This week wrapped up the release of all the major airlines earnings reports for the first quarter. While there were losses, the losses werent as bad as many were predicting. Even the airlines themselves had been trying to downplay the release of their earnings in case they wound up being really bad. This rather upbeat news has many saying that the airlines may have hit bottom.

Yet, while all the major airlines narrowed their losses, many contribute this to the fact that oil prices have been much lower than this time last year. This helped the airlines recover from the drop in passengers on flights. While April was expected to be a good month because of Easter, airlines could be down again if May and June prove to be sluggish. This will all depend on whether or not consumers are willing to take that summer vacation this year. If the trend continues as it has been, consumers may be staying home instead of spending money to go out of town.

But, the news was good overall. US Airways, Delta, UAL and AMR have already reported that their losses narrowed this quarter. Some of US Airways fuel hedging contracts became positive. JetBlue actually posted a profit once they dropped some of their fuel contracts. US Airways shares rose by $0.27, and JetBlues shares rose by $0.05 on the day their earnings reports were released.

Wall Street has been generally happily surprised by the earnings reports of the first quarter. Perhaps, the only airline to disappoint Wall Street was Alaska Air Group (Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air). Despite a narrowing of their losses, Alaska Air Group earnings fell way below expectations. Alaska Air Group is expected to start charging for their first checked bag to make up for the losses. In response to this news, Alaska Air Group shares fell by 10.2 percent to $17.80 on the day of the announcement.

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