Good news for the things with wings today. Weekly inventory numbers issued by the Energy Department this morning showed the drop in crude inventories was lower than expected,  gasoline inventories increased more than expected, and the drop in distillates, which includes the all-important jet fuel, was minimal.

Refinery output was also up for the week.

Wrap all this up together with increasing economic indicators that continue to point to a slowing economy (which theoretically should bring a decline in demand) and voila! Oil prices were down 4% or $3.80 to $90.62 today.

The price of crude has now fallen 7.2% in the last two days.

This fact was not overlooked by airline sector investors today. While the Dow Jones Blue Chip average was up 331.01 points on the day, or 2.55%. the AMEX Airline Index was up a healthy 4% to 40.02.

Leading gainers today included Allegiant, which posted a sizzling 7% gain, closing today at 34.51. It was a day of the 7% gain, apparently as US Airways was also up 7% on the day, closing at 20.97. AMR, parent of American was also up 7%, closing at 21.98. And, yes, Delta Air Lines was also up 7% on the day, closing at 18.77.

Our two always-volatile Chinese airline stocks had another bounce-off-the-wall day as well, as ADRs of China Eastern Airlines were up 21%, closing at 100.89, while ADRs of China Southern were up 8%, closing at 65.20.

Shares of Pinnacle didn’t have a bad day, with shares here closing up 7% to 15.72, while shares of Republic were up 8%, closing at 20.27. Skywest? Up 5% to close at 25.65.

Even shares of Mesa, which have posted a horrible month, had a good day. Shares were up 9%, closing at 3.45.

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