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* Air China 3rd most valuable airline amid market tumult
* Delta, Southwest highest by market cap
* Airlines hardest hit by virus
By Josephine Mason
LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - The rapid spread of coronavirus
has wiped almost a third - or $70 billion - off the world's top
20 listed airlines and reshuffled global rankings, elevating Air
China into third place behind U.S. rivals, an analysis by
Reuters shows.
The airline sector has been hit hardest by the outbreak of
coronavirus, with falling ticket demand and Italy in lockdown
forcing carriers to cancel routes and slash costs to survive the
mounting crisis.
With the investor sell-off accelerating, United Airlines
has lost its number three position in the global line-up
to Air China.
The U.S. carrier's market capitalisation has halved to $11.6
billion, the lowest since 2003, since the start of the year,
leaving it also lagging behind Europe's low-cost carrier Ryanair
.
Air China has been relatively unscathed - its market cap was
$15 billion on Tuesday, compared with $19 billion on Jan. 2.
The scale of the rout has been breathtaking.
Wizz Air, a budget carrier focused on central European
routes, is now more highly valued than Air France-KLM, and the
world's most valuable airline, Delta Air, has seen more than $10
billion knocked off its value this year, taking its market cap
to about $28 billion, the lowest since September 2016.
Market cap of top listed 20 airlines measured in $ billion:
Mar-10 Jan-02 % change
Delta Air 27.9 38.2 -27
Southwest 22.6 28.9 -22
Air China 15 18.9 -21
Ryanair 13.8 18.4 -25
United 11.6 22.7 -49
BA-owner IAG 10.8 16.6 -35
Singapore 6.8 8.1 -16
American 6.3 12.7 -50
Air Canada 5.8 10.2 -43
Lufthansa 5.7 8.4 -32
easyJet 5.1 7.2 -29
Cathay Pacific 5 5.8 -14
Qantas 4.4 7.5 -41
JetBlue 3.8 5.5 -31
Wizz 3.2 3.8 -16
Air France-KLM 2.5 5 -50
Korean Air 1.9 2.3 -17
Spirit 1.5 2.9 -48
Finnair 0.6 0.9 -33
SAS 0.4 0.6 -33
Norwegian Air 0.2 0.7 -71
Total 154.9 225.3 -31
(Reporting by Josephine Mason; Editing by Jan Harvey)
8 May 2024 16:54
LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Shares rise as eyes turn to Bank of England
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London closed higher on Wednesday, with the FTSE 100 achieving another record high and markets in a confident mood ahead of Thursday's Bank of England decision.
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