Airlines Are Bleeding. That Might Be the Opportunity

Every crisis that sends airline stocks into a freefall eventually ends. That is not optimism — it is just history. September 11, SARS, the 2008 financial collapse, COVID, regional conflicts, oil spikes — the pattern repeats with remarkable consistency. Airlines get hit, sometimes brutally. The stocks crater. Then the crisis passes, fuel prices normalize, passengers return, and the stocks recover. Not always fully. Not always quickly. But the bounce comes.

We are in the middle of one of those moments right now.

Oil's surge back above $100 per barrel is smashing the post-pandemic recovery trade in airline stocks, sending major US carriers' shares down through key technical support levels as the Iran war reprices travel risk across the sector. The US Global Jets ETF (JETS), a popular gauge of airline equities, is down more than 18% over the same period, reflecting sector-wide pressure as jet fuel prices in some regions have doubled from pre-war levels. Southwest Airlines, down 25%, and JetBlue Airways, down 30%, have been hit particularly hard. American Airlines has shed more than 30% from its pre-conflict highs. United Airlines is down roughly 24% year to date per 24/7 Wall Street. Delta has fared relatively better but is still off 17% from its highs per OilPrice.com.

That is an enormous dislocation in a very short window. And the market has responded accordingly, pricing airlines as if the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed forever, jet fuel will never come down, and nobody will ever want to fly again. That pricing is almost certainly wrong — and wrong pricing is where opportunities live.

I have a position in American Airlines at a cost basis of $10.62 per share. But AAL is not the only way to play this, and for many readers it may not be the right one. Here is the full picture across the airline landscape, the oil scenarios that drive everything, how to think about structuring positions, the hedging options available to more sophisticated traders, and the risks that could make all of this wrong.

The Pattern That Keeps Repeating

Look at any major airline chart over the past seven years and you see the same movie playing out on loop. The stock drops 20% or more on some crisis — real or perceived. The fear subsides. The stock bounces from its lows within a year. This has happened with enough consistency that the bounce itself has become a tradeable pattern. AAL specifically has ranged between roughly $8.50 and $16.50 over the trailing twelve months per Fidelity data, dropping to multi-year lows on crisis events and recovering $2 to $5 from those lows with notable regularity. The current setup has AAL around $10.43, trading near the lower end of that historical range. My expectation is that it may test $10 or break below it before recovering — a recovery to $12 to $15 within the next twelve months is the base case given the pattern and the temporary nature of the catalysts driving it lower.

This is not a long-term buy-and-hold investment thesis. It is a mean reversion trade — a bet that the crisis passes, fuel normalizes, and stocks recover to more rational valuations.

The Oil Factor — Modeling The Scenarios

Fuel is the second-largest expense for air carriers after labor, typically accounting for a fifth to a quarter of operating expenses. Some major Asian and European airlines have oil hedging in place, but US airlines largely stopped the practice over the last two decades. That means US carriers are fully exposed to whatever oil does from here.

Delta Air Lines, for instance, faces approximately $40 million in additional annual fuel costs for every one-cent increase per gallon — meaning a 10% fuel price jump would add $1 billion to its 2026 expense, according to Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally. According to Jefferies, a 5% uptick in fuel costs could lower Delta and United's 2026 earnings by 5% to 10%, while American Airlines' profit could plunge by about 35%. That last figure is the critical one for AAL — its thinner margins and heavier debt load make it the most fuel-sensitive of the major US carriers by a significant margin.

At oil around $60 to $70 — the pre-conflict structural baseline and J.P. Morgan's fundamental forecast for 2026 before the war — airlines return to the earnings trajectory they had entering the year. Jefferies' bull case for United specifically hinges on fuel prices retreating toward pre-conflict levels in the second half of 2026 as geopolitical pressures ease, which would allow the airline's high-margin premium and loyalty businesses to drive earnings expansion. With FY 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $12.00 to $14.00, the valuation math at a forward P/E of roughly 7x remains compelling. At this level, AAL likely trades back to $14 to $16. Delta and United recover toward their pre-conflict highs with meaningful upside from here.

