Air travel is gaining altitude. More than 1 million people have gone through U.S. airport checkpoints each of the last four days — it was more than 1.3 million on Friday and again Sunday. Several airlines report that they’ve seen more people booking trips in March. Travel is still down sharply from 2019, before the pandemic, but airline stocks are soaring. Shares of the four biggest U.S. airlines hit their highest prices in more than a year. They seem to be benefitting from optimism that this time, the increase in travel will stick as more Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19.
