Travel stocks are among the biggest gainers as Trump teases Iran talks

MW Travel stocks are among the biggest gainers as Trump teases Iran talks

By Claudia Assis

Shares of cruise companies were among Monday's top gainers as President Donald Trump backtracked on threats to Iran.

Travel-related stocks such as airlines and cruise companies rallied Monday after President Donald Trump postponed his deadline for more strikes in Iran, saying the two countries had held "very good and productive" talks - something Iranian media reports rebuffed.

Among the stocks gaining the most, low-cost Frontier Airlines parent Frontier Group $(ULCC)$ rallied more than 9% and United Airlines $(UAL)$ rose nearly 5%. Norwegian Cruise Line $(NCLH)$ was up more than 6%, while shares of car-rental companies Hertz Global $(HTZ)$ rose 4.6% and Avis Budget $(CAR)$ gained more than 7%. That takes some of the sting out of March losses, which for most travel-related companies are in the double digits.

Trump said he is pausing his threat to destroy Iran's power plants and other infrastructure for five days. Iran had issued retaliation threats of its own. Crude-oil futures headed lower on Monday.

"While this appears to be a positive signal, there has not been an agreement to a ceasefire, and we still need to see similar language from both Iran and Israel," analysts at TPH said in a note Monday, adding that as Iran refutes Trump's claims, there's still "a wide gulf between the two parties" and that Iran still effectively controls the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil chokepoint.

Travel-related companies have weathered investor fears that the war with Iran would sap demand for leisure travel. Higher crude-oil prices also have translated into higher fuel costs. Fuel is generally those companies' second-highest expense, after labor.

Delta Air Lines shares $(DAL)$ also rose. A runway collision Sunday night between an Air Canada regional jet and a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport left two pilots dead and dozens of passengers injured, and the airport was to remain closed at least through early afternoon.

Delta has the most flights out of LaGuardia, and the airline and some of its regional partners had the most cancellations on Monday, according to FlightAware.

The disruptions at LaGuardia add to concerns about what is already expected to be a challenging several days for air travel as the result of a partial government shutdown that has TSA staff working without pay. Still, the long lines at U.S. airports don't appear to have weighed much on airline stocks.

Airlines are focused on mitigating the increase in oil prices stemming from the war, responding to higher fuel prices by cutting their June-quarter capacity, starting with off-peak flights operating on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and red-eye flights, analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a note Monday.

Frontier is the only airline that is adding capacity and flights to its schedule. Frontier focuses on leisure travel, with its highest revenue usually coming in the second and fourth quarters.

Cruise companies have had to win over travelers amid general economic anxiety, and their stocks have been among the biggest decliners since the start of the Iran conflict, partly on concerns that geopolitical unrest may make some travelers think twice about going on a cruise.

Iran effectively controls the Strait of Hormuz, with about 20 million barrels of oil a day, or a fifth of the world's crude exports, passing through the waterway in times of peace.

Saudi Arabia is rerouting some of its crude exports to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, and the United Arab Emirates is also utilizing a smaller pipeline. Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimated Monday that with traffic through Hormuz at a standstill, some 16 million barrels of oil a day is "effectively sidelined from the global market."

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Saudi Arabia has the "clearest path" to increase pipeline exports further as it improves operations, they said, while the UAE route "offers little room for further upside, effectively capping its contribution." As the war entered its fourth week, "the biggest uncertainty is time," the J.P. Morgan analysts said.

"The U.S. and Israel have offered mixed signals on the conflict's possible duration, and - crucially - Iran, which also influences the timeline, appears to believe that time is working in its favor," they said. And just as important, they added, "an end to hostilities would not necessarily mean the Strait fully reopens for normal commerce."

-Claudia Assis

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March 23, 2026 18:11 ET (22:11 GMT)

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