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UK travel stocks buoyed by Brits booking summer holidays

Airlines and travel firms have seen a bump in demand since prime minister Boris Johnson's proposed roadmap out of lockdown was laid out on Monday afternoon. Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Airlines and travel firms have seen a bump in demand since prime minister Boris Johnson's proposed roadmap out of lockdown was laid out on Monday afternoon. Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images (Gareth Cattermole via Getty Images)

Travel stocks continued their flight on Tuesday morning as optimism reigned in the market, with the UK's roadmap out of lockdown leading people to consider booking to go abroad for the first time in months.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG.L), the company that owns carriers such as British Airways, had jumped nearly 9% by 9am in London. EasyJet (EZJ.L) was also up 8.8% and Ryanair (RYA.L) a slightly more subdued increase of 3.7%.

Package holiday supplier Tui (TUI.L) had also risen 6.8%, while cruise operator Carnival (CCL.L) was up 1.5%.

Hotels were also among the biggest risers in the market. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG.L) was up 3.8% in early trade, one of the biggest risers in the FTSE 100 (^FTSE), which itself had clocked overall gains on Tuesday morning of 0.1%.

The bump for IHG came even as the company reported a loss of $153m (£108m) in 2020 on Tuesday morning, due to crimped demand amid virus shutdowns. That was compared to a profit of $630m in 2019.

Airlines and travel firms have seen a bump in demand since prime minister Boris Johnson's proposed roadmap out of lockdown was laid out on Monday afternoon.

Johnson said that a government taskforce will produce a report by 12 April which will recommend how international trips can resume for people in England.

This could lead to foreign holidays being allowed by 17 May.

WATCH: Should I book a holiday in 2021?

In the hours after the announcement, budget airline EasyJet said bookings by UK customers for the summer season were more than four times higher compared with the same period during the previous week.

READ MORE: Summer holiday hopes send travel stocks surging

According to the data, the most popular destinations for this summer are beach resorts including Malaga, Alicante and Palma in Spain, Faro in Portugal and the Greek island of Crete. August is the most booked month, followed by July and September.

Online travel firm Thomas Cook also said traffic to its website was up 75% on Monday as people rushed to book holidays for this summer and 2022.

‘’The roadmap to reopening has accelerated the recovery in travel and hospitality stocks with fresh rises since the market open," said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

"Although international travel won’t begin until at least 17th May, news that the government’s global taskforce will reconvene in April to recommend how holidays can resume has been a boost for the industry which has been anxious for a sense of direction."

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