Does this have anything to do with DL/US merger

[deltawatch]

SOUTHWEST UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES HISTORY

Date: 29-Nov-06
Firm: Goldman Sachs
Action: Initiated
From:
To: Sell

 

[DCAflyer]

From thestreet.com and Yahoo finance...

Goldman Neutral on Airlines

By TSC Staff
11/29/2006 9:35 AM EST


Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the airline sector with a neutral rating, but the firm singled out AMR (AMR - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating) and UAL (UAUA - commentary - Cramer's Take) for buy ratings.
AMR is the parent of American Airlines, and UAL owns United Airlines.

Jetblue (JBLU - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating), Hawaiian Holdings (HA - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating), Alaska Air (ALK - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating), Continental (CAL - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating) and US Airways (LCC - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating) were started with neutral ratings.

Low-fare carrier Southwest Airlines (LUV - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating) got the worst of it, getting a sell rating from Goldman.

Separately, regional carrier Mesa Air (MESA - commentary - Cramer's Take - Rating) was downgraded to neutral from add at Calyon, and the firm cut its price target by $1 to $9.

 

[PHL]

2 interesting pieces of news:
1.) WN boosted one way walk up fares again, now at $329 max for a one way. Perhaps Goldman's thinks they are pricing themselves to the point that pax might just as easily book to anther carrier.
2.) WN recently tried to add 2 737's to it's firm order of 80 and Boeing had to decline, saying their production line was already full and didn't want to promise something they couldn't deliver in the time needed. 2 fewer 737s isn't a lot, but certainly could signal a slowdown of growth capability.