Hurricane Irma Hits Airline Stocks (UAL, AAL, DAL)

Hurricane Irma has already hammered some of the Caribbean and is currently on a collision course for Florida, with landfall expected this weekend. Many people have already fled the area, and airline stocks are moving lower as investors begin to worry that they won’t be able to recoup the losses caused by Harvey and Irma.

Irma Update

Hurricane Irma has already killed at least 10 people in the Caribbean and caused massive power outages in Puerto Rico. The Category 5 hurricane continues to make its way through the tropical island area towards the continental U.S.

The National Hurricane Center recently updated its assessment of Irma and outlined details of the tropical storm’s likely path, stating that in all likelihood the storm will hit Florida soon.

“The threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week continues to increase. Hurricane watches will likely be issued for portions of the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula later this morning,” said the NHC.

As of 11am AST, a Storm Surge Watch has been issued for portions of South Florida and the Florida Keys https://t.co/wCVIdbWe4H pic.twitter.com/19hYm27dDF

— NHC_Surge (@NHC_Surge) September 7, 2017

The core of #Irma is expected to move near or over the Turks and Caicos and the SE Bahamas later today and tonight https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/pTlmFlmnG9

— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) September 7, 2017

Florida

Florida Governor Rick Scott continues to use Twitter (TWTR)—in both English and Spanish—in order to update residents on evacuation protocols, as thousands have already fled the area and more prepare to.

We can expect additional evacuations as this storm continues to near our state.

— Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) September 7, 2017

FL is staging supplies such as meals, shelter support trailers & water in Central FL for deployment as needed.

— Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) September 7, 2017

Tomorrow, 3,000 more @FLGuard members will be activated. As of Friday, the entire FL National Guard – 7,000 members – will be deployed.

— Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) September 7, 2017

Airlines

As Irma crushes the Caribbean, the Houston area and southwestern Louisiana begin their Hurricane Harvey recovery process. Thousands of flights were canceled due to Harvey, and now it seems that trend will likely continue as Irma makes its way towards Florida.

On Wednesday, United (NYSE:UAL) projected that its unit revenues will decline more than previously expected in the third quarter, citing bothHurricane Harvey and a price war with low-cost airliners as major reasons (also read: Here's Why United Stock Fell Today).

Harvey-related inflated fuel prices, thousands of canceled flights, and goodwill-related price caps on flights out of Florida have caused shares of major U.S. airlines, including the biggest carriers, to fall on Thursday.

Shares of United sank by 1.86%, while American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) dropped by 1.02%. Delta (NYSE:DAL) saw its stock price fall by 0.50%. These major airlines sent shares of the US Global Jets ETF (KL:JETS) down marginally.

Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ:HA) shares fell by over 1.14%, and JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) , which capped flights out of Florida at $99.00, saw its stock price tank by nearly 3%.

However, shares of smaller airlines and discount carriers such as Southwest (NYSE:LUV) , Spirit (NASDAQ:SAVE) , and Alaskan (NYSE:ALK) have already fought their way back from morning dips to see marginal gains on Thursday.

Also, shares of major cruise line stocks, Carnival (NYSE:CCL) , Norwegian Cruise Line (NASDAQ:NCLH) , and Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) all fell marginally.

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