Shares in no-frills airline Ryanair rose more than 3 percent on Tuesday as a drop in oil prices swung investor focus back to airline stocks.

Shares in Europe's biggest low-fares carrier were up 3.04 percent at 7.45 euros by 1450 GMT -- after earlier hitting 7.50 -- on a Dublin market up nearly 1 percent overall.

Oil slipped below USD$70 a barrel on Tuesday, extending a steep sell-off the previous session when fears receded of storm damage to oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Some people think oil may go even lower so Ryanair may get a chance to hedge (their fuel requirements) and that can only be good for business," one Dublin trader said.

"Also Ryanair was lagging the rest of the sector last week so we could be seeing a bit of a scramble by people who have been short on the stock," he added.

Ryanair said earlier this month it had hedged 90 percent of its fuel needs to the end of the year.

In London, UK low-cost operator easyjet was 4.5 percent higher at 454.5 pence sterling, with British Airways up more than 4 percent at 414 pence.