Airlines Confidential · Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Scott McCartney reported on the significant retreat of airline stock prices due to an 11% increase in jet fuel prices, noting that JetBlue dropped nearly 24% while other carriers like Delta, United, Alaska, and American saw sharp weekly declines.
“oil prices went up another 11% or so last week. Well, that sent Wall Street analysts into the cut the estimates mode, anticipating not only weaker earnings for the just completed third quarter, but more importantly, even weaker earnings or bigger losses for the fourth quarter”
“JetBlue, nearly 24%, almost one quarter of the company's market capitalization. I'm not sure why people aren't paying more attention to this. Anyway. It's crazy.”