A United Airlines plane takes off above American Airlines planes on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on October 1, 2020.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Shares of U.S. airlines surged Monday after U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech reported positive results from their Covid-19 vaccine trial.
American Airlines and United Airlines shares each gained more than 16% in morning trading, Delta Air Lines was up more than 13% and Southwest Airlines rose more than 15%. Shares of aircraft maker Boeing were up more than 12%. The S&P 500 was 2.9% higher.
Airline stocks are particularly sensitive to coronavirus news as the pandemic has prevented many customers from flying, pressuring revenue and driving up losses to more than $20 billion in the last two quarters alone.
Demand has climbed from more than five-decade lows hit in April, but is still far below normal levels. The Transportation Security Administration screened an average of 616,868 people a day since March 1 through Sunday, down from close to 2.4 million a day during the same period last year.
United’s CEO Scott Kirby has said he expects revenue to plateau at half of 2019 levels without a widely available vaccine.
Pfizer and BioNTech said Monday that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 among those without evidence of prior infection.
