In a gung-ho interview last December, Peter Owen, then chief executive of XL Leisure, told Travel Trade Gazette he wanted to make xl.com famous. Well, he succeeded. The website was definitely the go-to destination on Friday, as stranded thousands tried to find out more about the travel group’s collapse.

That the overnight withdrawal of an estimated 7-10 per cent share of the UK tour operator market is good for the surviving participants is not in doubt. Unlike XL’s hapless passengers, Tui Travel and Thomas Cook’s shares took off on Friday. Notwithstanding the market leaders’ public expressions of sympathy and offers of help for XL’s customers, the UK number three’s demise has achieved at a stroke much of what Tui and Thomas Cook have been trying to do on their own by cutting capacity.