IAG shares tumble as investor optimism fades over lockdown easing

International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) saw its shares close 4% lower on Monday, as investor optimism fades over the easing of lockdown restrictions, with the aviation industry still in turmoil amid the Covid-19 crisis.

The company’s CEO Willie Walsh was quick to condemn the UK’s 14-day quarantine plan, speaking about the issue at a transport select committee held by the House of Commons.

Under the quarantine plan, aircraft passengers entering the UK will have to remain in quarantine for two weeks, with Walsh arguing that the strategy will only make things worse for the airline industry.

‘The announcement yesterday of a 14-day [quarantine] period coming into the UK is definitely going to make it worse. There’s nothing positive in anything that I heard the Prime Minister say yesterday,’ Walsh said.

‘We had been planning to resume on a pretty significant basis flying in July. I think we’ll have to review that based on what the Prime Minister said yesterday.’

‘I don’t think anybody believed that the UK government would actually implement it if they were serious about getting the economy moving again,’ he added.

IAG closed at 185p per share on Monday.

Spain calls for common EU response to airline crisis

Nadia Calvino, Spain’s economy minister, has called on the European Union (EU) to help support the airline industry from the economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis, with the aim of maintaining a ‘level playing field’.

Her remarks were made in a recent interview with Bloomberg, where she said that the EU must look beyond national borders and provide airlines the financial support they need, rather than worrying about competition concerns.

‘The European Commission is keeping a very close eye to make sure there is no breach of the competition rules and that we don't end up with a very unlevel playing field because of the different capacity of government to support the different airlines,’ she said.

‘They are all hit in the same manner. We should provide a European response,’ she added.

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