A travel warning from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention related to the presence of the Zika virus in Miami has hit airline shares. Pregnant women were advised to avoid the Miami neighbourhood where officials believe mosquitoes may be transmitting Zika. Also yesterday, Delta Air Lines disclosed a decline in unit revenue for July on continued fare weakness on business tickets, ongoing supply-demand imbalance in the transAtlantic market and yen-hedging positions.
Both news items impacted airline stocks, with all US majors showing declines yesterday. Delta stock was down 7.4%, American Airlines, which has one of the highest exposures to South Florida, saw its share dropped by 5.9%, while United Continental stock price fell by 6.5%.