Monday May 12, 1:16 pm ET


NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Ryanair Holdings PLC remains a top pick of Raymond James analyst James Parker, who was voted No. 1 airline analyst in The Wall Street Journal's Best On The Street Analysts survey thanks, in part, to the performance of that stock.

While most airline stocks still had to endure the market's flogging, Parker was able to single out the few that made money, such as Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV - News) , JetBlue Airways Corp. (NasdaqNM:JBLU - News) , and Ryanair, which he characterized as "the Southwest Airlines of Europe."

The reason he likes Ryanair is because it is one of only two low-fare airlines in Europe, which, together, have 8% of all airline sales in Europe, "so there's lots of market share to be gained out there."

Moreover, Ryanair has the lowest costs of any airline in Europe and $400 million euros in cash on a sturdy balance sheet.

Meanwhile, Parker sees troubled major carriers such as AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR - News) keeping their heads above water and avoiding bankruptcy "at least in the intermediate term," if the economy picks up.

US Airways will stay out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy "for a while," Parker predicts, adding that Delta and Northwest Airlines are "nowhere near going Chapter 11," and that Continental Airlines "probably won't either."

However, the better investments, Parker noted, are ones with low costs, such as the low-fare and regional feeder airlines.

-By Michelle Rama, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4046; [email protected]