3 Airline Stocks You Should Keep an Eye on in 2H24

Core Insights - The airline industry is experiencing a significant rebound in air travel demand, particularly in leisure travel, which is positively impacting stock performance [11] - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revised its global profitability forecast for the airline industry, increasing it to $30.5 billion for the current year, up from $25.7 billion [12] Company-Specific Insights - United Airlines (UAL) has seen a 0.2% upward revision in the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 earnings over the past 60 days, with a 0.4% upward revision for 2025 earnings [1] - Alaska Air (ALK) has experienced a 2% upward revision in the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 earnings and a 5.1% upward revision for 2025 earnings over the same period [4] - SkyWest (SKYW) has a Zacks Rank 2 (Buy) and has seen a 6.9% improvement in the 2024 earnings estimate over the past 90 days, with an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for 2024 [7][10] Market Trends - Passenger traffic is expected to remain high throughout the year, with U.S. airlines anticipated to carry 271 million passengers from June 1 to August 31, 2024 [8] - The airline industry is expected to perform strongly in the latter half of 2024, driven by high passenger volumes and favorable earnings estimate revisions [9][11]