Best Airline Stocks to Own When the Industry Takes Off Again

Few industries have suffered more in 2020 than airline stocks. The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has slammed the brakes on air travel, and as a result, most of America's airline carriers are down between 35% and 65% year-to-date.

But there's some hope for airlines. The $2 billion CARES Act rescue bill approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last month included $25 billion in payroll cash grants and $25 billion in loans to the airline industry. And on April 14, Washington and many of the country's airlines had reportedly agreed in principle to terms of the hobbled industry's bailout. Few details were available, but one thing we do know is airlines that accept bailout funds will have to cease repurchasing shares and paying dividends through September 2021.

Dividends or not, the country's best airline stocks might be presenting a big bounce-back opportunity. Dwain Phelps, founder and CEO of Phelps Financial Group in Kennesaw, Georgia, is among those who looks for airlines to recover as soon as the medical community can devise a way to test people for the coronavirus at airports.

"I think there's room for individuals to take advantage of this because (airlines) will respond," he says. "Once we have those factors in play, I think people are going to go back to flying consistently again."

Here, we look at eight U.S. airline stocks for clues into where investors should buy this industry's deep dip. Not all airlines are created equal. And given how dire the current situation is, investors might be picking between stocks that