Easyjet shares sink on France quarantine despite £203m aircraft sale
Shares in low cost carrier Easyjet fell 5.5 per cent this morning as the government announced travellers from France would have to quarantine on return to the UK.
The news came as the airline siad that it had completed the sale and leaseback of 23 aircraft, raising an extra £608m to bolster its liquidity amid the coronavirus downturn.
In the final tranche, the airline said it had sold five planes to Jin Shan 37, a subsidiary of Bocomm, for £203m.
In total, the new deal means that since the start of the pandemic the airline has raised a total of £2.4bn through a number of different means.
Easyjet has already drawn down £600m from the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility, as well as £419m through the issue of new equity.
The carrier said that it would “review its liquidity position on a regular basis and will continue to assess any further funding opportunities”.
With the former one of the UK’s largest holiday destinations, the decision sent the FTSE’s travel stocks tumbling as markets opened.
France now joins Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg on the quarantine list, with the government pledging to remove more countries from its so-called “green list” if required.
Speaking to Morning Wire earlier this month, Easyjet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said that while there was demand to fly to quarantined countries the carrier would continue to do so.
“We will fly when we see that there is a demand to go there. If restrictions mean that you have to quarantine then it is up for the individual customers to decide whether they want to make that sacrifice or not”, he said.
The carrier is still operating its services to Spain despite existing restrictions, though Lundgren said there had been a sharp drop in sales as a result of the new rules.