Why Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and United Continental Holdings All

Surged This Week

Three Airline Stocks – Three Winners

Three of the biggest names in air travel reported flight data

this week.

The crowd went wild.

What:Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) shares popped 1.5% higher Tuesday after the discount flyer reported more fliers competing for fewer seats in July.

So What: In comparison to July 2014,

revenue passenger miles (RPMs) grew 8.2%

Available seat miles (ASMs) grew 7%

And Southwest achieved an all-time high “load factor” of 87.7%, up one full percentage point year over year

Now What:Here’s what that means:

Last week, a negative report from Delta had investors worried that airline

capacity was growing too fast, which could create price competition and

hurt profits.

But at Southwest, ASMs grew slower than RPMs. More people competed

for fewer seats (or at least, seats didn’t grow as fast as passengers).

This suggests Southwest can hold firm on prices and maintain profits.

What:United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL) had a similar tale to tell on Monday, and popped even larger, before settling down to a 0.7% gain.

So What: United’s RPMs grew 2.8% But ASMs grew only 2.4% And United scored a load

factor very close to Southwest’s – up 0.3 percentage points to 87%

Now What: United Continental’s growth in

both traffic and capacity lagged Southwest, but at least United

grew in the right way:

It added new planes slower than it added new passengers.

So that’s one more airline that won’t have to cut prices to fill

empty seats.

What:

• Text

Even Spirit Airlines (Nasdaq: SAVE) managed to end Monday “up” in comparison to Friday’s close, despite reporting numbers that were… less than ideal.

So What: At Spirit, RPMs grew

32% ASMs grew 35.8% And the load factor

was 88.8% -- ahead of Southwest and United, but down 2.6 percentage points year over year

Now What:Spirit’s numbers showed

barnburning growth at the discount airline.

The bad news is that Spirit expanded capacity faster than it attracted flyers to

fill that capacity, hurting its load factor.

The good news is that investors didn’t care.

Spirit’s shares rose anyway.

This $19 trillion industry could destroy the InternetOne bleeding-edge technology is about to put the World Wide Web to bed. And if you act quickly, you could be among the savvy investors who enjoy the profits

from this stunning change. Experts are calling it the single largest business opportunity in the history of capitalism... The Economist is calling it

"transformative"... But you'll probably just call it "how I made my millions." Don't be too late to the party -- click here for one stock to own when the Web goes

dark.