By Victoria Bryan
BRUSSELS, June 28 (Reuters) - Airline bosses sought toreassure investors on Tuesday, saying the industry'sfundamentals remained strong and the effects on demand fromBritain's vote to leave the European Union would be short-lived.
Shares in European airlines such as IAG, Ryanair, Lufthansa, Wizz Air and easyJet have tumbled since Britons voted in favour of "Brexit"on Thursday, but recovered some ground on Tuesday.
"We are going through a little bit of turbulence because ofa seismic political decision," easyJet Chief Executive CarolynMcCall said at a meeting of industry group Airlines For Europe (A4E) in Brussels on Tuesday.
"The demand environment is strong. It hasn't changed becauseof the vote," she said, adding that pressure on pricing wasmainly as a result of easyJet and low-cost rival Ryanair addingcapacity to the market.
"Does anyone seriously believe people in Europe will stopflying? I don't think so," Willie Walsh, boss of British Airwaysparent IAG said.
He said air traffic control strikes, which A4E said cost theEuropean economy 9.5 billion euros ($10.5 billion) over the lastsix years, were more problematic because they stopped the groupfrom flying its customers to their destinations.
EasyJet said repeated strikes this year were also the mainreason behind its profit warning on Monday.
Meanwhile the chief executive of Norwegian Air Shuttle, Bjoern Kjos, said the Brexit vote hadn't affectedbookings, and that the weakness of sterling could encourage morepeople to travel to Britain.
IAG cut its 2016 profit expectations on Friday as a resultof the vote. Walsh said corporate customers had been cautiousahead of the vote and that uncertainty would mean that cautioncontinues a bit longer.
"Our expectation was, had it been a vote to remain we wouldhave seen demand from corporates bounce back. But ultimately,people will understand what it means and then the world will geton again, so it's short term," he told Reuters.
Airlines and airports are now pushing for the UK governmentto negotiate to remain part of the single European aviationmarket. Should Britain not be able to agree that easyJet willset up an aircraft operator's licence in an EU country and Irishcarrier Ryanair will establish a UK one, their CEOs said.
On a lighter note, Michael O'Leary, one of the most vocalcampaigners for a 'remain' vote in the referendum, said Ryanairwould play on both Brexit and England's exit on Monday nightfrom the Euro 2016 soccer tournament with a new marketingcampaign featuring the faces of leading 'Leave' advocate BorisJohnson and the now former England soccer coach Roy Hodgson.
"The ads will say ... 'Get another cheap flight to Europefor inspiration or to learn how to play football'," he said.($1 = 0.9042 euros) (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
easyJet (EZJ)