Investors, apparently surprised to discover that vaccination rollout is a messy business, dumped UK travel shares on Tuesday. International Airlines Group, the holding company for UK and Spanish national carriers, dropped 4 per cent in morning trade. Hoteliers such as Whitbread and Accor fell too, trailing the broader market. The decline reflects an increasingly fractious global row over the efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.
Brits had high hopes of unfurling their beach towels this summer. In 2019, 78 per cent of UK trips were to Europe. Europe is not playing ball amid a fresh surge of Covid-19 cases. Vaccination doses administered in the EU per 100 people are running at almost one-quarter of UK levels, partly due to concerns over the AstraZeneca jab. There are supply issues too, with the UK and EU at odds over vaccine exports.
Airline shares have ducked and dived alongside vaccine hopes and fears. Carriers are a shadow of their pre-coronavirus selves. Last year’s losses reached $118bn, according to industry body Iata. But public funds have patched up balance sheets. Grounded planes helped shrink capacity ahead of the UK’s expected mid-May return to travel.