Airline stocks in broad rally after Memorial Day travelers reaches pre-pandemic levels

Shares of air carriers enjoyed a broad rally Tuesday, after data showing that the number of travelers over the Memorial Day weekend reached pre-pandemic levels. Throughput data provided by the Transportation Security Administration showed that 7,116,027 people went through TSA checkpoints during the four days from Friday through Monday. That total included 1,959,593 travelers on Friday, the highest daily total since March 7, 2020, or before the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. There were 1,900,179 travelers on Monday, according to the TSA, and 1,605,810 on Saturday and 1,650,454 on Sunday. The U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS, +0.89% rallied 1.8% in morning trading. Among the sector's more actively traded shares, American Airlines Group Inc. AAL, +1.69% hiked up 3.1%, United Airlines Holdings Inc. UAL, +2.04% advanced 2.4%, Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, -0.29% climbed 1.4%, JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU, +0.22% rose 2.0% and Southwest Airlines Co. LUV, -0.11% tacked on 0.8%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 SPX, +0.03% gained 0.4%.