At oil around $80 to $90 — the moderate disruption scenario where Hormuz reopens but tensions linger — airlines absorb higher costs through fare increases. US airlines plan to add 2.8% more seats in the second quarter of 2026, but that includes a 10% capacity cut by ultra-low-cost carriers, according to TD Cowen. That removes some of the cheapest seats from the market and gives the largest airlines more room to raise prices without triggering a broader fare war. At this level, profitability is compressed but manageable. AAL likely trades in the $11 to $13 range. Delta and United maintain positive earnings and likely outperform.

At oil around $100 to $110 — where we are today — analysts say only Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines may remain marginally profitable if fuel stays around $4 per gallon, while most other US airlines could face losses, according to UBS analyst Atul Maheswari. This is the environment the market is currently pricing. It is painful, but as long as demand holds — and so far it has — the largest carriers survive it.

At oil above $150 — the tail risk scenario — the math gets genuinely dangerous for the weakest carriers. The current economic impact of the Iran war has been described as the worst since at least the 1970s, echoing the supply shortages, high oil prices, and projections of global inflation and stagflation seen in prior energy crises. At these levels, AAL's negative shareholders' equity of negative $3.7 billion becomes a genuine solvency conversation. This is the scenario that makes position sizing critical.

The key data point across all of these scenarios is that the oil futures curve for 2027 and 2028 trades in the high $60s, signaling that traders themselves expect this disruption to be resolved and a structural surplus to reassert. The market is not pricing in permanent $100 oil. It is pricing in a temporary shock, and temporary shocks in the airline sector have historically been buying opportunities for those who can stomach the volatility in the interim.

An Important Counterintuitive Signal

At the JPMorgan Industrials Conference in Washington, Delta Air Lines maintained its first-quarter earnings guidance and raised its revenue outlook, citing strong demand. American Airlines increased its first-quarter revenue growth forecast to at least 10% despite higher fuel costs. JetBlue updated its guidance projecting unit revenue to jump between 5% and 7% due to strong travel demand. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said sales revenue at Delta was up 25% last week and that the airline has had five of its top 10 revenue days ever since March started. Airlines are raising fares faster than fuel costs are rising, at least for now. That is not the behavior of an industry about to collapse.

How The Airlines Actually Stack Up

Not all airlines are equal in this environment and the differences matter significantly depending on how you want to play this.

American Airlines (AAL) is the highest-risk, highest-reward play among the major US carriers. The stock trades at $10.43 with a P/E of 65.01 and EPS of $0.17 per Fidelity data, a 52-week range of $8.50 to $16.50, and negative shareholders' equity of negative $3.7 billion. Total debt is approximately $36.5 billion. A flight attendant union no-confidence vote in CEO Robert Isom adds leadership uncertainty on top of the balance sheet risk. AAL's Middle East exposure accounts for less than 1% of planned first-quarter capacity per Jefferies estimates — the damage to AAL is almost entirely fuel cost driven rather than operational, which makes the recovery thesis cleaner if oil falls. The risk is that AAL has the least cushion to absorb a prolonged shock of any major US carrier. This is the highest beta play in the space.

United Airlines (UAL) is the cleaner version of the trade. Record 2025 revenue of $59.07 billion, trailing P/E of roughly 9x, forward P/E of approximately 7x based on FY 2026 EPS guidance of $12.00 to $14.00, and a proven premium strategy that gives it more pricing power than AAL in a high fuel cost environment. The Street consensus target of $138.56 implies significant upside from current levels, with Jefferies lowering its target from $148 to $125 after raising fuel cost estimates but maintaining conviction that the selloff is a temporary headwind rather than a structural break. UAL does not hedge fuel, leaving it fully exposed, but its balance sheet and earnings power give it far more room to absorb the shock than AAL.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) is the gold standard in US aviation right now and the lowest-risk way to play a sector recovery. Of the 24 analysts covering DAL stock, 21 rate it a Strong Buy with a mean target price of $81.24 implying 28% potential upside and a high-end target of $90 implying 42% growth. Delta entered the year guiding for 20% earnings growth, delivered record full-year free cash flow of $4.643 billion in 2025, and has a premium and loyalty business that insulates it from leisure demand weakness better than any US peer. It is the least fuel-sensitive of the three majors, has the strongest balance sheet, and is considered by Citi and UBS to be the safest airline to own in an elevated oil environment.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) is a turnaround story layered on top of the crisis trade. The airline launched assigned seating in January 2026, added bag fees and basic economy fares, and has been restructuring its cost base aggressively. Even if oil stays elevated, a successful business model transformation could rerate the stock independently of fuel prices — giving LUV two potential catalysts rather than one.

