'It's déjà vu all over again' - Airline shares bear brunt of huge Covid sell-off

Global shares tumbled and currency markets shuddered on rising fears of a new Covid strain potentially setting back all progress the world has made over the past 20 months

Airline stocks suffered their biggest losses since the early days of the Covid crisis last year after European countries moved to ban flights from South Africa; one of the identified hotspots of the new strain.

Shares in Aer Lingus owner IAG and Ryanair slumped by as much as 15% and 12%, respectively, as the airline and travel industry bore the brunt of a huge sell-off of European stocks prompted by heightened fears of a new Covid spread.

EasyJet and Wizz Air were both down by as much as 12% and 15% respectively, while Lufthansa and Air France-KLM shed between 10% and 13% of their share values.