Delta Air Lines (DAL), American Airlines (AAL), and United Airlines (UAL) sold off after Air France-KLM became the latest air carrier to express caution over potential lower airfares and unit revenue.
The French-Dutch carrier warned Wednesday of a "a high level of uncertainty" amid broader industry concerns about oil prices and a tough foreign exchange environment.
On Tuesday, German carrier Lufthansa said it could face lower airfares and that it would rein in its expansion.
Delta slid 3.5% in the stock market today. American dropped 4%, and United fell 3.35%. Irish budget carrier Ryanair (RYAAY), however, crept up less than 0.1%.
The declines come after a round of similar warnings during the airline industry's earnings season, much of which took place last month.
Delta, for instance, expressed uncertainty over how long cheap oil -- and thus the industry's recent wave of quarterly profits -- could last. The company said it would cut carrying capacity if needed to improve unit revenue, a measure of how much an airline makes relative to how much capacity it has.
The key metric is often a window into ticket prices and has generally fallen as airlines expanded over the last year or so. Investors and analysts have been watching for signals as to when airlines might be able to turn unit revenue around.
Elsewhere, American also said last month that it expected lower unit revenue following “competitive capacity growth,” while United also said it would temper its growth plans.
Other discount and regional carriers sold off as well. Southwest (LUV) dropped 3.4%, while low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines (SAVE) fell 4.2%. JetBlue (JBLU) eased 3%. Alaska Air Group (ALK), which recently announced the purchase of Virgin America (VA), was down 1.9%.
