Next week represents a relatively slow week for us, with our eyes only set on EasyJet’s (LON: EZJ) share price ahead of its full-year results, which will be released on Tuesday. 

EasyJet is down almost 32% in 2022, however, in recent weeks, the budget airline carrier’s stock, along with other airlines, has rallied. EZJ is up 27% in the last month. 

As you may have already seen, we have been bullish on London-listed airline stocks for a while, even though we are guilty of being over-eager in our bullish assessment and jumping the gun. 

Still, we remain positive…

But ahead of the EZJ release, despite our overall bullish airline view, we are slightly cautious about the airline’s near-term performance, given the data points below:

Twitter Mentions Flying South 

The first piece of data that caught our attention was Twitter mentions. Something we currently track for a few companies but will be stretching in 2023, stay tuned!

In the middle part of this year, the number of mentions of EasyJet per week jumped — yes, due to the travel chaos, but also because travel demand surged. 

Given the recent updates from other airlines (Jet2 reported record profits), we assumed Easyjet’s recent mentions and, therefore, demand would be strong or at least resilient. However, mentions are now at lows, making us cautious about current demand. 

Google Searches Slide

Another data point we keep an eye on as a sign of current and historical demand is Google Trends data.

Google searches for EasyJet are also on the decline, falling since around June this year, giving us another reason to question our current bullish view. 

Web Traffic Edges Lower

The final data point we always consider when assessing current demand is web traffic…

And, unsurprisingly given the two data points above, visits to EasyJet’s website, according to Semrush, have declined since around August this year.

While the slide isn’t significant, coupled with Twitter mentions and Google searches, it has given us reason to take note.

Bottom Line

While we were under no illusions that we would see a decline in demand-related data following the summer period, the fall has been slightly more significant than we expected. 

It has surprised us, given the recent updates from other airlines. 

We still maintain an overall positive view of airline stocks and the industry’s recovery and would not be surprised to see a positive update and outlook from EasyJet one bit. 

Nevertheless, we are taking a more cautious view ahead of Tuesday’s release.