Speaker · Updated
Chris Sununu: latest market views
Airlines for America
Summary
Chris Sununu is president and CEO of Airlines for America, the U.S. airline industry trade group, and a former four-term Republican governor of New Hampshire.
Chorus has 8 views from Chris Sununu across 2 episodes on Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box) and CNBC Power Lunch since October 20, 2026. Their latest calls: bullish on American Airlines Group, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines Co..
Where they stand
Their latest bullish or bearish call on each company.
- American Airlines GroupBullish ·
- Delta Air LinesBullish ·
- Southwest Airlines Co.Bullish ·
What they talk about most
- Airlines & aviation · 2
- American Airlines Group · 1
- Delta Air Lines · 1
- JetBlue Airways · 1
- Southwest Airlines Co. · 1
- US elections & politics · 1
- Oil & fuels · 1
The latest views
Newest first. Every quote is checked against the episode's transcript.
Polls and prediction markets are unreliable; pollsters still behave like it's 2015.
Sununu argues prediction markets are worse than polls because the public feeds off what the media reports, which exacerbates the polls. He finds it most shocking that pollsters are still polling as they did in 2015, and he says no one has found a good way to get at how Americans decide.
“What the most shocking thing I find is that we're still polling like it's twenty fifteen.”at 36:06
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): Gary Cohn & Chris Sununu: The Fed, AI, & the Midterms 10/29/26 ·
Southwest Airlines Co.Bullish
Southwest is still doing great into the holidays as travel demand holds despite fuel costs.
Sununu says Southwest, along with Delta, American and JetBlue, is still doing great going into the holiday travel period. He points to rising revenues and bookings across the carriers and says people are still buying tickets. Higher fuel prices are a headwind he attributes to the energy shock tied to the Iran war, but he argues demand is strong enough to offset it. He also cites near-record use of credit-card points and loyalty programs for free and discounted tickets as a sign of continued travel interest.
“Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest are still doing great going into the holiday.”at 43:06
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): Gary Cohn & Chris Sununu: The Fed, AI, & the Midterms 10/29/26 ·
Delta Air LinesBullish
Delta is still doing great into the holidays as travel demand holds despite fuel costs.
Sununu says Delta, American, JetBlue and Southwest are still doing great going into the holiday travel period. He points to rising revenues and bookings across the carriers and says people are still buying tickets. Higher fuel prices are a headwind he attributes to the energy shock tied to the Iran war, but he argues demand is strong enough to offset it. He also cites near-record use of credit-card points and loyalty programs for free and discounted tickets as a sign of continued travel interest.
“Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest are still doing great going into the holiday.”at 43:06
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): Gary Cohn & Chris Sununu: The Fed, AI, & the Midterms 10/29/26 ·
American Airlines GroupBullish
American Airlines is still doing great into the holidays as travel demand holds despite fuel costs.
Sununu says American, along with Delta, JetBlue and Southwest, is still doing great going into the holiday travel period. He points to rising revenues and bookings across the carriers and says people are still buying tickets. Higher fuel prices are a headwind he attributes to the energy shock tied to the Iran war, but he argues demand is strong enough to offset it. He also cites near-record use of credit-card points and loyalty programs for free and discounted tickets as a sign of continued travel interest.
“Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest are still doing great going into the holiday.”at 43:06
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): Gary Cohn & Chris Sununu: The Fed, AI, & the Midterms 10/29/26 ·
JetBlue AirwaysUncertain
JetBlue's revenues and bookings are up, but fuel costs are crushing margins.
Asked about including JetBlue in his list of strong airlines, Sununu says its revenues are up and bookings are up at almost all carriers, including JetBlue. He concedes that fuel prices are crushing airline economics. He says the carriers did not cause the fuel spike, which he ties to the Iran war, and that jet fuel and labor make up over half of costs. Despite that margin pressure, he argues people are still buying tickets, including through credit-card points and loyalty programs.
“Their revenues are up on all of them. Bookings are up on, I believe, almost all of them. It's just that fuel prices are up... all prices are crushing them.”at 43:31
Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box): Gary Cohn & Chris Sununu: The Fed, AI, & the Midterms 10/29/26 ·
US airfares are rising 20-30% into the holidays as jet fuel costs surge and airlines pass them on.
Sununu says jet fuel is up about 250%, more than doubling, and fuel is most of the cost of flying a plane. Airlines are absorbing most of that cost and will lose $12 billion this year. Some of it has to be passed to customers, which is why fares rise 20-30% into the holidays. He argues Europe is far more sensitive to oil and Hormuz disruptions, so its fares are up 30-40% already and may rise another 15% next year. He thinks the US is less susceptible because it refines much of its own oil, and the US likely won't see that second jump.
“So jet fuel is far more than doubled. The vast majority of the cost of... putting a plane in the air is jet fuel. Now the airlines themselves are eating most of that cost.”at 33:09
CNBC Power Lunch: Cracks in the AI Trade, Tech Earnings Preview, Surging Airfares 10/20/26 ·
Europe must build its own refining capacity, since import reliance leaves it exposed to fuel shocks.
Sununu agrees with Sullivan that Europe's fuel problem is self-inflicted. He says Ryanair's O'Leary warned Europe ten to fifteen years ago that it needed its own refinery capacity for oil, diesel, jet fuel and gasoline. Fuel prices in Europe have long been 50-100% above the US. He says it is never too late, but planning must run twenty, thirty or forty years ahead, and Europe should develop its refining infrastructure now.
“they had to develop their own infrastructure, their own refinery capacity so that not not just they had oil, but they had the diesel, they had the jet fuel, they had the gasoline.”at 35:17
CNBC Power Lunch: Cracks in the AI Trade, Tech Earnings Preview, Surging Airfares 10/20/26 ·
US airfares stayed flat since 2019 because credit card points programs keep flights cheap for middle-income travelers.
Sununu argues that airfares have been flat from 2019 into early 2026, before the Iran crisis, and did not even keep pace with inflation. He attributes this to credit card points programs, which he says let lower and middle-income Americans fly far more often, so demand for cheap seats stays high. He presents this as a reason to think airfares are not rising the way the market or critics assume.
“Prices didn't budge at all. They did not even move with inflation. They stayed absolutely flat because so many folks are taking advantage of the credit card program.”at 37:21
CNBC Power Lunch: Cracks in the AI Trade, Tech Earnings Preview, Surging Airfares 10/20/26 ·
Shows
- Squawk Pod (CNBC Squawk Box) · 1 episode
- CNBC Power Lunch · 1 episode
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