British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE:IAG) led London’s FTSE 100 stocks as expectations grow for a great summer for the travel sector.
A positive update from Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) helped boost the mood, with the eastern Europe-focused budget airline reporting a surge of 542% in traffic in April.
What’s more, expected spending by leisure and business travellers in UK, France, Germany and USA over the next 12 months moved closer to pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest survey by UBS.
Leisure travellers expect to spend on average 3% less than pre-Covid level on transportation and hotels and business travellers 4% less over the next 12 months, compared to 10% and 9% in the previous survey a year ago.
“We see an improved trend for leisure and business travel spend intentions across all countries over the [next 12 months],” UBS said.
The number of leisure and business flights that respondents expect to undertake in the coming 12 months are much lower than 2019 levels, with 14% and 28% respectively lower for leisure and business flights.
Survey respondents in the UK and Germany expect to take more flights than last year, though on average the expectations for numbers of leisure flights is little different at 3.1 compared to 3, with business at 3.9 in 2022 versus 3.7.
When asked what are the most important considerations in deciding how to travel abroad, respondents continued to place cost, safety and destination distance as the top three criteria.
IAG shares were up 2.5% at 147.56p, leaving them still down almost 28% over the past 12 months, while Wizz climbed 4% mid-morning but flattened off to 3,193.75p, down 34% over the past year. easyJet PLC (LSE:EZJ) was up 2% in early trading but also flattened off, to sit 36% lower over 52 weeks.