Airline Stocks Rise, Continental Airlines (CAL) Faces Trial

Continental Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: CAL) was up, along with other airline stocks, nearly 5 % in the day before losing ground in after hours trading.

The stock opened at $18.54 and went as high as $19.35 before settling at $19.29 for the day and falling further after hours.

Although Continental Airlines rose along with many other airlines such as AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR), US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC) and JetBlue Airways Corporation (Nasdaq: JBLU) after two days of declining airline stocks, there are a couple of things that may influence the company's share price.

Continental Airlines announced late Monday that its revenue passenger miles rose 8.5% from 6.43 billion miles in January 2009 to 6.98 billion miles in January 2010.

However, the good news of increased traffic comes as the long awaited trial to determine responsibility for the July 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde, which killed 113 people, begins.

French investigators say that a piece of metal that fell off a Continental Airlines DC-10 minutes before the Concorde's crash is to blame for the tragedy. Continental Airlines claims that a fire that started on the Concorde eight seconds before it reached the piece of metal is to blame.

The trial is expected to last four months.