Away from the Greek crisis and the political uncertainty in the UK, another background worry is the Icelandic volcano, brought to mind since both Easyjet and TUI Travel have today revealed the financial damage caused by the ash cloud.
Easyjet shares have dropped 16.5p to 425.7p - a near 4% decline - after the budget airline said the disruption cost it between £50m and £75m. As a result it has cut its full year profit guidance from a range of £175m-£200m to £100m-£150m. At the same time it reported a slightly smaller than expected pre-tax loss of £78.7m, due to a drop in fuel prices.
Meanwhile TUI is down 6.5p at 252.2p as it reported a £90m hit so far from the volcanic disruption. It had to cancel more than 175,000 holidays and repatriate 180,000 customers who were stranded because of the ash cloud. Its first half loss widened from £333m to £367m.
And of course this may not be the end of the story. European airports have already been disrupted again as clouds of ash continue to drift over the continent, with another seven Spanish airports closed this morning.
