Airline shares fall on UK seat tax plan

Geoff Percival Shares in Europe’s main airlines fell sharply after the British government said it would consider an independent proposal to charge carriers a seat tax in order to cover the cost of transporting stranded passengers if an airline goes bust.

Shares in Europe’s main airlines fell sharply after the British government said it would consider an independent proposal to charge carriers a seat tax in order to cover the cost of transporting stranded passengers if an airline goes bust.

Ryanair’s share price fell by over 2.2%, while Aer Lingus-owner IAG was down by over 2.3%. Lufthansa and Air France-KLM both tumbled by over 3% and EasyJet was down by nearly 1.4%.