceled about 1,500 U.S. flights as of Tuesday afternoon as storms lingered, in addition to the more than 3,500 that were scrubbed on Sunday and Monday.
The FAA said thunderstorms would continue to pose challenges Tuesday afternoon and evening. In one notice, it said LaGuardia Airport was "almost in gridlock," without enough available departure gates.
The onslaught of storms in the Northeast has set off one of the worst stretches for air travel this year. United CEO Scott Kirby said a shortage of air-traffic controllers also played a role.
"I'm also frustrated that the FAA frankly failed us this weekend," he wrote in a message reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Kirby said that the FAA cut arrival rates by 40% and departure rates by 75% on Saturday. That, he said, led to a cascade of delays, canceled flights and diverted planes that "put everyone behind the eight ball when weather actually did hit on Sunday and was further compounded by FAA staffing shortages Sunday evening."
The FAA said staffing constraints didn't contribute to delays at East Coast air-traffic-control facilities Monday or Tuesday. "We will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem, " an FAA spokesman said.
Airlines face the challenge of repairing their operations in time for the busy July 4 holiday. The Transportation Security Administration has said it expects to screen 2.82 million travelers on Friday, which would be a new postpandemic peak.
As of Tuesday afternoon United had canceled about 14% of flights scheduled for the day, outpacing rivals, according to flight-data provider Anuvu. The airline canceled about 18% of its flights Monday.
Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways were also affected by the recent storms. JetBlue on Tuesday scrubbed over 14% of its flights, while Delta's cancellations eased to roughly 8% of flights, according to Anuvu.
Delta said it has worked to stabilize its operations after the rounds of thunderstorms Sunday and Monday, and expects to be "fully reset" by Wednesday.
United's Kirby said he plans to discuss with FAA and Transportation Department officials how to prevent a repeat of similar flight disruptions this summer. He said that air-traffic-control shortages predate the FAA's current leadership.
United has also struggled to match crews with flights as its operation has been upended. In a message Monday, the union that represents United flight attendants said some flight attendants had spent three hours on hold waiting for instructions amid a deluge of reassignments.
The airline said it was working to catch up on call volumes, including staff increases in crew scheduling and mandatory overtime on the scheduling team. United said it also has ways flight attendants can check in electronically for trips and schedule changes.
The number of people passing through U.S. airports in recent weeks has hit the highest levels in more than three years. Packed flights with few empty seats can make it harder for passengers to find alternatives when cancellations and delays upend their plans, and customers have complained of long waits on hold or in line for help.
The disruptions came after what had been a fairly smooth spring. The industry is under pressure from regulators to perform better this summer than it did the past few years coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, when rapidly returning travel demand overwhelmed airlines' still-fragile operations. Cancellation rates have been tracking below last year's levels this year.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Tuesday that the airline's operation has made strides but can still be knocked off course by bad weather.
"We're going to continue to build that durability around weather," he said at an investor presentation, where the company raised its earnings forecast for the current quarter because of strong demand.
As storms walloped big airports over the weekend and on Monday, the FAA slowed or halted flights at major hubs in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia and Florida.
Backups and gridlock grew at airports as thunderstorms left some routes inaccessible. Dozens of flights were diverted Sunday, and airlines moved to cut some Monday flights in advance as they sought to recover from storms that left some crews and airplanes out of place.
The FAA had cautioned that New York could be challenging this summer and asked airlines to cull flights there because of short staffing in a key air-traffic-control facility that manages skies in the area. Airlines cut back, but some executives said they still expected headaches when bad weather flared up.
The Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General last week said many of the most critical air-traffic control face staffing shortfalls, which it says poses a risk to air-traffic operations. The FAA temporarily closed its main controller training academy in 2020 and paused on-the-job training because of the pandemic and has struggled to catch back up.
Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
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| From: Sam | 7/13/2023 8:59:44 AM | | | | | | Airline stocks fly high after strong results from Delta Air Lines
seekingalpha.com
Shares of Delta Air Lines ( DAL) rose 4.55% in premarket trading and lifted sector peers. American Airlines Group ( AAL) gained 3.28%, United Airlines ( UAL) increased 2.77%, JetBlue Airways ( JBLU) added 1.81%, Hawaiian Holdings ( HA) +3.15%, and Southwest Airlines ( LUV) rallied 2.28%.
more details at the link |
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| To: Sam who wrote (1811) | 7/13/2023 9:25:38 AM | | From: OldAIMGuy | | | | Good morning SAM, Re: JETS.................
It's been a while since I had a trade in JETS, but we're closing on my "next sell" target to relieve 10% of the share inventory to the Markets. It closed at $22 yesterday and my target for an incremental sale is at $23.70, so I'll be watching closely.
Thanks,
OAG Tom |
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| From: Sam | 7/28/2023 2:50:18 PM | | | | | | Airlines Adjust to the New Reality of Business Travel: It's Not Coming Back -- 6th Update
Dow Jones Newswires July 27, 2023 06:29:00 PM ET
Airlines are finding ways to live without business travelers.
Appetite for travel has roared back in the past two years as pandemic-era restrictions began to fall away, and airline executives have reported soaring demand. But carriers are still navigating what they say might be long-term shifts in who is traveling, when and why.
The big companies whose employees once filled weekday flights, often paying top dollar for last-minute tickets and premium seats, aren't back in full force. Leisure travel, and an emerging type of trip combining pleasure and work, have taken on more importance.
