Top 10 Airline Stocks Benefiting From The Air Travel Boom

The aviation sector wasn’t short of optimism heading into the new year as air travel demand reached pre-covid highs and the holiday season showed promise. That optimism is now turning into reality as Delta Airlines announced its Q4 earnings result and surprised to the upside. The announcement has spurred a rally across airline stocks as expectations of other companies posting an earnings beat rise.

Delta reported improved operating margins of 12% vs 9.9% from a year ago. It improved the revenue per available seat mile from $0.1995 a year ago to $0.2004 in the last quarter. All of its international regions showed sequential improvement as revenue generated from international passengers grew at 6%. The company has also improved its guidance for the first quarter to $0.85 at the midpoint to the prior $0.76.

We now look at how this may affect other stocks across the industry.

10. Sun Country Airlines (NASDAQ:SNCY)

Sun Country Airlines offers air cargo, chartered plane, and passenger services in America as well as internationally. Its two main segments are passenger and cargo. As the broader sector is expected to benefit from the surging air travel demand, SNCY is set to be a beneficiary as well.

The stock has just hit its 52-week highs after trading sideways for most of the last year. This breakout could allow traders to benefit from the current uptrend across the sector, spurred by Delta Airlines’ impressive earnings report.

Last year, the company entered into a revised partnership with Amazon. Sun Country Airlines has operated 12 Boeing 737s on behalf of Amazon for the last four and a half years. It now operates 20 such planes according to the revised terms of the partnership. The company expects cargo flight hours to go up by over 60% in 2025, though they should then settle at an annual growth of 14% going forward.

9. flyExclusive Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:FLYX)

flyExclusive owns and operates private jets in the US, in addition to offering aviation-related services. Its peers FlexJet and NetJets have shown massive growth in the last year and are also profitable. The market should continue to improve in the coming month and historically, private aviation follows this economic growth. flyExclusive is set to benefit from this trend in 2025.

The North Carolina-based company is short on cash and carries share dilution risk, but can turn things around if it can execute its plans. It is adding more efficient jets to its fleet and replacing the non-performing ones, the effect of which should become apparent this year. Investors would ideally want to wait for Q4 results before deciding if they want to be invested in the company.