Why this airline stock is hurt the most as winter storm disrupts flying for thousands

By Claudia Assis

JetBlue's stock drops more than 2% on Monday, as more than half of its flight were canceled on the day

A Boeing 737 American Airlines aircraft at the gate in New York's LaGuardia Airport on Sunday. Flight cancellations were the worst since the early days of the pandemic.

Shares of JetBlue Airways dropped more than 2% as the airline canceled half of its Monday flights, on lingering effects of a powerful winter storm that snarled air travel over the weekend and resulted in the worst flight cancellations since the pandemic.

JetBlue (JBLU) canceled nearly 350 flights on Monday, or more than half of the 653 flights planned for day, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

American Airlines (AAL) had to cancel about 20% of its flights Monday, while Delta Air (DAL) and United Airlines (UAL) canceled 15% and 14% of its Monday flights, Cirium said, and the stocks of all three of those companies were down less than 0.5% in midday trading.

Southwest's stock (LUV) rose fractionally as the airline had only a handful of its flights canceled on Monday after the rocky weekend.

A total of more than 20,000 flights were canceled over the weekend as a powerful storm walloped the U.S. from Texas to Massachusetts, bringing snow, ice and sleet as well as frigid temperatures, which are making snow and ice slow to melt.

The cancellations were the worst since the first shutdown days of the pandemic. On a regular day, only 1% of the roughly 50,000 daily U.S. flights are canceled.

The size of the storm as well as its severity had investors spooked. Airlines offered rebooking waivers ahead of the storm. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it would take until Wednesday for a return to normal.

Adding another layer of misery, more than 800,000 households are still without power, including a quarter of a million customers in Tennessee. That's down from a peak of 1.14 million customers on Sunday afternoon, AccuWeather said.

The U.S. Global Jets ETF slipped 0.5% in midday trading, while the S&P 500 index SPX gained 0.4%.

-Claudia Assis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-26-26 1228ET