Hello everyone.

It’s Tuesday. I know. I was not here yesterday.

It’s a local cultural thing. The National Championship was played in the Louisiana Superdome last night. So for all practical purposes, it was “Mardi Gras Light” in this part of the world starting last Thursday and running through last night when the LSU Tigers once again shamed the National Championship Big Ten Conference opponent, er, victim, Ohio State.

Geaux Tigers. And bravo to the incomparable “Golden Band from Tigerland,” all 355 strong.

One of these days I’m going to take a fall off and write a book, “My Life With the Band.” That’s after I convince the LSU music director to let me tag along for a semester.

I have a question for you Ohio State alums out there. Does the football team get motivated by that “gladiator” music the band plays? Whew. As an ex-band member — I must say that group did not look like a very happy and spontaneous bunch last night. Then again they are forced to wear those  beret-topped uniforms, while playing gladiator music.

Speaking of marching bands — Mardi Gras is February 5 this year. Yes, very, very early.  Parades start in New Orleans in another week.

Then, one week after Mardi Gras, New Orleans will host the NBA All-Star game. Woo hoo.

Now, to make the full 180 degree shift here — what does any of this have to do with airlines?

(Insert sound of “Jeopardy” here.)

A lot, if you are an airline and you are currently looking at the possibility of a rather bleak first quarter. Granted, first quarters are usually the weakest quarter of the year. But this year, with crude still trading around $96-97 a barrel as of this writing — and demand showing signs of increased weakness — an early Mardi Gras signifies something positive to the industry.

This means (have you looked at your calendar for 2008 yet?) that Easter is very, very early as well.

In fact, it lands in the third week of March, March 23.

So, amidst all the negative news regarding the prospects of the first quarter revenue front — a small bit of blue sky. The industry will see a nice added bit of revenue in the first quarter as a result of an unusually early Easter.

In other airline-related news today, a couple of tidbits.

United Stock Not Having A Good Day. Again.



United Airlines looks to be the biggest loser today in the sector, hands down. The drop comes as a result of analyst Jim Higgins research note that hit the wires yesterday. In his note, Higgins, who is with of Soleil Securities Group said there is “rising evidence” that actions by pilots contributed to the carrier’s bad December in which it had double the industry average number of delays. He said “such actions are legal but threaten the company’s profits.”

Duh.

Yesterday the stock dropped back 6%. Today? It’s now down another 16% the last time I looked, trading at around 24.53.

Hey, I don’t feel sorry for those investors. If they read PlaneBuzz, they would have been out of that stock a long time ago, and certainly after we wrote this recent column.

Singapore/China Eastern Deal Collapses

We’ve been following this merry-go-round for months, and today, it all came down to the China Eastern Airlines‘ shareholders meeting. According to the Associated Press, shareholders in China’s third-largest airline have rejected the bid by Singapore Airlines to buy a minority stake after Air China offered more money.

China Eastern Airlines supported the Singapore bid, but nearly 78% of shareholders rejected the deal.

The rejection is seen as a blow  to Singapore’s efforts to gain a foothold in China’s booming air travel market. China Eastern Chairman Li Fenghua said the carrier would now look for other ways to cooperate with Singapore and rejected any partnership with Air China.

“We will never consider Air China as a strategic investor,” Li told reporters. “The most important thing is not the price. The most important thing is to improve China Eastern Airlines‘ brand and management.”

Other Airline Stocks? The Airline Limbo Continues

While United is having a particularly bad day — a word for the squeamish. Don’t look at the rundown of today’s market moves in the airline sector if you are wearing a pacemaker. Or can’t take bad news very well.

As I write this, stocks are continuing to trend downward, so I don’t think we’ve seen the worst for the day — yet. Bad day on Wall Street today with more bad housing news (no, we are not surprised) in addition to rumors of a potential Countrywide Mortgage bankruptcy.

Just a small selection of the redder numbers I can see on our stock screen right now include: AirTran down 6% at 6.60; AMR, parent of American Airlines, down 10% at 12.02; Continental Airlines down 10% to 18.25; Delta Air Lines down 11% to 11.89; Southwest Airlines down 3% to 11.47; US Airways down 7% to 11.41; Northwest Airlines down 5% to 11.84.

Someone cut the limbo music. Please!

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline stocks, AirTran , American Airlines, AMR, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, US Airways