How I turned $1,000 into $1,735

My own airline ETF after one year outperformed the market

Author

Wuhoo Group
February 12, 2025

Last year I decided to make my own airline ETF for fun on some of the major US domestic airlines. Note, none of this constitutes as financial advice.

The JETS ETF

There is already an airline industry ETF called JETS which not only includes all US major airlines, but also some international ones, travel booking services, and even aircraft manufactures. I don’t hold any JETS as I feel like the Southwest and Boeing holdings just weigh the ETF down with their past, poor company performance.

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My thought process:

With $1,000 of my own investments to play with, I broke it down with $300/major carrier (United, Delta, AA) and $100 into JetBlue. This breakdown made it an easy comparison and JetBlue felt strong out of the other low-cost carriers in the US.

And here’s how the year went.

Caption

As you can see, United outperformed and is the main reason my portfolio (+74%) beat JETS (+33%) and the S&P 500 (+25%). United made a lot of strong choices to renew their fleet, optimize their hubs, and grow their international routes. And maybe it’s because I flew on United a lot in 2024… maybe.

On the other hand, American Airlines struggled to perform post-COIVD - compared to United and Delta, AA failed to recover many of their transatlantic routes.

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2025 and beyond

What’s my plan for 2025? Hold and see what happens. Updates to come next year!

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