Southwest Airlines has made a push to capture more business travel in recent years and said it is still winning market share. But executives said Thursday that people who are traveling for work aren't doing so as often, and that they expect corporate travel demand to lag behind leisure for the foreseeable future.
"It's clear that travel patterns postpandemic are not what they were prepandemic," Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan said Thursday.
Southwest plans to revamp its flight schedule next year to adapt, adjusting where it plans to fly, what time of day and what days of the week.
The drop-off in flying from Monday to Tuesday and Wednesday will be sharper. Southwest will pivot from some short- haul routes aimed at business travelers to longer routes with more potential leisure traffic. And it said it would shift some flights from the early morning or late night hours, favored by road warriors jetting to and from meetings.
Major airlines have said their revenue hit record levels during the three months ended June 30, and Southwest was no exception. But airlines are facing questions about whether the surging demand of the past two years can be sustained, and pressure from rising wage rates as they draw up new labor deals with employees. Southwest shares fell nearly 9% Thursday
Carriers including Delta Air Lines have said they still expect gradual improvement in corporate travel, especially as offices fill up. But changes in how people work are also facilitating more travel. "The less that people are in the office, the more they travel, the more mobile they are," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview earlier this month.
American Airlines has said the share of its revenue coming from pure business travel has declined. The same people who once spent four days a week on the road are often spending as much or more on vacations or hybrid trips, the company said. That has informed a new strategy -- the airline let a chunk of its corporate sales staff go and has been playing down the role of corporate travel agencies and corporate contracts.
Frontier Airlines, a discounter, has also said Tuesdays and Wednesdays -- when people are more likely to be at their desks -- have become lackluster days for vacationers. The airline earlier this year said it would shift its schedule to fly more on peak days and less during the midweek trough.
There are some indications that domestic demand has cooled off as more travelers have looked abroad, something analysts say could pose a challenge for airlines such as Southwest with less exposure to far-flung locales.
Southwest said it expects the third quarter to bring another revenue record, but it said that revenue per seat flown a mile could be as much as 7% lower than in the same period in 2022.
The airline said it is tough to live up to last year, when pent-up demand for travel was first unleashed.
Alaska Airlines, another primarily domestic leisure carrier, said this week that ravenous appetite for international travel has diverted some would-be domestic travelers, something that has been a drag on domestic fares. Alaska's shares sold off sharply after it reported earnings Tuesday.
Southwest reported a profit of $683 million in the three months ended June 30, down about 10% from the same period a year earlier.
The airline said its nonfuel unit costs were up 7.5% from a year earlier -- on the high end of what it had expected -- because of expected wage increases in labor contracts the airline is hammering out. The airline said it expects rising wages to continue to pressure costs.
Pilots at rival airlines have struck deals for big pay bumps in recent months, and Southwest said it is adjusting to the "dynamic market environment" as it plans for the expected impact of new contracts.
Southwest is in the midst of negotiations with its pilots and flight attendants. Its pilots have asked to be released from federal mediation, saying talks have reached an impasse, a move that brings them one step closer to a potential strike. Jordan said Thursday that there is no threat of an imminent strike and that the airline is still hopeful it can make progress toward a deal.
The union that represents pilots at American said Thursday that it had come to a preliminary agreement with the company on a sweetened deal to match rivals' pay and other benefits.
Write to Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
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| From: Sam | 9/6/2023 7:42:58 AM | | | | | | Southwest Airlines Stock Drops As August Leisure Bookings Were On Low End Of Expectations -- MarketWatch
Dow Jones Newswires September 06, 2023 07:09:00 AM ET
Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) dropped 4.2% toward a three-month low in premarket trading Wednesday, after the air carrier said it booked record revenue for the Labor Day weekend, but said close-in leisure bookings in August were on the lower-end of expectations. The company lowered its outlook for third-quarter revenue per available seat mile (RASM) to a year-over-year decline of 5% to 7% from previous guidance for a decline of 3% to 7%. Southwest also raised its fuel cost per gallon guidance range to $2.70 to $2.80 from $2.55 to $2.65, but kept its capacity outlook unchanged at up about 12%. "Managed business trends continue to perform in line with expectations, and the Company continues to expect overall corporate travel to have a modest underlying year-over-year sequential trend improvement in third quarter 2023 when compared with second quarter 2023," Southwest said in a statement. "As a result, the Company continues to expect record third quarter operating revenues." The stock has gained 1.3% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) has slipped 1.0% and the S&P 500 has gained 5.0%.
-Tomi Kilgore
For more from MarketWatch: marketwatch.com
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| To: S. maltophilia who wrote (1815) | 9/22/2023 9:09:10 AM | | From: Sam | | | | | I've noticed this for several years now. "Points" are essentially the airlines "currency" and they get to unilaterally set how much that currency is worth (how many miles do you get vs how many points do charge for any given trip). They have been making it more and more expensive for at least the last 3 or 4 years now. And probably longer--they just have gotten more greedy in the last few years. |
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| To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (1817) | 9/22/2023 2:01:32 PM | | From: Art Bechhoefer | | | | Higher crude oil prices are pushing up the cost of jet fuel, which means airlines will see pressure on their profit margins. For most of the year, crude oil prices were in the $70 to $80 per barrel range, but now they are $91.
Art |
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