The city of Ermoupolis (also called Ermoupoli) is located on the Greek island of Syros.
Images of Cavan
LONDON – European travel stocks soared on Tuesday morning as customers rushed to make new reservations after the UK announced its four-step plan to end coronavirus restrictions.
Shares of Tui, the German travel group, rose nearly 7% in the early hours of European trading. International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways and Iberia, also soared more than 6% and shares of German airline Lufthansa jumped more than 4%.
The sector has been heavily affected by coronavirus restrictions, as it is recommended that people not travel abroad and, if they do, have to struggle with strict quarantine policies.
However, on Monday afternoon, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, presented his four-step plan to lift all social restrictions on June 21 and this led to an increase in new reserves.
EasyJet said Monday evening that it experienced a 337% increase in flight bookings in the UK and a 630% increase in holiday bookings following the government announcement. Tui also said bookings jumped 500% overnight.
There is a great desire to be out there and see the world and that accumulated will come back, it is only a matter of time.
Keith Barr
CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts
Greece, Spain, Turkey and Portugal were among the main destinations for the new reserves.
Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said in a statement: “We have constantly seen that there is a cumulative demand for travel and that this increase in bookings shows that the British consumer has been the signal of the government planning to reopen. the trips. waiting. “
Andrew Flintham, CEO of TUI UK and Ireland, said in an email that the Prime Minister’s announcement “was positive and shows that by working with the travel industry in a risk-based framework, our clients will have the ‘opportunity to travel abroad in summer’.
The UK lifts coronavirus restrictions in four stages from March 8 with the reopening of schools, but the whole process will depend on how the epidemiological situation evolves.
The government also said it is reviewing international restrictions on leisure travel and will announce the changes on April 12.
“We know there are customers who want to travel, there’s a huge desire to be out there and see the world and it will pick up, it’s only a matter of time,” said Keith Barr, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts said on Tuesday on CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.
“Will I make the one-day trip from London to New York for a three-hour meeting? Probably not, so there will be some impact on business travel,” Barr said when asked how likely he is. the sector changed in place -Covid world, but added that the “but the vast majority of property will get through this (crisis)”.