Airline Winners & Losers: Delta

Updated from 2:20 p.m. ET

Airline stocks fell in morning trading Friday, following the broader market, as a spike in unemployment raised fresh doubts about demand for air traffic and an analyst widened his estimates of losses by carriers.

Even another drop in oil prices couldn't help airline stocks.

The Amex airline index fell 3.8%, with 11 of its 13 component stocks declining.

Earlier Friday, the Labor Department reported that joblessness rose to 7.2% in December, the highest rate in nearly 16 years, raising fears that the economy hasn't yet hit bottom.

Worries about the U.S. and global economies helped push oil prices lower.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell $1.31 to $40.39 a barrel in afternoon electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Ray Neidl, an airline industry analyst for Calyon Securities, said Friday that airlines have taken tough steps to prepare for a downturn -- they cut capacity last year, so they have fewer seats to fill -- but that the economy remains their biggest concern.

Neidl widened his estimated fourth-quarter losses for most major U.S. airlines and said the industry would report $4.4 billion in losses for 2008. But he predicted that the industry will turn a $4.9 billion profit next year. He based that forecast on oil at $61.50 a barrel and a slow economic recovery beginning in the second quarter.

Besides worrying about the economy, airline executives are wondering what a new administration and Congress will mean for regulation.

This week, Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee said alliances between U.S. and foreign airlines should be given antitrust immunity only in "extraordinary cases."