It’s the holiday season, everyone’s favorite time of year to pack into airports and fly across the country in a metal tube filled with 200 strangers. To commemorate the joyous (travel) season, we thought we’d look at how the eight major airline stocks had fared over the year.
The airline industry is an interesting one. To be sure, the profits are there for the taking, and a well-oiled airline company with well-established routes and a well-repaired fleet can really rake in the cash. However, commercial airline companies, even successful ones, can come crashing down in seemingly an instant. Take Pan Am, once the world’s largest commercial carrier. After decades atop the industry, a series of unfortunate events in the late '80s – notably a reputation for having their planes hijacked by terrorists at an alarming rate –crippled the company, and Pan Am was completely bankrupt by 1991.
In looking at how the major airline companies have fared in 2013, we found the majority of them were doing quite well, with healthy profit to earnings ratios and nice year-to-date gains. Here are the eight major airlines trading on the American market, and some details about their performance:
AAR Corp (AIR)
Market-Cap: $1.2 billion
Price: $31.11
P/E: 22.88
Performance YTD: +68.8 percent
China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd. (CEA)
Market-Cap: $4.91 billion
Price: $21.18
P/E: 10.59
Performance YTD: +5.37 percent
Delta Airlines Inc. (DAL)
Market-Cap: $23.34 billion
Price: $28.60
P/E: 11.92
Performance YTD: +142.17 percent
US Airways Group, Inc. (LCC)
Market-Cap: $4.69 billion
Price: $24.27
P/E: 8.31
Performance YTD: +79.78 percent
Spirit Airlines (SAVE)
Market-Cap: $3.24 billion
Price: $44.62
P/E: 21.25
Performance YTD: +151.66 percent
United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL)
Market-Cap: $13.76 billion
Price: $38.54
P/E: N/A
Performance YTD: +64.84 percent
Controladora Vuela Compa (VLRS)
Market-Cap: $1.14 billion
Price: $14.24
P/E: 30.96
Performance YTD: +1.64 percent
China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd. (ZNH)
Market-Cap: $4.3 billion
Price: $21.88
P/E: 10.32
Performance YTD: -13.65 percent