AAL, Delta & JetBlue Sink on Omicron Surge – Time To Buy?

• Travel stocks are under pressure once again from soaring US Omicron cases
• Delta, AAL, and Jetblue all suffered losses of around 2% in Monday's premarket trading

For what now seems like a brief blip in the Covid saga, travel stocks were on the rebound as the virus threat was damned by global vaccine efforts. Nationwide lockdowns made way for travel-eagerness and economic support, yet it didn’t last for long. The Omicron variant has once again thrown a shadow over recovery hopes, and high transmission rates have created problems with short staffing. 

Travel stocks have been victim to widespread selling as investors return after the festive break to a strong wave of flight cancellations – affecting the likes of Delta, AAL, and JetBlue amongst others. 

Covid cases in the US following the Christmas weekend reached their highest levels in almost a year, hitting festive travelers alongside airline workers equally hard. With a total of 3,723 flights canceled on Sunday thanks to Omicron, it’s not surprising that some of the US’s leading airlines are down a rough average of 2% in Monday’s premarket. AAL stock fell almost 12% with the Delta variant in November. 

As omicron retraces the positive headway that the last few months have brought, it’s always important to look further forward than we might have previous to the pandemic. Speculation in this sense revolves around the lifespan of the variant and the virus as a whole. 

Investment in the travel sector makes for a popular play for pandemic buyers as essentially, stock gains follow the inevitable economic upturn that the easing of the variant should bring. This being said, the covid landscape is surprising, and who knows when/if the next variant will rear its ugly head – hence any investment should be made with this in mind.

Is Now a Good Time to Invest In Airline Shares?

Travel stocks have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions. Hotels, airlines, cruises, and car rental companies have all been affected, but could now be a good time to buy travel stocks at a discount? What shares are included on our list of the best travel stocks to buy? Here's what our analyst had to say on the issue…