ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- Shares in the big three U.S. airlines hit a wall this summer. They are down 15% from summer highs, and that was before an Ebola scare set in. But analysts generally call the lull a buying opportunity. Shares in every major airline gave up ground on Wednesday. Southwest , down 3.6%, led the decline. Shares in American , Delta , JetBlue and Spirit all gave up between 3% and 4%. United was down 2.8%. Must Read: American Flight Attendants Got $13 Million More, Thanks to Delta The carriers still have healthy year-to-date gains. Southwest is up 73%, Spirit is up 47%, American 36%, Delta 27%, United and JetBlue 20%, Alaska 17% and Allegiant 15%. The S&P 500 is up 5%. Despite Wednesday's selling in the midst of a broad market decline, the actual risk to the carriers from the deadly Ebola virus is unclear. United said it carried the first U.S patient diagnosed with Ebola from Brussels to Dulles to Dallas. Medical experts said other passengers apparently weren't at risk. Now, investors will be scouring September passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) reports for clues as to how the industry is holding up against perceived problems -- including perhaps too much capacity growth. Delta will lead off the PRASM reporting on Thursday morning. Delta remains the top pick for some analysts, including Darryl Genovesi of UBS. In a recent report, he cited Delta's "unit revenue opportunity as developmental Seattle/London/LA/NYC/Latam markets mature, along with best-in-class free cash flow generation and what we view as sustainably higher return on invested capital and the most flexibility to take out capacity if demand disappoints or fuel spikes higher." In a report issued Wednesday, Imperial Capital analyst Bob McAdoo noted that Delta is "widely considered to be the strongest airline operator." However, Wolfe Research analyst Hunter Keay recently downgraded Delta to peer perform from outperform. "Delta is the envy of many with its balance sheet, margins and cash flow, but the stock continues to trade generally in line with its true peers," he wrote. "As EPS growth decelerates we find it increasingly hard to accept the idea that Delta will trade materially above peers." Must Read: American Air Honors PSA, the Model for Southwest Airlines Shares in American, Delta and United "have retreated 15% since peaking during the summer as concerns over excess supply, geopolitical events, and weakening overseas economies have become catalysts for profit-taking," wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Linenberg, in a report released Tuesday (before Wednesday's share declines). "We think major airline stocks could be bottoming-out as investors start to incorporate more modest capacity growth plans and lower fuel prices into their forecasts," Linenberg wrote. "However, we think share prices are at risk of being range-bound in the near-term if management teams fail to articulate a response to declining international PRASM trends on the upcoming conference calls." International PRASM is trending lower, Linenberg wrote, reflecting anemic growth in Europe and Japan, decelerating growth in China and Brazil and foreign current weakness. By contract, domestic trends are healthy. Domestically focused Allegiant, Southwest and Spirit are trading at or near their all-time highs, reflecting positive U.S. economic trends combined with falling fuel prices and stable capacity. "We expect these stocks to grind higher into year end and believe that JBLU, whose domestic business accounts for 83% of its capacity, should also participate in that rally," Linenberg wrote.a Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C. To contact this writer, click here. Follow @tedreednc a
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