(Adding details, comment)
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Thomas Cook's collapse
boosted shares in TUI and budget airlines easyJet
and Ryanair on Monday as investors pinned hopes
on the tour operator's closure cutting capacity in the saturated
European holiday market.
The world's oldest travel firm went out of business on
Monday, stranding some 600,000 holidaymakers around the globe
and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in
British history involving some 150,000 travellers.
At 0725 GMT, rival tour operator TUI was up as much as 8.4%
at its highest since February, easyJet was up 6.1% and Ryanair
was 2.6% higher, the three top gainers on the pan European STOXX
600 index.
The FTSE 350 travel and leisure index rose to
its highest level in almost a year.
"Thomas Cook's collapse likely brings bad news for holiday
makers and UK/German governments, but takes capacity out and
likely will boost shares most exposed to its markets," said one
dealer.
In London, Dart Group which runs package holiday
company Jet2holidays was up 8.7% after hitting its highest level
since May 21.
FTSE small-cap listed On the Beach was up 1.6% as
hopes it will gain market share offset news the company will
book a one-time charge due to the collapse.
"The removal of Thomas Cook’s capacity from the market
should be positive for pricing in the short term, over the
forthcoming winter season," Liberum analysts said in a note.
Budget airlines easyJet and Ryanair benefited from the
demise of Monarch Airlines and Thomas Cook is considerably
bigger.
(Reporting by Josephine Mason; editing by Tommy Wilkes and
Jason Neely)
