European aviation stocks dip as rescue euphoria wears off, Lufthansa traffic up
Renewed selling hit European stock markets yesterday as investor euphoria over the USD1 trillion eurozone rescue package faded after strong gains on Monday.
The big gainers on Monday were those that fell back most on Tuesday. Eurofly fell 5.9%, Aer Lingus 5.6%, easyJet 4.2% and Thomas Cook 3.2%.
Lufthansa Group traffic up, core volumes down
Lufthansa slipped 0.5% as the carrier revealed Group passenger traffic rose 3.7% to 6.12 million in Apr-2010, with passenger load factor rising 0.3 ppts to 76.2%. Excluding the effect of acquisitions, the core Lufthansa unit reported a 16.2% reduction in traffic, due to European airspace closures last month. Excluding the acquired Austrian Airlines and bmi, sales would have fallen 10.5%. See related report: Lufthansa losses ugly. Is this a strategy in trouble? Board still upbeat on "positive demand trends"
Aeroflot was one of the few carriers to gain yesterday, rising 2.5%. See related report: Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC): Emerging aviation markets performing well in 2010
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 11-May-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation & Yahoo! Finance