Airline Stock Roundup: ALGT & CPA's Q1 Earnings, DAL's Expansion

In the past week, Allegiant Travel Company ALGT and Copa Holdings CPA reported better-than-expected earnings as well as revenues for first-quarter 2025 despite the tariff-induced uncertainty. Delta Air Lines DAL was also in the news following its decision to fly nonstop to Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Ryanair Holdings RYAAY reported impressive traffic numbers for April, driven by upbeat air-travel demand. Mexican carrier Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación VLRS or Volaris reported a year-over-year increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs: a measure of air traffic) for April.

Read the last Airline Roundup here.

Recap of the Most Recent Important Stories

1.  Copa Holdings' first-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $4.28 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.77 and improved 2.2% year over year. Revenues of $899.2 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $889.5 million and inched up 0.6% year over year due to an 8.7% increase in onboard passengers.

Passenger revenues (which contributed 95.6% to the top line) remained flat year over year at $859 million. Despite the increase in onboard passengers, a 9.1% decrease in yield hurt passenger revenues. CPA’s management expects consolidated capacity to grow 7-8% year over year.

2. Allegiant Travel reported first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding 8 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.81, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.54. The company reported earnings of 57 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Operating revenues of $699.1 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $690.3 million and improved 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. For the second quarter of 2025, ASM (for scheduled service) is expected to increase 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. 

ALGT currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

3. Ryanair reported solid traffic numbers for April 2025, driven by upbeat air travel demand. The number of passengers transported on Ryanair flights was 18.3 million in April 2025, reflecting a 6% year-over-year increase. The April load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) of 93% was higher than the year-ago reading of 92%, reflecting consistent passenger demand for the airline's services.

4. This summer, Delta plans to fly nonstop to Copenhagen and Stockholm, as well as to more than 35 destinations across Scandinavia, through its partnership with Scandinavian Airlines System ("SAS"), the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We remind investors that DAL and SAS inked a codeshare agreement last year to improve connectivity between North America and Scandinavia.

Under the expansion-oriented move, DAL will operate non-stop flights (thrice a week) on the Minneapolis–St. Paul to Copenhagen route from May 22. Additionally, a direct summer service from New York–JFK to Copenhagen and JFK to Stockholm will start on April 14.  These flights will operate daily. Moreover, out of the 35 additional destinations, six are in Denmark, 14 are in Norway and 15 are in Sweden.

5. For April, Volaris reported a 16.9% year-over-year increase in consolidated capacity (measured in available seat miles). The load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) decreased 3.1 percentage points to 81.6% on a consolidated basis. The metric fell as the increase in consolidated traffic (12.7%) was less than the increase in consolidated capacity. During the month, Volaris transported 2.6 million passengers, up 14.8% year over year.

Airline Stocks Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last six months. 

The NYSE ARCA Airline Index increased by 5.4% to $55.03 as all airline stocks traded in the green over the past week. Over the past six months, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index has decreased by 23.3%.

What’s Next in the Airline Space?

With signs of easing in trade tensions emerging, investors keenly await further updates on the issue. Updates on declining fuel costs, a key input for airlines, is also eagerly awaited.


 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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