AAL , ALGT , CPA , SKYW , UAL

This week, we use AAII’s A+ Investor Stock Grades to provide insight into three passenger airline stocks. With volatile fuel prices affecting airlines globally, should you consider the three stocks of Allegiant Travel Co. (ALGT), Copa Holdings S.A. (CPA) and SkyWest Inc. (SKYW)?

Airlines Stocks Recent News

Airline companies are paying billions of dollars in extra fuel costs this year due to the Iran war, which started in February 2026. CNBC reported that United Airlines Holdings Inc. (UAL) and American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) both expect to pay around $6 billion more for fuel in 2026 than they originally planned, which would be 50% more than each company spent in 2026.

The airline companies have made it clear that they intend to keep passing their rising fuel costs directly on to fliers. As CNBC detailed, airfare in the U.S. climbed 26.5% year over year in June. Travelers cite paying up to $800 round-trip for a basic economy seat between New York and Chicago. Executives expect this pricing power to hold through the rest of 2026, meaning that the fare increases consumers are seeing may not be a temporary spike but the new normal for ticket prices.

Despite the fare increases, travelers are still buying tickets. The most commercial flights in a single day were recorded on Thursday, July 23, 2026—a total of 153,359 commercial flights. With such strong demand in the face of skyrocketing airfares, should you invest in Allegiant Travel, Copa Holdings and SkyWest?

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Grading Airline Stocks With AAII’s A+ Stock Grades

When analyzing a company, it is helpful to have an objective framework that allows you to compare companies in the same way. This is why AAII created the A+ Stock Grades, which evaluate companies across five factors that research and real-world investment results indicate to identify market-beating stocks in the long run: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions (and surprises) and quality.

Using AAII’s A+ Stock Grades, the following table summarizes the attractiveness of three passenger airline stocks—Allegiant Travel, Copa Holdings and SkyWest—based on their fundamentals.

What the A+ Stock Grades Reveal

Allegiant Travel Co. (ALGT) is a leisure travel company operating primarily in the U.S. It offers affordable air travel, hotel accommodations, rental cars and attraction packages targeted at travelers in small and medium-sized cities seeking value-oriented vacation options. The company operates through two segments: airline and Sunseeker Resort. Allegiant Travel provides low-cost, nonstop flights connecting underserved domestic leisure destinations, operating a fleet of Airbus aircraft across its route network. It also owns and operates the Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor, Florida, offering hotel rooms, dining and entertainment experiences as part of its broader leisure travel ecosystem. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Allegiant Travel has a Momentum Grade of A, based on its Momentum Score of 92. This means that the stock’s momentum has been very strong in terms of its weighted relative price strength over the last four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters, with the most recent quarterly price change given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters given a weight of 20%. The ranks are 92, 21, 94 and 82, sequentially from the most recent quarter. The weighted four-quarter relative price strength is 20.8%.

Earnings estimate revisions indicate how analysts view a firm’s short-term prospects. Allegiant has an Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade of B, based on a score of 70, which is positive. The grade is based on the statistical significance of its latest two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Allegiant Travel reported a positive earnings surprise of 8.5% for the first quarter of 2026 and a positive surprise of 43.2% in the previous quarter. Over the last month, the consensus earnings estimate for the second quarter of 2026 has decreased from $1.281 to $1.267 per share. The consensus earnings estimate for full-year 2026 has decreased from $7.726 to $7.561 per share over the same period.

Copa Holdings S.A. (CPA) is a leading Latin American airline holding company operating in Panama, Colombia, and throughout North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. It offers passenger and cargo air transportation services connecting destinations across the Americas through its strategic hub at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City. The company operates through two principal subsidiaries, Copa Airlines and Wingo, serving both full-service and low-cost passenger segments across its route network. Copa Holdings also provides frequent flyer programs, corporate travel solutions and ancillary services, maintaining a reputation for operational reliability and on-time performance among Latin American carriers. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Panama City, Panama.

The company has a Value Grade of A. Its Value Score is 91, which is deep value. Higher scores indicate a more attractive stock for value investors and, thus, a better grade. The Value Grade is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, price-earnings (P/E) ratio, price-to-book-value (P/B) ratio, price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) ratio, shareholder yield and the ratio of enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). For these value metrics, a lower rank is more attractive. The company has a price-earnings ratio of 9.0, ranking in the 13th percentile. Its shareholder yield is an impressive 7.7%, ranking in the 8th percentile.

Copa Holdings has a Quality Grade of A, based on a score of 84, which is very strong. The Quality Grade is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals to assets, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The company ranks strongly in terms of its return on assets and F-Score. Its return on assets is 12.4%, which ranks in the 90th percentile. Its F-Score is 7, which ranks in the 83rd percentile. The F-Score is a number between 0 and 9 that assesses the strength of a company’s financial position based on its profitability, leverage, liquidity and operating efficiency. Copa’s buyback yield of 3.0% ranks in the 85th percentile.

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SkyWest Inc. (SKYW) is a regional airline holding company operating primarily in the U.S. It offers regional air transportation services under capacity purchase agreements with major U.S. network carriers, connecting passengers across small and medium-sized communities to larger hub airports. The company operates through its primary subsidiary, SkyWest Airlines, as well as its leasing arm SkyWest Leasing, flying under the brand names of United Express, Delta Connection, American Eagle and Alaska Airlines. SkyWest provides scheduled passenger flight services for hundreds of destinations throughout the U.S., operating a fleet of Embraer and Bombardier regional jet aircraft. It also provides aircraft leasing services and maintains its own ground handling, fueling and maintenance operations across its extensive regional route network. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in St. George, Utah.

SkyWest has a Value Grade of A. Its Value Score is 85, which is deep value. The company has a price-earnings ratio of 11.4, ranking in the 20th percentile. Its shareholder yield of 2.5% ranks in the 28th percentile.

The company currently has a Growth Grade of A, which is very strong. The components of the Growth Composite Score consider a company’s success in growing sales on a year-over-year and long-term annualized basis and its ability to consistently generate positive cash from its core operations. SkyWest has a five-year sales growth rate of 13.8% and sales have increased year over year for four of the past five years. Cash from operations has been positive for five of the past five consecutive years.

SkyWest has a Quality Grade of B, based on a score of 77, which is strong. The company ranks strongly in terms of its buyback yield and F-Score, in the 83rd and 68th percentiles, respectively. Its buyback yield is 2.5%, and its F-Score is 6 out of 9. Its return on assets is 5.6%, ranking in the 74th percentile.

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