Storm Stella has hit airline share prices (including British Airways owner IAG)
With Storm Stella blowing an icy blizzard on the East Coast of the United States, New Yorkers have battened down the hatches – along with airlines, which cancelled thousands of transatlantic flights today, hitting their share prices hard.
On this side of the pond, International Airlines Group, the parent company of British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus, finished the day 1.6 per cent lower, at 556p.
US operators were hit harder, with United Airlines falling 3.1 per cent to $67.65 in lunchtime trading in New York, while American fell 2.1 per cent to $41.47 and Delta Air Lines fell 1.5 per cent, to $46.64. Southwest Airlines fell 1.8 per cent, to $53.51.
Storm Stella was expected to bring heavy blizzards and drifting snow up the entire eastern seaboard, the Met Office said today. The US' National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.
There's heavy #snow 🌨️ for some in the USA thanks to a #Noreaster making its way up the eastern seaboard. Blizzards and drifting snow likely pic.twitter.com/8umlrJKW2O
— Met Office (@metoffice) March 14, 2017
Reports suggested power had been cut to 100,000 homes across the mid-Atlantic and North East in the US, with thousands of flights cancelled.
British Airways said flights on routes to JFK, Newark and Philadelphia were "significantly affected", and cancelled all flights to Boston, while Virgin Atlantic cancelled some flights to and from JFK, Boston and Washington.