Alaska Airlines (ALK) is worth watching. Trading around $38.95 with trailing twelve month revenue of $14.2 billion per PitchBook data, Alaska has historically maintained better operational metrics than AAL and has less Middle East exposure than the hub-and-spoke majors. Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci confirmed the airline has implemented fare increases in the past two weeks in response to the fuel cost environment — a sign that demand is holding and pricing power exists.

SkyWest (SKYW) is the most insulated US play in the space. SkyWest uses Capacity Purchase Agreements for most of its fleet with major partners such as United and American, which protects it from volatile fuel prices as partners reimburse the airline for fuel costs. Of the seven analysts covering SKYW stock, five rate it a Strong Buy with a mean target of $128.33 implying 40% potential upside and a high-end target of $150 implying 63% growth. It does not have AAL's explosive percentage upside but it also does not have AAL's solvency risk in a tail scenario.

JetBlue (JBLU) is down 30% since the conflict began, making it the hardest-hit US carrier by percentage. JetBlue updated its guidance projecting unit revenue to jump between 5% and 7% due to strong travel demand — a better-than-expected signal — but its weaker balance sheet and ongoing strategic uncertainty make it a higher-risk play than even AAL for a recovery trade.

The International Picture

The international airline story is more complicated and in some ways more interesting. For many airlines in Europe and Asia, the war is not just a fuel story but an operational one. Their networks run closer to the conflict zone, leaving them more exposed to airspace closures, reroutings and demand uncertainty, though Asia-Europe fares have surged in the short term due to the loss of Gulf capacity.

Ryanair (RYAAY) stands out as the best-positioned international carrier. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told Reuters the airline was hedged for the next 12 months at about $67 a barrel and that the recent fluctuations would not impact the business. Its ultra-low-cost point-to-point European model gives it minimal Middle East route exposure, and its fuel hedging removes the primary risk that is crushing unhedged US carriers. If you want international airline exposure with the least oil risk, Ryanair is the cleanest option.

IAG (International Airlines Group, LSE: IAG) — parent of British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus — reported operating profit of just over €5 billion for 2025 with an operating margin above 15% and debt-to-EBITDA of 0.8 per its 2025 annual results. An IAG spokesperson said it was well-hedged for the immediate future and had no plans to change ticket prices. The risk is its greater Middle East network exposure compared to US carriers, with British Airways having extended its temporary reduction in Middle East flight schedules.

Lufthansa has fuel hedging in place per Reuters reporting, which provides some buffer against the fuel spike, but it warned that its 2026 outlook is unclear due to geopolitical uncertainty. Wizz Air flagged a $58 million hit to profits from the conflict and tumbled 10% — its large presence in Israel makes it the most operationally exposed European carrier per JPMorgan, Goodbody and Citi analysis.

Singapore Airlines is down 4.5% since the conflict began, while Qantas and Japan Airlines are down 5.4% and 5.6% respectively per Fortune reporting — the Asia-Pacific carriers have been hit less hard than Middle East-exposed European peers, and their Pacific-focused networks give them a cleaner recovery path once the conflict resolves.

Qantas (ASX: QAN) is another quality operator with fuel hedging in place. Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline has "pretty good" fuel hedging but acknowledged the oil spike was significant for the industry. Its Pacific-focused network and relatively strong balance sheet make it one of the more interesting non-US recovery plays.

How to Structure the Trade — From Simple to Complex

The right structure depends on your risk tolerance, account type, and how actively you want to manage the position.

The simplest approach is an outright stock purchase. Buy the airline that matches your risk appetite, hold through the crisis, sell when the stock recovers. For low-risk investors, Delta is the answer — strongest balance sheet, least fuel sensitivity, most analyst conviction. For moderate risk, United offers better percentage upside than Delta with a still-manageable balance sheet. For high-risk tolerance and maximum upside, AAL near $10.50 is the bet on the pattern holding, with the understanding that it may test $10 or break below before the recovery comes. I am at $10.62 and comfortable with that entry given the historical range.

