ULCC - Airline stocks gain as bookings data shows only slight drop in demand following Omicron headlines

Bank of America reports that airline system sales decelerated to -36.5% last week vs. 2019 after three days of Omicron headlines were digested. The decline for the latest weekly tracking period is worse than the -32% mark for the preceding two weeks, but not nearly as bad as feared. Over the past week, TSA throughput has eased back to 80% to 85% of 2019 levels after reaching a peak of 90% of pre-pandemic traffic over the Thanksgiving holiday. "We are now in the historically weakest four week bookings period of the year and this seasonal weakness combined with the new variant may prelude further softness in the data during December," warns the firm. However, in general, analysts think the selling pressure that started in the travel sector on Black Friday may be overdone based on the extended bookings data. Sector watch: American Airlines (AAL +8.7%), Delta Airlines (DAL +7.9%), Southwest

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Airline stocks gain as bookings data shows only slight drop in demand following Omicron headlines