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United and Delta bonds trading at or above par; LAN and TAM report improvements in load factor

Analysis

A slight majority of North and South American carriers' stocks rose on Friday (12-Mar-2010), as a gain in oil prices (+1.1%), to USD81.24, unsettled investors. The Dow (+0.1%) rose marginally on news retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.3% in Feb-2010. However, the news was coupled with downward revisions of the previous month's figures.

United and Delta bonds trading at or above par

United Airlines (+2.7%) was one of the day's biggest gainers, after RBS Securities stated the day prior that bonds issued in 2008 by United and Delta Air Lines (-1.2%) are trading at or above par for the first time, as Business travel demand improves. According to SmarTrend, the carrier is currently above its 50-day moving average of USD14.18 and 200-day moving average of USD8.27.

American Airlines (-2.1%) meanwhile fell, as did Expressjet (-4.2%).

LAN and TAM report load factor improvements

LAN (+1.4%) gained after reporting a 1.9 ppts year-on-year improvement in load factor for Feb-2010, to 81.9%. Load factor was up on the back of a 9.6% rise in passenger traffic (RPMs) and a 7.1% increase in capacity for the month.

Meanwhile, competitor, TAM (-0.1%) slipped despite reporting 8.2 ppts and 6.1 ppts year-on-year increases in domestic and international load factor, respectively, for Feb-2010. The rise in domestic load factor was the result of a 21.7% improvement in traffic and 7.2% increase in capacity, while the rise in international load factor rose on a 10.1% improvement in traffic and 1.3% rise in capacity. Both domestic and international yields remained flat month-over-month in accordance with the rational scenario and Company's expectation.

Copa stock on the way up

Copa (+3.0%) was also up. LearningMarkets stated Copa's stock has risen 13.2% in the month since reporting a net income of USS240.4 million, or diluted EPS of USD5.50 for FY2009 on 10-Feb-2010. Furthermore, the stock has outperformed North and South American airline shares by 22.9% during that period.

Also in today's America Airline Daily:

North & South America selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 12-Mar-2010

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