BUZZ-Airlines: sector in focus as brokers shuffle ratings

** Airlines sector in focus as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) and Davy both publish notes on the sector

** Goldman says "prefer North Atlantic to cloudy Europe" - sees transatlantic routes improving, upgrades IAG to "buy" from "neutral", hikes PTs (Other OTC: PTSH - news) for AirFrance KLM ("hold"), and Lufthansa ("sell"), both of whom run long-haul routes

** Sees (Shanghai: 600481.SS - news) more risks to short-haul flights in Europe given oversupply - downgrades easyJet to "hold" from "neutral"

** Davy also cautious on easyJet, downgrading to "underperform" from "neutral" - notes Ryanair's expansion into airports dominated by easyJet

** Also downgrades Air France (Paris: FR0000031122 - news) to "underperform" from "neutral", citing the company's historically weak profitability that is likely to suffer if oil prices rise

** In a single-stock note HSBC upgrades Lufthansa (Xetra: LHAB.DE - news) to "hold" from "sell" - sees strike issues being resolved with pension deficit reducing due to higher rates

** IAG and Lufthansa both up c. 3 pct, among top performers on Stoxx 600 ; easyJet down 1.3 pct