U.S.-based airline stocks remained largely unchanged on Monday morning despite collectively attaining a record-high single-day count of 3.13 million passengers on Sunday.
TipRanks Cyber Monday Sale
- Claim 60% off TipRanks Premium for data-backed insights and research tools you need to invest with confidence.
- Subscribe to TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks and see our data in action through our high-performing model portfolio - now also 60% off
The figure was disclosed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. American air carriers achieved the figure despite French planemaker Airbus (EADSY) issuing a software safety recall on 6,000 aircraft in its best-selling A320 family of jets on Friday, just before the weekend following Thanksgiving Day on Thursday.
U.S. Airlines Shake Off Recall
The move had sparked fears of travel chaos on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, especially for U.S. travelers. Airbus, a key competitor to Virginia-based Boeing (BA), made the move to avoid a possible flight control malfunction due to intense solar radiation.
The measure impacted 340 of American Airlines’ (AAL) A320 fleet. The carrier is both the largest operator of Airbus A320 jets in the U.S. and its biggest commercial airline.
Other carriers such as Germany’s Lufthansa (DLAKY) and London-based pan-European easyJet (EZJ) were also affected. However, American Airlines has noted that only one of its aircraft has yet to be updated with the software fix following the recall.
The fix mainly consists of rolling back to an earlier version of the software, media reports indicated.
Despite the new record number of screened passengers — which beat the previous record of 3.09 million passengers recorded on June 22 — shares of notable airline operators such as American Airlines (AAL), United Airlines Holdings (UAL), and Delta Air Lines (DAL) recorded no significant price movement as of 11:12 a.m. EST.
U.S. Shutdown Fuels Largest Single-Day Travel
Ahead of the weekend, Airlines for America, a group representing the largest U.S. carriers, had anticipated that operators would carry about 31 million Thanksgiving travelers. The group had also anticipated a record-high single-day count of 3.1 million travelers as the U.S. federal government shut down for a historic 43 days due to lawmakers’ tussle over monetary allocation for the 2026 fiscal year.
The shutdown had forced passengers to avoid flying due to higher-than-normal flight delays and cancellations. Airline operators have expressed hope to avoid another disruption ahead of winter and spring break travel, seeing as the funding bill signed by Trump to end the shutdown only restored funding for most federal agencies through January 30, 2026.
What Are the Best Airline Stocks to Buy?
Using the TipRanks Stock Comparison tool, investors can use Wall Street analysts’ assessments to compare how the mentioned airline stocks are performing and decide which to buy. Kindly refer to the graphics below.
