Airlines saw one of their better days of trading since the start of the pandemic, with plans being unveiled for the reopening of airports and cut-price offers on popular holiday routes. Ryanair (LON:RYA) led the charge, with their super-budget July offers, announced just before Tuesday lunchtime.
The company’s flash summer holiday sale illustrates quite how desperate airlines are to drum up demand, with one-way flights going for; £9.99 to Lanzarote, £14.99 to Ibiza and £8.99 for Milan.
Ryanair initially said these offers are available on tickets from July 1st to July 31st, with the sale ending on Wednesday the 24th of June. However, the company decided to relaunch early, beginning flights to Spain on Sunday – the day the country lifted its border restrictions.
On Sunday, a flight to Alicante left from East Midlands Airport at 3:45pm, with a flight leaving Manchester Airport and arriving in Tenerife 5:55pm.
Commenting on the early relaunch, a Ryanair spokesperson said: “Although we are officially back with 1,000 daily flights from 1 July (across the network), some routes are starting from 21 June.”
The Airline’s CEO Michael O’Leary has said that thousands of British families have booked holidays in Spain, Portugal and Italy this summer, and from July 1st, it will also operate flights to Greece and Cyprus, which are deemed ‘key holiday airports’.
The company said it would operate the flights with safety measures such as masks, cashless transactions and limited refreshments, though the Foreign Office’s advice to passengers remains to abstain from all but essential travel.
Ryanair response
Responding to the update, Ryanair Chief Executive Eddie Wilson said:
“After four months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines.
“Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much-needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations for July and August before the schools return in September.
“Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from July 1, and we have a range of low fare seat sales, perfect for that summer getaway, which we know many parents and their kids will be looking forward to as we move out of lockdown and into the school holidays.”
Investor insights
Following the update, Ryanair shares rallied 1.68% or 0.19p 23/06/20 14:51 BST, after rallying over 3% around lunchtime. The company’s p/e ratio currently stands at 0.19.
Elsewhere, TUI (LON:TUI) hinted that it would secure air bridges with Spain and Greece to secure quarantine-free holidays in July. Despite this, the company saw its shares dip 1.60% to 425.56p. Meanwhile, British Airways saw its shares rally 1.04% to 261.70p, as it announced the recommencement of leisure flights from London City Airport, and Easyjet shares rose 0.81p to 804.07p, as it announced its London to Cyprus flights were fully booked for July.
