Travel stocks are being lifted by reports that the proposed coronavirus quarantine rule for people entering the UK may be relaxed.
The current plan is that from 8 June anyone flying into the Britain will have to quarantine themselves for 14 days, with a fine of £1,000 for breaches.
But as the travel industry has protested that this will be damaging, the government is examining ways of softening the quarantine rule over the coming months, according to press reports on Tuesday.
Some professions such as lorry drivers, police officers, healthcare workers and seasonal farm workers are exempt and a minister told the BBC this list may be extended.
Travellers from the Irish Republic, Channel Islands and Isle of Man are currently exempt and the idea of ‘air bridges’ with other countries has been discussed by ministers, where passengers from places with low levels of COVID-19 would be exempt from quarantine.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a long-time fan of bridges, is in favour of the air bridge policy, a senior government source told the Daily Telegraph.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said short haul operators easyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), Ryanair Holdings plc (LON:RYA) and Wizz Air PLC (LON:WIZZ) were “likely to recover fastest” and that while a relaxation of the quarantine rules would help demand for IAG’s (LON:IAG) British Airway, “most of the group's profits are from long haul, where demand is likely to recover more slowly and airspace to key markets such as the US has not yet reopened”.
Shares in IAG and easyJet were up 3% to 249.49p and 726.4p respectively by noon on Tuesday, with Ryanair nearer 2.5% at €12.12 and Wizz up 1.5% at 3,482p.
Online tour operator On The Beach Group PLC (LON:OTB) was up almost 2% at 308.2p, while TUI AG (LON:TUI) was up 7% to 473.8p despite being downgraded to 'sell' by Berenberg.