£15BILLION AIRLINE ROUT

BA and Easyjet among shares hammered in...

Major airlines have seen more than £15bn wiped off their value in just six days as coronavirus clobbers the travel industry.

Efforts by central banks to reassure investors’ frayed nerves helped prop up the FTSE 100 yesterday.

But it was not enough to prevent another rout on airline stocks, as shares in British airways owner IAG plunged another 8.2pc. It means 30pc – some £3.8bn – has been wiped off the aviation giant’s value in just six days of trading.

Easyjet was also among the FTSE fallers, and like IAG is now worth 30pc less than when the markets opened last Monday.

Dart, the owner of jet 2, fell 9pc yesterday, meaning the company has lost 41pc of its value in just over a week.

as Ba and ryanair cancelled hundreds more flights, one analyst described airline stocks as ‘in the doldrums’, while another warned they could thwart any recovery in the stock market.

on another turbulent day for the travel industry, the Bank of England attempted to calm investors reeling after the worst week on the stock markets since the financial crisis.

Echoing statements from other central banks, including the US Federal reserve, it said it was working to ‘ensure all necessary steps are taken to protect financial and monetary stability’.

The statement appeared to provide some consolation to investors as the FTSE100 edged up 1.1pc or 74 points to 6654.89.

Having warned last week that bookings will be hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Ba announced it is cancelling another 204 flights between March 17 and 28.

This includes flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick to New York’s JFK airport and much of Europe, including France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and austria.

ryanair also announced it is cancelling up to a quarter of its flights to and from Italy, which has been badly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. It said there had been a ‘significant step up in passenger no shows’. The budget airline said there had been a ‘notable drop in bookings’ but that it was too early to tell what impact the deadly disease would have on its earnings.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, warned airlines and travel companies could hold back a wider stock market recovery. He said: ‘For this rebound to stick you really need to see a rebound in travel and leisure.’