EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the discovery of the Omicron variant had affected demand, but added: “It is difficult to tell what the impact will be. What we have seen previously is that it takes time before it settles into a new level.”

Restrictions including the move to PCR testing from today had affected confidence, he said.

“There was a softening of new bookings, but summer remains uninterrupted. Beach holidays are holding up better than cities. It’s really mostly about the short-term, this was not a surprise.”

Speaking to analysts, Lundgren predicted summer 2022 would be unaffected, although he predicted a later market.

“We are preparing ourselves for a year of two halves,” he said, with more uncertainty and a deferred booking period through the winter, but “a bounce” as the summer begins with a “later surge” back to 2019 levels.

In its latest trading statement, easyJet said it had seen an increase in transfers “with some softening of trading” in the last three months of 2021, but added: “It is really encouraging to see that we are still seeing good levels of new bookings for H2 (April to September 2022) and we still expect that Q4 FY’22 (July to September) will see a return to near pre-pandemic levels of capacity as people take their long-awaited summer holidays.”