Several airline stocks including Boeing went down on Friday after quite a few Asian and European countries announced new restrictions on travel. The place of restriction has been South Africa, because of a new Covid variant that was identified by health officials in that country. The European Union member nations decided to suspend travel from the region on Friday, a day after the UK stated that it would be temporarily suspending all flights from Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
The US will also deny entry to any visitor from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, and Mozambique. The Joe Biden administration recently announced this after the stock market closed for the weekend.
Airline Stocks Staggering Again
Airline stocks of airlines and aircraft manufacturers like Boeing had been going quite steady with a rebound in travel demand, especially after a staggering drop in cases, and after the country went on to lift most of the entry restrictions earlier this month. Aerospace and travel shares went down more than the broader market on Friday but then were pared with their earlier losses. The shares of Boeing went down 5.4% to $199.21 during the post-holiday season.
United Airlines and Delta Air Lines are currently the only carriers in the US with nonstop service scheduled to and from South Africa for the next month. The Airline stocks of United went down 9.6% to end the weekend at $42.26, while Delta went down 8.3% to end at $36.38. American Airlines went down 8.8% to $17.75. Hilton, the hotel chain, dropped 6.3% to $136.21, while Marriott ended up at 6.5% to $147.44.
Although the airline stocks were greatly rejuvenated with the restart of domestic travel, international travel has definitely been a major part of the cake that the airlines sorely missed.
