Shares in BA owner plummet as luggage chaos continues
Shares in the owner of British Airways have nosedived into the red as Bank Holiday travellers still wait for their luggage after the weekend travel chaos.
Around 75,000 passengers were affected as BA planes at Gatwick and Heathrow airports remained grounded from Saturday to Monday because of a "catastrophic" IT failure.
Shares in International Consolidated Airlines Group fell around 3% in the first day of trading in London - the same day the company confirmed it will operate a full flight schedule from Gatwick and Heathrow.
It came after free-falling company shares in Spanish trading on Monday wiped around 410 million euro (£357 million) off the stock.
Yet the airline confirmed a "significant number of customers" were still to receive their luggage after the disruption.
Market experts said the firm faces seven-figure compensation and refunds alongside long-term concerns over the BA brand.
"BA may have confirmed that it is now running a full schedule of flights, but investors in IAG, BA's parent company, are counting the cost of a calamitous Bank Holiday weekend," said George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"While the costs of passenger compensation and refunds could well run into the tens of millions, the whole sorry episode has undeniably put a dent in BA's reputation for delivering a premium service."
He added: "The worry for shareholders is that this unquantifiable impact could have longer-term consequences."
BA's chief executive denied the outsourcing of jobs had caused the IT failure.
Alex Cruz apologised "profusely" for the hardship caused to customers and insisted a similar incident would never happen again.
The sharp fall in IAG shares came as other airlines suffered.
Ryanair saw its stock drop nearly 1% after its full-year results revealed further cuts to fares while easyJet shares fell by more than 1%.