NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 07:16 ET — Premarket
- American Airlines shares were down 0.1% in premarket trading, after a 1.25% gain in the prior session.
- Winter Storm Ezra disrupted U.S. travel and prompted airlines, including American, to waive change fees.
- Investors are watching fuel costs, operational reliability and the timing of late-January earnings updates.
American Airlines Group Inc shares slipped 0.1% to $15.31 in premarket trading on Wednesday, before the 9:30 a.m. ET regular open. The stock ended Tuesday at $15.33, with about 42.9 million shares traded, Nasdaq data showed.
The move comes on the last U.S. trading day of 2025, when liquidity can thin out and single headlines tend to carry more weight. Airlines are also heading into New Year’s travel with little slack in schedules.
Winter Storm Ezra has been the dominant headline risk for the group. Nearly 6,000 flights were delayed and 751 were canceled as of Monday afternoon, and American, United, JetBlue and Delta told Reuters they waived change fees for affected passengers; United, American and Alaska were each down about 2% that day while Delta fell nearly 3%, Reuters reported.
Broader markets offered little direction early Wednesday. U.S. stock index futures ticked lower in thin holiday trade, Reuters reported, with investors focused on year-end positioning and the Federal Reserve’s rate path into 2026.
Fuel costs remain another swing factor for airline shares. Oil is set for its steepest annual drop since 2020, down more than 15% in 2025, Reuters reported, a backdrop that can ease pressure on jet fuel bills if it persists.
One snapshot of that cost line: the Argus U.S. Jet Fuel Index — a benchmark of spot jet-fuel prices in major U.S. hubs — was $2.12 a gallon on Dec. 30, Airlines for America data showed.
In Tuesday’s session, AAL traded between $15.10 and $15.44 as investors marked up and down travel names in weather-driven flows.
The next clear catalyst is quarterly results. Yahoo Finance’s earnings calendar lists American for Jan. 22, 2026, though the company has not confirmed a date.
Traders typically watch two numbers most closely in airline reports: unit revenue, which shows how much the carrier makes per seat-mile, and unit costs, the per-seat-mile cost metric airlines use to gauge efficiency. Weather disruption can hit both at once through refunds, rebooking and crew and aircraft repositioning.
American also enters 2026 trying to close a profitability gap with larger rivals Delta Air Lines and United Airlines Holdings. “We think investing in customer experience will help us grow the top line,” Nat Piper, American’s chief commercial officer, told Reuters earlier this month, describing the carrier’s push to lean harder into premium products and loyalty perks. Reuters
Options pricing suggests investors still expect sharp swings around headlines and earnings. American’s 30-day implied volatility — a market-based estimate of how much shares could move, derived from option prices — was about 47% as of Dec. 29, AlphaQuery data showed.
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