Ryanair's (RYAAY) November Traffic Rises Amid Low Airfares

Ryanair Holdings (NASDAQ:RYAAY) posted impressive November traffic figures primarily owing to low airfares. Traffic (including 0.3 million from its LaudaMotion unit) rose 11% year over year to 10.4 million. However, load factor remained unaltered at 96%. This European low-cost carrier’s passenger growth, excluding traffic from LaudaMotion unit, was only 8% in the month.

Successful launch of Ryanair’s winter schedule also aided results. On the punctuality front, the company scored impressively in November. According to the traffic report, more than 88% of Ryanair’s flights arrived on time.

Good News on the Labor Front

Ryanair has been plagued with labor-related problems for quite some time. In fact, labor unrest has been primarily responsible for the stock shedding 21.8% of its value year to date. Its industry has declined 12.4% in the same timeframe.

Year-to-Date Price Performance

However, this Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) carrier has received encouraging tidings on the labor front when it agreed provisionally, with a union representing its pilots in Germany, to sign collective labor deals by March 2019. The contracts, covering issues like pay, pension, pilot allowances and annual leave, will be inked per the German labor law.

The union has also agreed on the fact that its members will not go on strike until the contracts are signed. Ryanair should breathe a sigh of relief on this news piece as it dispels fears of its operations being crippled due to strikes in Christmas.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector are Air France-KLM (OTC:AFLYY) , CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX) and Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) . While Air France-KLM and CSX sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Norfolk Southern carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Air France-KLM have surged more than 35%, while CSX and Norfolk Southern stocks have rallied more than 12% in the past six months.

Today's Stocks from Zacks' Hottest Strategies

It's hard to believe, even for us at Zacks. But while the market gained +21.9% in 2017, our top stock-picking screens have returned +115.0%, +109.3%, +104.9%, +98.6%, and +67.1%.

And this outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. Over the years it has been remarkably consistent. From 2000 - 2017, the composite yearly average gain for these strategies has beaten the market more than 19X over. Maybe even more remarkable is the fact that we're willing to share their latest stocks with you without cost or obligation.

See Them Free>>