Omicron has led to a slump in sales for WH Smith stores across train stations and airports.
Whilst high street stores were trading at 87% of 2019 levels, airport stores were trading at 58% and stores at train stations were trading at 69%.
“Looking ahead, although we are seeing a small impact from the Omicron variant, we anticipate a resumption in the recovery of our travel markets over the coming months,” said chief executive, Carl Cowling.
In the trading update, the group said: “We have seen a small impact from the Omicron variant in January but, as elsewhere, we believe this will be short term.”