NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) - Get Report are up 1.43% to $46.15 in afternoon trading today as the airline industry benefits from falling oil prices that are continuing to drive down the cost of fuel.

Brent was lower by 1.32% to $53.23 at 2:00 p.m. in New York, while West Texas Intermediate reversed early losses, slightly up 0.21% to $43.98.

Oil prices are paring losses after moving under a six year low in trading yesterday as investors anticipate this week's supply report to show an increase in U.S. stockpiles.

Oil also declined on the rise in production in Libya, and a possible deal with oil producer Iran that could ease sanctions and boost its exports, according to Reuters.

Separately, airline stocks are rising today along with shares of American Airlines Group (AAL) - Get Report, up over 7%, after the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced late Monday that the airline will replace Allergan (AGN) - Get Report in the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Friday, March 20.

Insight from TheStreet's Research Team:

Options Profits contributor John Carter recently wrote about how some traders are taking advantage of airlines' stock momentum in the current crude environment.

Here's a snippet of what he had to say:

Oil took a massive hit on Monday moving to new five-year lows and forcing those that tried to buy the bottom to reconsider. This has been great for our USO put position and while I wasn't able to get the suggested short call spread on I'm going to let the puts work for a few more days at a minimum.

A common place traders have been looking to take advantage of these cheap oil prices is via the airlines. The daily chart of Southwest Airlines has a great confluence with this fundamental story and I'm going to start building a position in the April contracts.

This idea may need some time to work, so enter with size you can scale into. On Tuesday morning, I'm going to have two limit orders working. One to sell 3 of the 45/42 put credit spread for $1.00 and buying 1 the 44 calls in the same expiration for $2.50. I'm fine with a pullback into $42.56, below that and I'd want to reevaluate the position.

-John Carter, 'John Carter Intermediate Trade: LUV Takes Off on Lower Oil' originally published 3/17/2015 on Optionsprofits.com.

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Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates SOUTHWEST AIRLINES as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate SOUTHWEST AIRLINES (LUV) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow." You can view the full analysis from the report here: LUV Ratings Report