February proved a strong month for airline stocks on financial markets as more than three-quarters of the share prices tracked by FlightGlobal in its Airline Market Outlook increased during the period.
For the eight Asian carrier tracked, shares prices largely rose during the second half of February, including double-digit gains at three Chinese majors. Shares in Qantas climbed almost 14%, after the airline reported first-half underlying profit ahead of its guidance.
Japanese carrier ANA was the only one of the eight carriers not to see its share price lift – though a strong end-of-month meant it ended February only fractionally down.
There were steady gains in the share prices of airlines in the Americas during February. The standout increase was at Gol: the Brazilian carrier's share price jumped a third during the month.
Gol in February confirmed it had returned to the black in 2016, reporting an operating profit of R697 million ($225 million) and a net profit of R1.1 billion for the year. That was its first profit at a net level since 2010 – though it has intermittently made operating profits during that time.
Air Canada was the only one of the eight tracked Americas carriers to have its share price fall, by 1.4%. Gains over the first half of the month were wiped out when the market reacted to the carrier's outlook referencing rising fuel costs.
Europe's big-three network carrier groups – Air France-KLM, IAG and Lufthansa – all saw their share prices rise over the course of the month. Air France-KLM enjoyed the strongest gains, of more than a third, after disclosing that operating profit had reached €1.05 billion ($1.11 billion) in 2016.
For more key metrics for the sector, see our Airline Market Outlook, providing a monthly snapshot of airline capacity, traffic, share price, and fuel data. Download it from the reports section here
Source: Cirium Dashboard
