Airline Shares Mixed on Cancellations, Delta, JetBlue Trade Weaker By Investing.com

By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Shares of airline companies were trading mixed in Thursday’s premarket as cases of cancellations continue to pour in, giving rise to fears that the long-delayed return to net profitability of the carriers may have to wait longer.

Delta Air (NYSE:) and JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:) fell 0.6% each while American Airlines (NASDAQ:) was down 0.3%. United Airlines (NASDAQ:) traded flat while Southwest (NYSE:) and Alaska Air (NYSE:) were both up 0.2%. Shares of Spirit Airlines (NYSE:) were yet to be traded.

Thursday, JetBlue Airways said it will prune its January schedule. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the airline will cancel about 1,280 flights through January 13 to give passengers time to revise their plans, rather than face last-minute surprises.

Inclement weather conditions including snow and strong winds, shortage of staff with many falling sick and the rapid spread of omicron have all come together to drag flight cancellations at airlines into their seventh day.

Fresh Covid cases topped 488,000 on Wednesday in the U.S., according to a New York Times database, a new record.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled in the ensuing chaos.

A total of 997 flights were scrapped on Christmas Day and nearly 700 on Christmas Eve. Almost 1,300 cancellations happened Tuesday and more than 1,000 Wednesday, according to tracking service FlightAware. More than 800 are already slated for today.

Tuesday, Alaska Air Group asked fliers to postpone nonessential travel until the new year.