From today's Scotsman:
Airline shares set for freefall
Andrew Murray-Watson
SHARES in the world’s airlines are set to go into freefall when markets reopen today in the wake of the devastating terrorist air attacks on New York and Washington.
European carriers all saw their stocks slump before trading was suspended yesterday, after all flights leaving Europe to the United States were cancelled.
Aviation analysts widely believe that the Lockerbie crash in 1988 involving a terrorist bomb onboard a Pan American Boeing 747, which killed 259 people, was a primary cause behind the collapse of the airline and fear the industry could suffer in a similar manner after yesterday’s events.
Yesterday afternoon’s trading saw Lufthansa shares plummet 21.95 per cent, British Airways collapse 22.73 per cent, Air France fall 15.63 per cent and Alitalia drop 9.85 per cent.
BA, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Spain’s Iberia, Olympic Airways and Air Lingus said they had recalled flights en route to the United States.
BA and Lufthansa, Europe’s two largest carriers, added that their transatlantic flights had been re-routed - in Lufthansa’s case planes west of Greenland would land in Canada.
Meanwhile the Canadian government, which has shut all its airports, said it would only give access to US-bound planes which have been diverted, and to humanitarian missions.
Meanwhile, on the ground Rome’s Fiumicino airport and Spanish airports were put on maximum alert. Airports in Frankfurt,
Athens and Lisbon were operating normally.
Olympic’s director of flight operations, Spyros Lambropoulos, said it was too soon to measure any financial damage, though it would depend on when US airports open. Air France said it has formed a crisis team to look into the impact of the blasts.
The future for American Airlines and United Airlines, the two carriers which had plans hijacked now looks uncertain. BA has a lose alliance with American Airlines and could suffer a knock-on blow.
United Airlines it had grounded all its operations worldwide and is working with authorities after two of its aircraft were
involved in the terrorist attacks.
[ 12 September 2001: Message edited by: The Guvnor ]