IAG

PA Wire

Shares in travel companies have rising sharply this morning following the demise of Thomas Cook.

TUI is leading the FTSE 100 gainers, with its share price up nearly 10% at 924.2p.

International Consolidated Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, saw it share price rise by 1.5% at 485.4p.

easyJet's stock jumped by 6.2% to £11.23.

EasyJet said this morning: "We are sorry to see the news about Thomas Cook and appreciate the anxiety that their customers will be facing now.

“EasyJet is working with the CAA to provide a fully crewed A320 aircraft to support the repatriation efforts over the coming days.

“Customers can find out how to book on to the repatriation flights through the CAA website."

The FTSE 100 is trading 0.34% lower at 7,319.85. The FTSE 250 is off 0.52% at 20,064.10.

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Airline stocks are taking a hit today. One factor behind this is the higher costs from the increased price of oil.

Analyst at Bernstein have been looking at how airlines have been preparing themselves for changes the price by hedging their positions.

They conclude that IAG - owner of British Airways - is best placed while Norwegian Air Shuttle has less protection from rising oil prices.

IAG's share price is currently off around 3%, as is Wizz Air while easyJet is down 2%.

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The two-day strike by British Airways pilots is over but the airline has said that as a result nearly half of its fleet of over 300 aircraft and more than 700 pilots will start the day in the wrong place.

The company said: "We are very sorry for the disruption [pilots' union] Balpa's industrial action has caused our customers. We are working hard to get back to normal and to get our customers to their destinations.

"The nature of our highly complex, global operation means that it will take some time to get back to a completely normal flight schedule however, we plan to fly more than 90% of our flights today."

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JD Sports is powering ahead after its results published this morning.

Its shares are the biggest risers in the FTSE 100, up almost 6%.

IAG, owner of British Airways, is also in the top five risers after slipping back on Monday on concerns about the impact of the strike by its pilots. Its shares are up 4.5%.

Then three banking groups are also among the stocks reporting the day's biggest gains. Barclays is up 4.5% despite its warning after the stock market was closed on Monday that it faced fresh charges for payment protection insurance compensation claims.

Royal Bank of Scotland is also higher, up 4% while Standard Chartered has gained 3%.

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Pilots at British Airways are in their second day of strike action.

Aviation expert John Strickland, of JLS Consulting, told Wake Up To Money an industry anecdote about life as a pilot: "A pilot's life is years of boredom punctuated by minutes of sheer terror".

BBC

Shares in IAG have started to fall.

This is the company which owns British Airways, where pilots have started the first day of a two day strike.

The shares are among the biggest fallers of the morning now, down 2.3% at 420p.

Our picture, from BBC reporter Simon Jones at Heathrow, shows how quiet the airport is on what would usually be a busy Monday morning.