Holiday stocks drop after UK travel warning over Egypt resort

Stocks in holiday companies Thomas Cook and TUI Group dropped Thursday after Britain suspended flights to Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh resort, raising the possibility of cancellations and a drop in demand for holidays to Egypt.

Britain said Wednesday it believed there was a significant possibility that an explosive device caused the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt on Oct. 31, and advised against travel through the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Shares in Thomas Cook fell 5.8 percent to 113.9 pence in early trading, while bigger rival TUI lost 1.9 percent to 1,138 pence on the anticipated hit to their businesses.

British travel association ABTA estimated there were about 9,000 customers currently on holiday in Sharm, plus an unknown number of holidaymakers who had travelled there independently.

Thomas Cook and TUI, Europe’s two biggest holiday companies, said in statements they had cancelled all flights and holidays from Britain to Sharm el Sheikh, a popular destination for Northern Europeans seeking winter sun, up until Nov. 12.

Both companies said