IYT vs JETS

IYTBiShares U.S. Transportation ETF

JETSCU.S. Global Jets ETF

In short

IYT The original transports ETF: listed in 2003, tied to the Dow Jones Transportation Average until 2021, now tracking a capped S&P index of roughly 40 railroads, truckers, airlines and freight names.

JETS Airlines, straight up. Where its transport-fund peers spread across rails and truckers, JETS buys the carriers, the plane makers and the airports, weighting the four largest U.S. airlines heaviest. Live since 2015.

Stated mandate

IYT The fund seeks to track the investment results of an index made up of U.S. transportation-sector equities. It uses representative sampling and generally invests at least 80% of assets in the index's component securities.

JETS The Fund seeks to track the performance of the U.S. Global Jets Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• IYT Costs 0.37% a year with no waiver involved, below the median for its eight-fund transportation category and a hair above XTN's 0.35%.
• Trading since October 2003 and still one of the more actively traded funds in its category, a billion-dollar-plus fund in a corner of the market full of small ones.
• The index is float-cap weighted with a cap limiting how large any one stock can get, so a single giant railroad cannot swallow the fund. Large, mid and small caps all qualify.ishares.comspglobal.com
• One ticker for the whole freight complex: railroads, truckers, air freight and delivery, plus passenger airlines and ground transport.ishares.com

• JETS A tiered index rather than pure market cap: the four largest U.S. carriers get the fattest slices, then smaller airlines, manufacturers and airports step down from there.usglobaletfs.com
• Global by design. The index screens airline companies listed on exchanges worldwide, so non-U.S. carriers and airport operators sit alongside the big domestic names.usglobaletfs.com
• Reconstituted and rebalanced every March, June, September and December, so weights snap back to the rulebook instead of riding whichever airline just ran.usglobaletfs.comsec.gov
• Actively traded for a niche sector fund, which makes it one of the easier ways to step in and out of this corner of the market.

Worth knowing

• IYT About 40 stocks in one cyclical sector. Moves with freight volumes, fuel and shipping rates, so it can wander far from the broad market for long stretches.
• The benchmark switched in July 2021 from the Dow Jones Transportation Average to the current S&P index, so older performance history reflects a different lineup.ishares.com
• Pays quarterly, but this is a sector equity fund: payouts follow whatever the holdings declare, not a set rate.

• JETS The 0.60% fee matches the category median but runs well above broad-transport options like XTN (0.35%) and IYT (0.38%), which own railroads and truckers too.
• One industry, roughly 40 stocks, top tier deliberately oversized. Moves can be sharp and can look nothing like the broad market.usglobaletfs.com
• Cash comes back once or twice a year, not quarterly or monthly.

Full IYT profile⁠

Full JETS profile⁠