Airline and travel stocks take a hit following Ryanair profit drop

Airline and travel stocks have taken a tumble following Ryanair's profit slide, which it blamed on Brexit uncertainty and stuff competition in Europe.

Holiday firm Tui is the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 today, with its shares down 3.79 per cent at the time of writing.

Easyjet shares were down just over two per cent.

Read more: Ryanair shares drop as profits knocked down 30 per cent

This morning Ryanair said today its full year profit fell 29 per cent year on year to €1.02bn (£890m), blaming a fall in fares and issuing a "cautious" warning on profit for the year to come.

Shares fell nearly six per cent to hit €10.16 in early trading before recovering to stand 3.8 per cent down at €10.39 in the early afternoon.

The airline said traffic grew seven per cent to 139m passengers in the 12 months to the end of March, but said this was offset by a six per cent decline in fares.

It warned that profit in the year to come will land somewhere between €750m and €950m, down on a company poll of analyst expectations of €977m.

Ryanair had previously cut its profit forecast for the year by around a fifth in two profit warnings in October and January, blaming higher oil prices, strikes and overcapacity.

Read more: Budget airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air passenger numbers soar

Neil Wilson of Markets.com said: “Ryanair has issued a couple of profits warnings in the last year but we have little sense that things are really improving as there still a lot pressure on margins. Today’s full-year numbers and outlook cement the view that it’s a tough space to be in right now – although we would hope that summer 2019 will be the worst of it."