{"text":[[{"start":11.59,"text":"Investors, apparently surprised to discover that vaccination rollout is a messy business, dumped UK travel shares on Tuesday. "},{"start":19.119,"text":"International Airlines Group, the holding company for UK and Spanish national carriers, dropped 4 per cent in morning trade. "},{"start":26.061999999999998,"text":"Hoteliers such as Whitbread and Accor fell too, trailing the broader market. "},{"start":30.079,"text":"The decline reflects an increasingly fractious global row over the efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab. "}],[{"start":37.1,"text":"Brits had high hopes of unfurling their beach towels this summer. "},{"start":40.592,"text":"In 2019, 78 per cent of UK trips were to Europe. "},{"start":44.534,"text":"Europe is not playing ball amid a fresh surge of Covid-19 cases. "},{"start":48.464,"text":"Vaccination doses administered in the EU per 100 people are running at almost one-quarter of UK levels, partly due to concerns over the AstraZeneca jab. "},{"start":56.982,"text":"There are supply issues too, with the UK and EU at odds over vaccine exports. "}],[{"start":62.02,"text":"Airline shares have ducked and dived alongside vaccine hopes and fears. "},{"start":66.287,"text":"Carriers are a shadow of their pre-coronavirus selves. "},{"start":69.57900000000001,"text":"Last year’s losses reached $118bn, according to industry body Iata. "},{"start":74.834,"text":"But public funds have patched up balance sheets. "},{"start":77.539,"text":"Grounded planes helped shrink capacity ahead of the UK’s expected mid-May return to travel. "}],[{"start":83,"text":"That timetable now looks ambitious. "},{"start":85.667,"text":"Even assuming it sticks, carriers need to restructure how they operate. "},{"start":89.547,"text":"Short-haul, cheaper flights — think stag party in Croatia or beach trips to France — will be more in demand than trans-Pacific journeys. "},{"start":97.064,"text":"Airlines will probably need incentives to lure people aboard, be it with free luggage allowances or discounted tickets. "}],[{"start":103.5,"text":"The scale remains daunting. "},{"start":105.704,"text":"To achieve a 20 per cent reduction in capacity and 2.5 per cent price cut requires more than two-fifths of fixed cost reduction to return to pre-crisis profitability, think Bernstein analysts. "}],[{"start":117.39,"text":"Hotels face a similar conundrum. "},{"start":119.957,"text":"Some customers will permanently disappear, with business travellers using video calls instead of flying visits. "},{"start":126.062,"text":"As furlough schemes wind down, payrolls will go up. "},{"start":129.367,"text":"Bulls envisaging a rerun of the Roaring Twenties on the back of pent-up demand may demur, but room prices will probably decrease as hoteliers fight to fill them. "},{"start":137.622,"text":"Accor, with its greater exposure to Europe, can expect to lag behind peers such as Whitbread and InterContinental Hotels. "}],[{"start":144.8,"text":"Despite the recent hype, both sectors will need years to return to pre-coronavirus levels of demand; profitability could take longer still. "},{"start":152.704,"text":"Investors, like holidaymakers, are advised to sit it out for a while longer. "}],[{"start":157.31,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/36162-1616527585.mp3"}