ASX 200 travel shares are plunging today amid ongoing travel chaos.
Travel shares falling on Tuesday include Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN), Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT), and Webjet Ltd (ASX: WEB).
Let's take a look at what's impacting travel shares today.
Why are ASX travel shares falling today?
Qantas shares are down 3.42%, while Flight Centre shares are 2.26% lower. Meanwhile, the Webjet share price is sliding 2.03% in late afternoon trading.
News emerged that Qantas cancelled 6.7% of its domestic flights and just 44% of flights landed on time, the Daily Mail reported. Meantime, Virgin Airlines, a Qantas rival not listed on the ASX, cancelled 14.7% of flights.
A Qantas spokesperson told the publication it was "a pretty challenging week" all round. She added:
We appreciate how frustrating flight cancellations and delays are for customers with severe weather in New South Wales and a spike in Covid cases for operating crew impacting airline schedules over the past week.
In a recent market update, Qantas revealed it would cut domestic capacity on flights in the 2023 financial year. However, the company is also rolling out new check-in and baggage kiosks in Sydney in a bid to speed up the check-in process.
Travel shares in Australia are following a similar fall in US airline stocks on Monday. The American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ: AAL) share price fell 3.87%, while Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE: DAL) slid 1.45% and United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: UAL) shares fell 3%.
