EUROPEAN airline bosses blasted british Prime Minister Liz Truss's new budget plan, which provoked a meltdown in the pound, reports Bloomberg.
Virgin Atlantic Airways CEO Shai Weiss said Truss should consider dropping the programme altogether, while Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary described the new budget as 'crazy.' Airlines are especially sensitive to currency swings because fuel and planes are priced in dollars.
Mr Weiss said in a briefing in London that if Mrs Truss were a company executive the natural reaction to a strategy being so badly received would be to reverse it, and that Britain should not be 'bottom of the pile' in terms of the performance of its currency.
'Liz Truss said she would make the difficult decisions on entering into the role,' Mr Weiss said. 'Maybe we need to make more difficult decisions to reverse the decline in the pound and ensure the country is not left with unsustainable perceived weakness in international eyes, which of course then impacts interest rates, consumers, mortgage rates and the entire economy.'
Mr Weiss said that while airlines are concerned at the slump in sterling versus the dollar, Virgin Atlantic is partially cushioned since almost 35 per cent of its sales originate in the US.
Virgin Atlantic remains on 'a sound footing,' Mr Weiss said, with no immediate indication of a decline in UK bookings tied to the events of the past week. Load factors for the fourth quarter should be around 85 per cent, he said. There's also a prospect of the currency trend stoking demand for US trips to the UK over coming months.
Mr O'Leary, speaking on Bloomberg Television, said the Irish firm is 'reasonably insulated' against the weakness of the pound, with sterling revenues balanced out by sterling costs from its 8,000 UK staff. The discount carrier is hedged on the dollar-euro rate at 1.24, covering its dollar-denominated aircraft purchases, and on oil at about $64 a barrel through next April, he said.
International Air Transport Association director general Willie Walsh said currency volatility has made things far tougher for UK airlines.
Mr Walsh, who formerly ran British Airways parent IAG condemned what he called 'knee-jerk government responses' aimed at courting the electorate while having a 'massive economic impact' on companies. 'I'm not sure that all of these policies were thought through.'
Virgin and Ryanair chiefs spoke out on sterling's slide after EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said that the decline was set to inflate costs, while stressing that it is comprehensively hedged on jet fuel and currency fluctuations.
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Virgin Atlantic Airways CEO Shai Weiss said Truss should consider dropping the programme altogether, while Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary described the new budget as 'crazy.' Airlines are especially sensitive to currency swings because fuel and planes are priced in dollars.
Mr Weiss said in a briefing in London that if Mrs Truss were a company executive the natural reaction to a strategy being so badly received would be to reverse it, and that Britain should not be 'bottom of the pile' in terms of the performance of its currency.
'Liz Truss said she would make the difficult decisions on entering into the role,' Mr Weiss said. 'Maybe we need to make more difficult decisions to reverse the decline in the pound and ensure the country is not left with unsustainable perceived weakness in international eyes, which of course then impacts interest rates, consumers, mortgage rates and the entire economy.'
Mr Weiss said that while airlines are concerned at the slump in sterling versus the dollar, Virgin Atlantic is partially cushioned since almost 35 per cent of its sales originate in the US.
Virgin Atlantic remains on 'a sound footing,' Mr Weiss said, with no immediate indication of a decline in UK bookings tied to the events of the past week. Load factors for the fourth quarter should be around 85 per cent, he said. There's also a prospect of the currency trend stoking demand for US trips to the UK over coming months.
Mr O'Leary, speaking on Bloomberg Television, said the Irish firm is 'reasonably insulated' against the weakness of the pound, with sterling revenues balanced out by sterling costs from its 8,000 UK staff. The discount carrier is hedged on the dollar-euro rate at 1.24, covering its dollar-denominated aircraft purchases, and on oil at about $64 a barrel through next April, he said.
International Air Transport Association director general Willie Walsh said currency volatility has made things far tougher for UK airlines.
Mr Walsh, who formerly ran British Airways parent IAG condemned what he called 'knee-jerk government responses' aimed at courting the electorate while having a 'massive economic impact' on companies. 'I'm not sure that all of these policies were thought through.'
Virgin and Ryanair chiefs spoke out on sterling's slide after EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said that the decline was set to inflate costs, while stressing that it is comprehensively hedged on jet fuel and currency fluctuations.
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