April 25, 2021
For this Frank Talk, I decided to take a deep dive in the airline industry to see how it fared in the first quarter of 2021, one year after the start of the pandemic. The four major domestic airlines have all reported as of today, and even though big losses were expected, it’s clear to me they’re being managed extraordinarily well during these unprecedented circumstances.
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Strengths
The best performing stock for the quarter in the Bloomberg World Airlines Index was JetBlue, up 32.67%. The low-cost carrier expanded its services during the quarter by introducing Paisly, a new website that allows customers to book hotels, vacation homes, theme park tickets and more. It also will begin transatlantic flights to London’s Heathrow Airport this summer. American Airlines said it turned cash flow positive in March on an adjusted basis after an increase in domestic and leisure travel. As of March 26, the carrier’s seven-day moving average of bookings was around 90% of what it saw at the same time in 2019, according to Simple Flying.