I was wondering what the competence of some financial advisors might be in relation to the air carriers. Look at this example:
January 21
UBS AG cut its recommendation for EasyJet Plc to “sell” from “neutral,” saying in a note to clients “the global recession will mean higher unemployment and fewer passengers.”
January 22
An increase in the number of passengers trading down to low-cost airlines and the strength of the euro have helped EasyJet boost first-quarter revenues by almost a third. "There has been a flight to value," said Andy Harrison, EasyJet chief executive, on Thursday.
"We've seen business passengers switching to EasyJet in search of value, and we've seen long-haul leisure passengers going short haul, so instead of going to Miami for the sun you go to Italy. In the tough times we're winning market share faster than in the good times."
Revenues for the three months to the end of December jumped 31.5 per cent to £550m ($761m), while passenger numbers rose 10 per cent from 9.1m to 10.1m.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the airline's founder and largest shareholder expressed satisfaction with the results.
"I'm pleased to see the business performed so well in revenue terms in the last quarter," he said.
Shares in EasyJet closed up 31p at 286p.
To my mind, EZY is quite an impressive performer in the present circumstances. What's the level of the expertise? Selling some airline stock could still be wise in some cases, but EZY's prospects look much better than average in the industry.
Also in HEL their start seems to be a success story. I'm sure some other routes from Germany, France or Switzerland would thrive even better (but usually everybody tries STO first in spite of heavy competition there).