Travel hit by new bird flu outbreak
Travel companies are being hit by new fears of a bird flu outbreak, with share prices falling sharply.
Shares in British Airways’ parent IAG have slipped 17.4p to 234.9p and easyJet’s share price has fallen 70p, said the Telegaph.
TUI Travel shares have lost 14.6p while Thomas Cook has seen a 7.9p drop.
An unnamed airline analyst told the paper that the sector was reacting to fears of a new bird flu pandemic in China. "For now, investors are pricing in the worst, although if you look back four years ago, Chinese authorities did a good job dealing with it then, and the airline sector didn’t suffer much."
China has ordered the slaughter of 20,000 birds, including every bird in a local market in Shanghai where the sale of live birds has also been suspended, following the latest outbreak which has so far killed six people.
An outbreak in 2003 killed 360 people, mostly those who had close contact with birds.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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