SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) -- Airline stocks closed higher Wednesday with index heavyweights Continental Airlines and AMR Corp. leading the way as crude oil prices cooled from record levels.
The Amex Airline Index rose 1.6% to 50.53 points with six of the 10 components on the rise.
Shares of AMR Corp. jumped 6.9% to $27.20 a day after the world's biggest carrier reported that April traffic increased 5.5% from a year ago.
Continental stock added 5% to $28.10.
Crude oil futures ended down $2.33 to $72.29 -- below the record high of $75.35, hit April 21.
Outside the benchmark airline index, U.S. Airways Group jumped 5.3% to $47.80, below its high of $48.38, while United Airlines parent UAL Corp. rose 4.5% to $37.62.
After the close of trading, United Airlines reported late Wednesday that it had a record load factor in April as traffic rose by 8.4% over a year ago and capacity was increased by 4.9%. Load factor increased by 2.7 percentage points to 82.8%, the company said. This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com.