The airline sector is having a strong day on more confidence that booking trends will improve in the U.S. as vaccinations ramp up further. Earlier in the day, Deutsche Bank was the latest firm to turn positive on airline stocks with a general update to Buy. “We are upgrading our investment stance on the sector as COVID cases, hospitalizations, and vaccination rates are all trending in the right direction.
We are also encouraged by the industry’s nonstop pursuit of numerous initiatives to mitigate the spread of COVID and increase the confidence of the flying public. Two recent examples include the announcement of support by the US airline industry for an international contact tracing program and IATA’s trialing of Travel Pass, a mobile application that is akin to a digital passport which allows passengers to securely match an itinerary to local COVID-19 testing requirements and ensure that they are in compliance.”
Gainers include American Airlines (AAL +10.2%), United Airlines (UAL +5.6%), JetBlue (JBLU +6.0%), Delta Air Lines (DAL +5.6%), SkyWest (SKYW +5.8%), Hawaiian Holdings (HA +6.1%) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE +5.3%).The U.S. Global Jets ETF (NYSEARCA:JETS) is up 4.25% on the day.