Airline Stocks Withstand Snow Turbulence

Major U.S. airlines seemed to shrug off Monday the first East Coast blizzard of the season that pummeled many states and left thousands of travelers stranded in airports.The storm, which started on the heavy traveling day following Christmas, forced New York metropolitan airports to close Monday, leading to the cancellation of thousands of flights.American Airlines, operating under its parent company AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR), was up more than 1.6% Monday afternoon, with Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) edging more than 2% higher.Airtran Airways (NYSE:AAI) was trading up about 0.5%.Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) stayed virtually flat through the afternoon.The only airlines to feel any negative impacts were US Airways (NYSE:LCC), which edged a half a percentage point lower, Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK), down nearly 2%, and Pinnacle Airlines (NASDAQ:PNCL), which fell more than 2.5%The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to weaken by midday Monday, but only after dumping as many as 30 inches in parts of New Jersey and a foot or two in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.All New York airports are expected to resume flights around 4 PM EST.Boston’s Logan International Airport remained open throughout the storm and expects suspended flights to resume this afternoon.Other businesses saw delays from the storm, including Amtrak passenger rail service, which temporarily suspended its service between New York and Boston on Sunday, and Federal Express (NYSE:FDX) , which acknowledged on Monday that it is experiencing some delays.