Easyjet shares rose nearly 10% on Tuesday after the low-cost carrier reported a spike in summer ticket sales, hours after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined England’s proposal route from his third COVID-19 lockdown.
Flight bookings from the UK jumped 337%and vacation bookings rose 630%, with vacation trips to Málaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro and Crete among the top travel destinations and August being the most popular travel time, easyJet
EZJ,
said in a statement.
Johnson said the government’s global travel task force would release a report on April 12th recommending how to safely resume international travel. He said this will “give people time to make plans for the summer”. The ban on most international travel is in effect until May 17th.
EasyJet’s shares, which are up more than 17% so far this year, rose 9.12% on Tuesday morning in London. Owner of the British Airways International Airlines Group
IAG,
rose by 8%, while tour operator TUI
TUI,
was up 6%.
Johan Lundgren, managing director of easyJet
ESYJY,
Johnson’s announcement “gave the airline’s UK customers a much-needed boost in confidence.”
“We have seen time and time again that there is pent-up demand for travel and this surge in bookings shows that this signal from the government to reopen travel was what UK consumers have been waiting for,” he said.
Read: Welcome home: arrivals from the UK from high-risk countries check into quarantine hotels
TUI
TUI1,
Europe’s largest tour operator, said travel destinations in Greece, Spain and Turkey were the most booked nights with people starting to travel around July.
Thomas Cook travel agency said the BBC The traffic on his website increased more than 100% on Monday. Bookings for countries like the Dominican Republic, Greece, Cyprus and Mexico have been “flooded”.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said travel stocks were optimistic about the promise of a saved summer season. However, he warned that “international travel will remain problematic and subject to restrictions, isolation and testing” even though bookings have skyrocketed.
In early February, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC that this was the case too early To book and forbid holidays at home or abroad until “everyone” has received a COVID-19 vaccine.
The number of people in the UK who received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has now exceeded 17.7 millionaccording to government data.
Johnson also released the latest data on the vaccine’s effectiveness on Monday, with Public Health England finding that one dose of the shot came from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer
PFE,
and his partner BioNTech
BNTX,
Reduces hospital stays and deaths by at least 75%. Analysis of the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca
AZN,
The vaccine, which was developed in partnership with Oxford University, continues with promising early results, Johnson said.
The government is aimed at everyone aged 50 and over and people with
underlying health conditions to have been offered an initial dose
of the vaccine by April 15th and a second dose by mid-July.
Read: The COVID-19 hotel quarantine from high risk countries will begin in the UK on February 15
The hotel holdings were also bolstered by Johnson’s roadmap with InterContinental Hotels, owner of Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza
IHG,
add around 2.15% on Tuesday. White bread
WTB,
that owns Premier Inn rose 1.97%.
IHG
IHG,
said Tuesday that 2020 was the toughest year in its history as it reported an operating loss for the group of $ 153 million for the year ended December 31, compared to earnings of $ 630 million the previous year.
“The year 2021 has begun as many of these challenges remain. Further significant recovery on the path to recovery for the industry is unlikely by the end of the year, and depends on global vaccine rollouts, restrictions being lifted and economic activity accelerating “IHG CEO Keith Barr said in a statement.
Vacation bookings spiked after England tabled plans to gradually ease COVID-19 restrictions.
adrian dennis / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
