As a point of minor historical context, it’s worth noting that the last time a major airline held a significant number of passengers hostage in a snowstorm was January 3, 1999. The offending airline was Northwest, and it happened in Detroit, with something like 50 passenger-carrying planes trapped on the ground for as long as eight hours.
So, how did Northwest stock do on the news? Well, it fell 4% on the debacle, then proceeded to climb 7%, 5%, and 6% in the three subsequent trading days — before tumbling back to the pre-storm levels.
Related posts:
Paul, I actually really enjoy the jetblue discussion and I especially like the stock analysis. As I mentioned yesterday I thought it was a great near term short, which I did briefly and I have now since gone the other way and bought some calls. I think it will rebound as you have mentioned here.