In the past week, Ryanair Holdings RYAAY and Azul S.A. AZUL posted a loss in the first quarter of 2025. Ireland-based Ryanair’s performance was hurt by low air fares. RYAAY aims to raise prices as it seeks to be profitable again. Latin American carrier Azul, engulfed in a deep financial crisis, suffered in the March quarter due to a 15.6% increase in total capacity, an 18% depreciation of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar and a 3% increase in fuel price.

Another Latin American carrier, Copa Holdings CPA, reported impressive traffic numbers for April, driven by high passenger volumes. An expansion update from Allegiant Travel Company ALGT was also available in the past week.

Recap of the Most Recent Important Stories

1.  Azul incurred a loss of $2.18 per share in the first quarter of 2025, in contrast to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings of 4 cents per share. Loss per share was 57 cents in the first quarter of 2024.

Total revenues of $920 million lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $925 million. Azul exited the first quarter with total liquidity of R$6.66 billion compared with R$7.49 billion at the end of the prior quarter.

2. Ryanair incurred a loss of 59 cents per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 (ended March 31, 2025) compared with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 65 cents per share. Loss per share was 52 cents in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024.

Revenues of $14.9 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.52 billion and improved year over year. Ryanair expects its fiscal 2026 traffic to grow by just 3% to 206 million.

RYAAY currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

3. Driven by high passenger volumes, revenue passenger miles (a measure of traffic) improved on a year-over-year basis in February at CPA. To match the demand swell, CPA is increasing its capacity. In April, available seat miles (a measure of capacity) increased 5.2% year over year. Revenue passenger miles increased 5.5% year over year. Since traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion, the load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) rose to 86.8% from 86.4% in April 2024.

CPA was also in the news recently as it reported first-quarter 2025 earnings numbers. That news was covered in detail in the previous week’s write-up.

4.  Allegiant announced that it will launch five new nonstop routes to eight cities across the United States.  One-way fares on the new routes scheduled to be launched this fall have been kept as low as $39. To avail this offer, passengers have to buy tickets by May 21, 2025, for travel by Feb. 9, 2026. Additionally, ALGT will offer (for a limited period) a series of flights to Las Vegas for the NFL season.

Story Continues

Airline Stocks' Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last six months.Zacks Investment Research

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The NYSE ARCA Airline Index decreased by 2.5% to $56.86 as all airline stocks traded in the red over the past week. Over the past six months, the NYSE ARCA Airline Index has decreased by 11.1%.

What’s Next in the Airline Space?

With signs of easing trade tensions, investors keenly await further updates on the issue. Updates on declining fuel costs, a key input for airlines, are also eagerly awaited.

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Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY):Free Stock Analysis Report

Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA):Free Stock Analysis Report

Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT):Free Stock Analysis Report

AZUL (AZUL):Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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