New York, Feb 26, 2026, 07:52 EST — Premarket
- American Airlines shares hovered near flat in premarket trading after updates on storm recovery efforts.
- Carrier reported it brought back major Northeast routes and put over 4,000 seats back in service following Winter Storm Hernando.
- Oil slipped roughly 1% following a notable jump in U.S. inventories, which can swing fuel costs for airlines.
American Airlines Group Inc shares barely budged in premarket trading Thursday, with investors sifting through new operational updates following Winter Storm Hernando and a recent dip in oil prices.
The airline continues grappling with fallout from a storm that closed major airports and triggered mass cancellations. Restart pace is crucial—missed flights drag on near-term revenue, and ramping operations back up tends to carry significant costs.
Fuel is the other big wild card. Oil prices tend to hit airline stocks hard—jet fuel eats up a big chunk of expenses, and it doesn’t take much of a crude move to rattle quarterly forecasts.
American ended Wednesday’s session at $13.32, up 1.29%. 1
American on Tuesday brought flights back online at New York’s JFK and LaGuardia around noon ET, with Boston Logan following at 1 p.m. Other Northeast stations, Providence among them, were also coming back up. The carrier tacked on more than 4,000 extra seats — some using widebody jets on select routes — and kept its travel alert in effect through Feb. 25. “American is known for its swift recoveries,” Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said. 2
U.S. airlines cut over 2,000 flights on Tuesday, with delays hitting roughly 600 flights by 6 a.m. ET, FlightAware figures show, per Reuters. Flight cancellations approached 6,000 on Monday. JetBlue Airways wiped out close to 41% of its flights scheduled for Tuesday. 3
Oil slipped roughly 1% Thursday, pressured by a jump of 16 million barrels in U.S. crude inventories last week—the largest weekly increase in three years, according to Reuters. Prices were also under pressure from softness in the North Sea’s spot market, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo noted. Meanwhile, traders kept an eye on U.S.-Iran negotiations happening in Geneva. 4
Cheaper crude does give airlines some margin relief, though it won’t cover the costs of irregular operations—think repositioning aircraft, shelling out for overtime, and sorting out tangled crew schedules after a wave of cancellations.
Still, getting back to normal might not be smooth. High winds or another round of bad weather could jam up major hubs all over again. And if crude jumps on fresh geopolitical risk, carriers could see their quarterly costs spike just as they’re working to restore schedules.
American flagged the risk weather poses to its outlook earlier this winter. Back in January, the airline put out a full-year 2026 adjusted earnings forecast of $1.70 to $2.70 per share and also highlighted a possible $150 million to $200 million revenue drag from Winter Storm Fern. 5
American has its first-quarter earnings slated for April 23. Investors are zeroed in on any hard numbers tied to the Hernando disruptions, plus what management has to say about fuel and unit costs going into spring. 6
