The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price was a strong performer on Thursday.

The airline operator’s shares jumped 7% to $4.49 after announcing plans to increase the number of domestic flights in June and July.

What did Qantas announce?

With travel restrictions starting to ease across the country, both Qantas and Jetstar will increase their domestic and regional flying for June and July.

According to the release, the additional services will see capacity increase from 5% of pre-pandemic levels, to 15% by the end of June. This represents an increase of more than 300 return flights per week.

The company is prepared to further increase the number of flights it operates in July. This will depend on travel demand and the further relaxation of state borders. Qantas revealed that it has the ability to increase the number of flights to upwards of 40% of its pre-crisis domestic capacity by the end of July.

Where will Qantas be flying to?

The company advised that the additional flights include more services on capital city routes. This is particularly the case with Melbourne-Sydney and a number of routes to-and-from Canberra.

As travel restrictions start to ease domestically, Qantas and Jetstar will increase domestic and regional flying for June and July, with more than 300 additional return flights per week by the end of June. Read more: https://t.co/iW5sNBpPtZ pic.twitter.com/DNO3HM2p57

— Qantas (@Qantas) June 4, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

As you can see above, it will also increase intra-state flights for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia. Weekly flights to Broome, Cairns, and Rockhampton will see also receive significant boost.

In addition to this, flights will resume on eight routes that are not currently being operated. This includes flights from Sydney to Byron Bay, which previously saw its route launch postponed because of the pandemic.

Will there be enough demand?

Also supporting the Qantas share price on Thursday were positive comments by Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce.

Mr Joyce believes Australians are eager to take to the skies again. He commented: “We know there is a lot of pent up demand for air travel and we are already seeing a big increase in customers booking and planning flights in the weeks and months ahead.”

“We are gradually adding flights in June as demand levels increase, which will go from 5 per cent of pre-crisis levels currently to 15 per cent by late June. We can quickly ramp up flying in time for the July school holidays if border restrictions have eased more by then,” Joyce added.

Mr Joyce also revealed that Qantas is taking precautions to make the flying experience safe for travellers.

He explained: “Customers will notice a number of differences when they fly, such as masks and sanitising wipes, and we’ll be sending out information before their flight so they know exactly what to expect and have some extra peace of mind. Importantly, the Australian Government’s medical experts have said the risk of contracting Coronavirus on an aircraft is low.”

Overall, this looks like a big positive for Qantas and should help limit the cash burn it is currently experiencing.

More reading

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price will be one to watch this morning after an announcement by the global leader in the development of high-quality, human-annotated training data for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

What did Appen announce?

Appen’s announcement after the market close on Thursday revealed that a number of executives have been selling shares this week.

The biggest seller was Non-Executive Chairman, Chris Vonwiller. He offloaded 2 million Appen shares on-market for an average of $29.00 per share. This represents a total consideration of $58 million.

Also selling shares was the company’s CEO and Managing Director, Mark Brayan. He sold 95,535 shares for an average of $30.60 per share. This equates to a total consideration of approximately $2.9 million.

And finally, another insider that was selling shares was Non-Executive Director, Bill Pulver. Mr Pulver sold 275,000 shares on-market for an average of $30.6865 per share. This represents a total consideration of $8.4 million.

Why were they selling shares?

Appen helpfully provided explanations for each of the sales.

Mr Vonwiller sold his shares for a number of personal reasons, including philanthropic endeavours.

Whereas the company’s CEO was selling shares to satisfy tax obligations and diversify personal investments. The latter was the reason Mr Pulver gave for selling his shares.

It is worth noting that all three directors still have sizeable shareholdings, even after these sales.

Should you be concerned?

Insider selling rarely goes down well with investors. The theory is that if a director was confident its shares would go a lot higher from here, they wouldn’t sell them today. So, the decision to sell is often interpreted to be a bearish indicator.

However, I think the explanations they have given is reasonable. And as I mentioned above, they still have plenty of their wealth tied up in the company.

In light of this, if the Appen share price were to pullback meaningfully on the news, I would consider picking up shares.

After all, given the strong growth potential the company has over the next decade, I believe its shares could be a lot higher than this level in 2030.

More reading

• 3 small cap ASX tech shares that could be stars of the future
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• 3 stellar ASX growth shares I would buy right now
• Are Megaport shares the ones to buy and hold beyond 2030?
• Where to invest $5,000 into ASX 200 shares immediately

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of Appen Ltd. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post Why the Appen share price could come under pressure today appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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The Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) share price has rocketed up by 160% since Monday. Followed hot on its heels was Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) which saw its share price rise by 59.95% so far this week. This was after announcing the acquisition of New York-based QuadPay, giving it access to the $5 trillion dollar US retail market. 

However, the higher Openpay share price rise is more intriguing. At the end of April, the company reported a 113% growth in the number of its active customers before announcing an institutional share placement on 4 June. This would raise over $30 million for the company to use towards further growth and could signal the start of a wider boom across the buy now, pay later (BNPL) sector. 

The largest Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) challenger

The rise of Afterpay to a $13.98 billion ASX behemoth has been well documented. Not so the rise of its competitors.

Zip Co is the largest independent challenger of Afterpay. Unlike Afterpay, however, Zip Co credit checks its users. This could prove to be a competitive advantage over the coming months. In times of true recession, when things get tough, unsecured debts could result in increased defaults. 

Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL)

The Sezzle share price is up by 41.75% this week. Unlike many of the other BNPL companies on the ASX, Sezzle is headquartered in the United States. So while others are trying to buy their way in, Sezzle is a market native.

The company already boasts a network of 1.3 million users and 14.9 thousand merchants. It has also secured a fighting fund of US$100 million. In addition, the company is already making moves towards the US$460 billion Canadian retail market.

Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) 

The Splitit share price is up by 78.26% so far this week. The company announced an increase in merchant sales volume by 321% compared to May 2019. Also headquartered in the US, the company does not have to push its way into a foreign market. With a network of 964 merchants, it is clearly the junior player thus far.

EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML)

EML is not immediately recognised as one of the major BNPL players. This company made its name in gift cards sold in supermarkets. However, EML is one of the great enablers of the ASX fintech sector. The EML share price has risen only 9.3% this week. I believe this to be an unfairly small gain when compared to the meteoric rise of the Openpay share price. 

Its product, ControlPay, is the technology under the hood of many BNPL companies today. It is the platform processing payments for Zip Co’s ‘shop everywhere’ functionality. It is also being used by Sezzle in the US as well as Scalapay in Italy. 

Foolish takeaway

The slow death of credit cards is being brought about by Gen Z and Millennials. This is clearly a large-scale business transformation, and one that will likely see many of the companies mentioned above grow significantly.

Even with the large rise in the Openpay share price, I think EML is best placed to benefit over the medium to long term. By operating the back-end technology that powers some of its cohorts, the company is less exposed to unsecured debt. It also gets to process payments across many companies and countries with little competitive tension. 

More reading

• 3 small cap ASX tech shares that could be stars of the future
• ASX shares are in a bull market. What should investors do now?
• 3 top ETFs you can easily diversify your portfolio with immediately
• Are Megaport shares the ones to buy and hold beyond 2030?
• Why the Splitit share price rocketed 43% higher this morning

Daryl Mather owns shares of Sezzle Inc. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO, Emerchants Limited, and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Emerchants Limited and Sezzle Inc. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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