easyJet share price: Airline ‘confident’ Brexit won’t have material impact on group

easyJet (LON:EZJ) has moved to reassure investors that the UK vote to leave the European Union will not have a material impact on the group’s performance. The carrier was recently reported to be mulling setting up a separate European business in the case of a Brexit vote.

easyJet’s share price has tumbled in London this morning, having lost 16.11 percent to 1,285.00p as of 09:11 BST. The shares are underperforming the ongoing Brexit selloff in the London market which has knocked 4.23 percent off the benchmark FTSE 100 index so far this morning.
easyJet issued a statement this morning in response to the result of yesterday’s referendum which showed that the UK was in favour of leaving the EU, noting that it was ‘confident’ that the result will not have a material impact on the group’s strategy or ability to deliver earnings growth and returns to shareholders. The airline noted that its initial focus would be discussions with UK and EU governments and regulators to ensure that the UK remains part of the single EU aviation market.

“We remain confident in the strength of easyJet’s business model and our ability to continue to deliver our successful strategy and our leading returns,” the group’s chief executive Carolyn McCall said in the statement, adding that the company had written today to the UK Government and the European Commission “to ask them to prioritise the UK remaining part of the single EU aviation market, given its importance to trade and consumers”.
The statement comes after news emerged earlier this month that obtaining an air operator’s certificate (AOC) in an EU country, which would require it to establish a local holding company, was one of the options easyJet had looked at as part of contingency planning in the event of Brexit. The budget carrier is also thought to have examined making better use of its Swiss AOC and its easyJet Switzerland subsidiary if the UK secedes from the EU.
As of 09:26 BST, Friday, 24 June, easyJet plc share price is 1,533.00p.