For those who want sector exposure without single-stock risk, the US Global Jets ETF (JETS) provides diversified exposure across US and international carriers. It will not recover as sharply as a single-name position but it also will not go to zero if one carrier's balance sheet deteriorates.

A covered call strategy against an outright stock position can generate income while the stock recovers. Buying AAL at $10.62 and selling a covered call at the $13 or $14 strike for the January 2027 expiration generates premium income today and reduces your effective cost basis while still allowing meaningful upside if the stock recovers toward the base case target. The January 2027 options chain on AAL shows calls at the $12 strike with a bid-ask of approximately $0.88 to $0.91, bringing your effective cost basis down toward $9.70 to $9.75 while capping upside at $12 plus premium received — a reasonable trade-off for someone who believes in the recovery but wants a cushion.

For more aggressive positioning, buying call options outright maintains full upside participation while limiting your maximum loss to the premium paid. The January 2027 $12 calls at approximately $0.91 mean you are risking less than $100 per contract to control 100 shares through the recovery window, with total loss of premium if the stock does not recover above $12 by January 2027.

Hedging The Position — The Oil Correlation Trade

This is where the trade gets more sophisticated and more interesting. Airlines and oil have a strong inverse relationship — when oil falls, airlines benefit through lower fuel costs and higher stock prices. That relationship creates natural hedging opportunities.

The cleanest hedge is going long your airline of choice and simultaneously buying put options or a put spread on an oil-linked instrument like USO, the US Oil Fund ETF. A USO put spread — buying the $75 put and selling the $62 put for a September or December 2026 expiration — creates a position that profits if oil falls from current levels while costing significantly less than buying an outright put. This structure means you win on your airline stock as oil falls and you separately profit on your USO puts as the same thing happens. If oil rises further, your airline stock loses value but your USO puts also expire worthless or at a loss — you are not fully hedged on the downside, but you have meaningfully reduced the cost of being wrong.

Alternatively, going long your airline and long SCO — the ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF, which moves inversely to oil prices at 2x leverage — gives you doubled exposure to the oil falling thesis through two different instruments. Both AAL and SCO benefit if oil falls. This is not a hedge in the traditional sense — it is a leveraged directional bet on the same thesis expressed two ways. It amplifies gains if oil falls but also amplifies losses if it rises further.

For those wanting to express the trade as a long-short pairs position, a more logical structure than going long AAL and short a better airline is going long a higher-quality carrier like Delta or United and short an oil major like Chevron (CVX) or ExxonMobil (XOM). Oil majors benefit directly from high oil prices, so shorting them against a long airline position creates a natural cross-sector hedge. The risk is that the two sides decouple — oil falls but the airline fails to recover for company-specific reasons, or oil stays flat while the airline recovers on its own. The CVX short also costs you the dividend as the short seller, a small but real ongoing expense.

A diagonal debit spread on USO — buying a longer-dated put at a higher strike and selling a shorter-dated put at a lower strike — gives you the most flexibility and the most capital efficiency of any of the oil-linked structures, but it requires active management as expirations approach and is best suited to traders with options experience.

The simplest hedge for most readers is this: own the airline stock, buy a USO put spread to protect against extended oil elevation, and sell covered calls on the airline stock to generate income and reduce cost basis. This three-leg structure defines your risk on all sides, generates cash flow while you wait, and profits in multiple directions if the base case plays out.

The Risks — And They Are Real

The most obvious risk is that oil stays above $100 well into 2027. United's CEO Scott Kirby has said the airline is planning for a scenario where oil reaches $175 per barrel and does not get back down to $100 until the end of 2027. At those levels, airlines will be cutting capacity aggressively, burning cash, and potentially suspending or restructuring debt. AAL's negative shareholders' equity gives it the least room to absorb a prolonged shock of any major US carrier.

Beyond oil, a demand recession is the second risk. The impact of high airfares could limit travel demand for much of 2026 if consumer spending weakens broadly. The airlines are raising fares successfully right now, but that assumes demand holds. If the conflict drags on and higher energy costs begin squeezing household budgets, the demand side of the equation could fail just as the cost side is being partially offset through fare increases.

