Travel shares tank as lockdown concerns mount
Shares of airlines such as British Airways’ (BA) owner IAG as well as Easyjet have tanked today as concerns over a possible strengthening of restrictions – including a potential Christmas lockdown – mount.
IAG went down 3.35 per cent to 127.62p, while Easyjet registered a 2.11 per cent decline to 497.70p.
According to Francesco Ragni, aviation lecturer at Buckinghamshire New University, the decline was not caused by concerns over new restrictions but as a result of countries – including France and Germany – banning travel from the UK.
“Air travel works if borders are open, any restriction reduces demand and the value of those operating in the sector,” he said.
Airlines are not the only industry stakeholders to have suffered a blow because of the potential new curbs. Rental platform Guesty revealed that talk of potential lockdowns have caused cancellation rates to increase by 25 per cent in the past three weeks.
The volume of future bookings has also gone down 17 per cent in the last three weeks, compared with the previous ones.
As concerns about the Omicron variant rise, deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said a potential Christmas lockdown cannot be ruled out. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Raab said the government is constantly keeping the possibility of introducing new curbs under review.
Raab’s words echoed those of health secretary Sajid Javid, who said yesterday that there are “no guarantees” that curbs will not be introduced during the festive period.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been presented with a range of options, Morning Wire reported, that go from asking multiple households to avoid mixing at Christmas to the return of social distancing and an 8pm curfew for pubs and bars to a full lockdown.
Johnson is expected to host a Cabinet meeting later today to discuss the best course of action, the Telegraph reported.