Scandinavian, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Cimber Sterling gain as strike atmosphere improves
Amid an environment of cost control, confrontation and change among Scandinavian airlines, the Swedish Airline Pilots Association (SweALPA) took its pilots out on strike briefly in mid-Jun-2010.
Commuter airlines were worst hit, although the majors also suffered. But, after losing ground, Norwegian Air Shuttle (+7.4%), Cimber Sterling (+6.5%) and SAS (+5.8%) all recovered strongly on Friday 2-Jul-2010, as industrial relations fears waned. This could signal a return to a more stable airline atmosphere among the Scandinavian airlines.
Since peaking at NOK133.00 in mid-Jun-2010, Norwegian Air Shuttle shed more than a quarter of its value as the strike fallout spread, bottoming at NOK97.75 on 01-Jul-2010 and rebounding to NOK105 on Friday. SAS also declined during the month, from SKR29.5 to SKR24, regaining SKR1.5 on Friday.
With markets generally up across Europe on the day (in contrast with Wall Street, where another sombre trading day led into the Independence Day weekend), most airline shares performed well. Turkish Airlines (+3.5%), Air Berlin (+3.1%) and Ryanair (+3.0%) were the larger winners. See related report: End of an era: Ryanair continues shift away from UK/Ireland
The exception was Jet2.com's parent, Dart Group, losing 4.5% on the day, after gains earlier in the week.
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 02-Jul-2010