The third risk is carrier-specific execution. AAL's union issues and negative equity, JetBlue's strategic uncertainty, and Wizz Air's Israel exposure all represent company-specific risks layered on top of the industry-wide headwind. Delta and United have the most room for execution errors precisely because their underlying businesses are strongest.

The Reward — If The Pattern Holds

The current oil price surge is driven by fear and supply shock from the Iran conflict, but extreme backwardation in the futures curve signals a likely sharp reversal within months. Fundamentals suggest a ceasefire and de-escalation are probable, with the potential for oil prices to plunge and a rebound in travel sectors, per Seeking Alpha analysis.

If oil falls back toward $60 to $70 — which is what the futures market implies for 2027 and 2028 — the recovery math is compelling across the sector. AAL from $10.50 to $12 to $15 is a 14% to 43% return. UAL from current levels back to the Street consensus of $138.56 is roughly 100% upside. Delta to the analyst mean target of $81.24 is 28% from here with 21 of 24 analysts rating it a Strong Buy. SKYW to its mean target of $128.33 is 40% potential upside.

The pattern of airline stocks dropping sharply on a crisis and recovering within a year has played out consistently enough over the past seven years that it has become one of the more reliable mean-reversion setups in the market. No setup is guaranteed. But the current dislocation — stocks near multi-year lows while airline CEOs are simultaneously reporting strong demand, raising fare guidance, and telling investors they are having some of their best revenue days ever — is exactly the kind of disconnect that tends to resolve in favor of the fundamentals.

I have my position in AAL. The thesis is clear. The question is whether you can stomach the volatility between now and the resolution.

Airline Comparison Table

Building an Airline Basket Instead of Picking One

One of the most common mistakes in a sector recovery trade is concentrating entirely in the highest-risk name because it has the most upside. AAL at $10.50 is compelling, but it is also the carrier most likely to disappoint if oil stays elevated longer than expected. Rather than betting everything on one airline, building a basket of positions across the sector accomplishes something more valuable — it lets you participate in the recovery across multiple names while ensuring that if one carrier stumbles for company-specific reasons, the rest of the basket carries the trade.

The basket approach also allows you to weight positions according to your own conviction level and risk tolerance rather than forcing a binary decision between the safest and most speculative options. A reader who is conservative might weight Delta and Ryanair heavily with a small speculative position in AAL. A reader with higher risk tolerance might flip that weighting. The framework is the same regardless of the specific numbers.

Here is a sample basket structure with three different risk profiles:

Conservative Basket — Capital Preservation with Upside

This weighting prioritizes the strongest balance sheets and most analyst conviction while maintaining exposure to the recovery theme. Delta anchors the basket at 30% because of its record free cash flow, 21 of 24 analyst Strong Buy ratings, and least fuel-sensitive business model of any major US carrier. Ryanair gets 20% because it is fully hedged at $67 per barrel — the only major carrier in the world where the oil thesis is essentially neutralized, meaning it recovers on demand normalization alone rather than waiting for fuel costs to fall. United takes 20% because its FY 2026 EPS guidance of $12 to $14 per share against a forward P/E of roughly 7x is one of the more compelling valuations in the space. IAG gets 15% for European diversification and its 15% operating margin with debt-to-EBITDA of 0.8. SkyWest rounds out the basket at 15% with its fuel cost pass-through structure providing the most direct insulation from the oil scenario.

Moderate Basket — Balanced Risk and Reward

This weighting introduces more speculative names while keeping the majority of capital in higher-quality carriers. Delta and United together anchor half the basket. AAL enters at 15% — enough to capture its explosive upside if the recovery plays out without enough concentration to be catastrophic if its balance sheet deteriorates further. Southwest gets 10% as a dual-catalyst play combining the sector recovery with its ongoing business model transformation. Qantas adds 10% of Asia-Pacific diversification with partial fuel hedging and a Pacific-focused network that has less direct Middle East exposure than European peers. Alaska rounds out the basket at 10% with cleaner operations than AAL and demonstrated ability to pass through fare increases in the current environment.

