The UK aviation sector could be on the cusp of a strong week, with Boris Johnson's hopes that international travel could pick up in mid-May leading to a booking boom.
On Friday, IAG, which owns British Airways, among other things, presented its financial statements for the corona year 2020. The operating loss during the fourth quarter amounted to 1.5 billion euros, equivalent to 15 billion SEK, which meant a loss of the equivalent of 75 billion SEK for the full year.
The company does not dare to give any forecasts about the future, but CEO Luis Gallego states that despite the blood-red numbers, there is reason to feel optimistic about the summer.
”"We have seen a big increase in flight and holiday bookings for the summer following the announcement from the British government," he said at the conference call, according to Bloomberg, referring to the plan for reopening society that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson presented earlier this week.
Against the backdrop of the country's vaccination program, where more than a quarter of the population has already received a first shot of the vaccine, there are hopes that international travel can be green light on May 17.
During the week, several companies have reported that Britons have started booking their summer trips. According to the low-cost airline Easyjet, ticket sales quadrupled in the hours after Boris Johnson's speech on Monday, writes Bloomberg. Charter operator TUI announced at the same time that bookings to Spain, Turkey and Greece increased six-fold compared to the day before, while Ryanair noted strong demand for trips to Italy.
Following the booking boom, hard-pressed airline shares have risen significantly in the past week. After Friday's report, IAG is trading up 3.9 percent on the London Stock Exchange, which means that the share has risen a total of 16 percent this week. Easyjet has risen around 20 percent during the week while TUI, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, has advanced by about the same amount.
The gains have also spread to other airlines in Europe. Air France-KLM is up 14 percent over the past five days, while German Lufthansa has risen 11 percent over the week.
In the Nordics, the gains are not as clear. Finnair is up 9 percent while Norwegian has risen 8 percent, despite today's report drop of almost 7 percent. SAS, which released its accounts on Thursday, is up a marginal 1.8 percent over the five-day period.
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