Any lingering effects from recent passenger-crew incidents aboard Big Three U.S. airlines have made little to no difference on the accounting ledger.
United, American and Delta have all overcome any short-term losses suffered in reaction to the incidents, as viral boycott initiatives have seemingly gone nowhere.
United Continental Holdings, parent company of United Airlines, reached an all-time high of $79.08 per stock share as of 1:02 p.m. on Tuesday, May 9, 2017-exactly one month after the debacle of forcibly dragging 69-year old Dr. David Dao off one of its planes sent shock waves through the country-and closed at $78.55.
That's almost $12 more than on April 18 of this year, when the crisis hit its nadir and the stock dropped to $67 a share. And that's on top of ensuing incidents that included the death of a rabbit and sending a passenger from Newark, bound for Paris, to San Francisco instead.
American Airlines?
Oh yeah, American had an incident, too, when a flight attendant brusquely grabbed a stroller away from a mother traveling with twin toddlers, and then confronted a fellow passenger who came to the defense of the mother. Its stock closed at $47.08 on Tuesday, less than $3 off its 2017 high of $49.69 in January and $5 better than its low of $42.08 on May 1, shortly after the incident.
And Delta, which just last week tossed a whole family off a plane in a seating dispute, was trading at $49.56 a share, just $2.22 off its six-month high set in December.
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Investors have not shied away, and neither have passengers.
Industry consolidation in the last 12 years has all but made wide open competition a moot point, as pointed out by hedge fund manager Brad Gerstner of Altimeter Capital. According to Fortune magazine, Gerstner said at the Sohn Investment Conference on Monday, "Our idea today is United Airlines. What do you need to believe to invest in United? You have to believe that the competitive dynamics really have changed as a result of consolidation."
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, who made a major investment in airlines last year, told CNBC he is not worried.
"(Airlines) may become like cattle cars ... but a significant percentage would rather be treated that way and fly for X (dollars) than have far more leg room (and other benefits) and fly for X plus 25 percent," Buffett said.
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