Aggressive Basket — Maximum Upside Exposure

This weighting concentrates in the names with the most explosive recovery potential while accepting the highest risk. AAL leads at 30% — the highest beta play in the US airline sector with the most percentage upside if the pattern holds. JetBlue enters at 15% after being the hardest-hit US carrier percentage-wise and updating guidance with unit revenue growth of 5% to 7%, suggesting its underlying demand is better than the stock price reflects. United takes 20% for its combination of valuation and earnings quality. Southwest gets 15% for the turnaround catalyst. Alaska gets 10% as a cleaner speculative play than AAL with less balance sheet risk. Wizz Air enters at 10% for the most aggressive international exposure — it has been the hardest-hit European carrier and carries the most operational risk, but also the most recovery upside if the Middle East stabilizes and its Israel routes resume.

Why Diversification Works Specifically Well Here

The basket approach is particularly suited to this trade for three reasons. First, the recovery thesis applies to the sector broadly, not to any single carrier — if oil falls and the conflict resolves, all of these stocks benefit, meaning diversification does not dilute your thesis, it just spreads the execution risk across multiple management teams and balance sheets. Second, the international carriers add a genuine diversification benefit because they are driven by different demand dynamics, hedging positions, and route networks than US carriers — Ryanair recovering while AAL struggles is a plausible scenario that a basket handles gracefully. Third, if you combine the basket approach with the hedging structures described earlier — a USO put spread against the overall basket value, for example, rather than against a single stock position — you can hedge the entire sector exposure more efficiently than hedging each name individually.

The weighting you choose should ultimately reflect your own conviction about how the oil story resolves and which carriers you trust most to execute through the uncertainty. There is no universally correct answer. But spreading that conviction across five to seven names rather than concentrating it in one is almost always the smarter way to trade a recovery thesis — especially when the tail risk in any single name, AAL in particular, is real enough to warrant respect.

Sources

Reuters — US Airlines Lean on Demand, Fares as Iran War Rattles Overseas Peers — investing.com/news/stock-market-news/analysisus-airlines-lean-on-demand-fares-as-iran-war-rattles-overseas-peers

Benzinga — Airline Stocks Were Pricing 2026 Like a Runway — benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/26/03/51248772

24/7 Wall Street — United Airlines Selloff Looks Like a Buying Opportunity — 247wallst.com/investing/2026/03/12

Seeking Alpha — The Iran War and Oil Backwardation — seekingalpha.com/article/4880055

Barchart via Yahoo Finance — Citi Betting Big on DAL and SKYW — finance.yahoo.com/news/airline-stocks-hard-hit-iran

Globe and Mail — Airline ETFs on the Radar Amid Iran Feud — theglobeandmail.com

Watcher Guru — How Rising Oil Prices to $100 Affect Airline Stocks — watcher.guru/news/airline-stocks-how-rising-oil-prices

Reuters via Investing.com — Airline Travel Industries Scramble With Iran Fallout — investing.com/news/stock-market-news/airline-travel-industries-scramble

Al Jazeera — Global Airlines Hike Ticket Prices as Iran War Sends Costs Soaring — aljazeera.com/economy/2026/3/10

CNBC Africa — Rising Fuel Prices Lash Airline Sector as Iran Conflict Widens — cnbcafrica.com/2026

OilPrice.com — Only 3 US Airlines Can Remain Profitable at Current Oil Prices — oilprice.com

Euronews — More Airlines Increase Airfares as Iran War Drives Jet Fuel Price Spikes — euronews.com/travel/2026/03/13

Fortune — Asian Aviation Stocks Plunge as Iran Conflict Forces Flight Cancellations — fortune.com/2026/03/01

Insurance Journal — Airline Shares Battered, Airfares Surge as Iran War Intensifies — insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/03/09

Travel Weekly — Fuel Costs and Fares Rise During Iran War but Air Demand Holds Steady — travelweekly.com

Wikipedia — Economic Impact of the 2026 Iran War — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_the_2026_Iran_war

PitchBook — Alaska Airlines 2026 Company Profile — pitchbook.com

Fidelity — AAL Quote Data — fidelity.com

This post is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. All figures sourced from public financial data and news reporting. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Not affiliated with any airline, prop firm, or financial institution unless explicitly stated. I hold a long position in American Airlines at a cost basis of $10.62 per share.