For a while there, airline stocks looked like they were flying into a storm. With a July 4th weekend that was full of strange weather and packed airports, and the holiday had not even started yet, it was clear that chaos was in the cards. But airlines responded and stood strong, which left a range of airline stocks looking a lot better going into July 4th itself.
The Transportation Security Administration revealed that Friday was actually the busiest air travel day that the United States had ever seen. It screened over 2.88 million passengers, and that beat the pre-COVID-19 record set back in 2019 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving that year. Though strong storms hit much of the eastern seaboard in that time, and some truly bizarre circumstances kicked in—like the puzzling story of Phil Stringer, who managed to end up with a flight all to himself after waiting 18 hours for a delayed flight to finally board, and the airline still lost his luggage for 45 minutes—airlines pulled through.
Most of the gains were fractional. The leaders, Allegiant Travel (NASDAQ:ALGT) and Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL), added just 1.39% and 1.09%, respectively. Meanwhile, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL), and SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW) posted gains of 0.92%, 0.46%, and 0.22%, respectively. However, some of these airlines have had impressive runs up for the first half. SkyWest, for example, posted a 147% gain for the first half of the year, while Allegiant added 86%. United and Delta both coaxed a similar 45% gain for themselves, while American wasn’t far behind at 41%.
What are the Best Airline Stocks to Buy Now?
Of the aforementioned stocks, Wall Street expects the least out of SkyWest, as it’s rated a Hold by analyst consensus with 21.59% downside risk thanks to its average price target of $32. Meanwhile, Delta stock proves to be a leading bet, with a Strong Buy consensus rating and 20.08% upside thanks to its $57.71 average price target.
