Global airline, travel stocks slide as Israel strikes Iran

(Reuters) -Global airline stocks tumbled in premarket trading on Friday as Israel's widescale strikes on Iran drove a more than 9% surge in oil prices and prompted carriers to clear out the airspace over Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan.

Travel and leisure stocks also fell as Iran's retaliation raised fears of supply disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global chokepoint for about a fifth of the world's total oil consumption.

Iran has in the past threatened to close the strait for traffic in retaliation to Western pressure.

"If oil is caught in the crossfire, we anticipate that President Trump will seek OPEC spare barrels to try to keep a lid on prices and shield US consumers from the economic impact of the Middle East conflict" RBC analyst Helima Croft said.

Meanwhile, carriers scrambled to divert and cancel flights to keep passengers and crew safe, Flightradar24 data showed.

Shares of European airlines, Lufthansa fell almost 5% on the Tradegate platform, while Air France-KLM and EasyJet were down as much as 4%.

U.S.-based airlines Delta, American and United slid between 4% and 5% in premarket trading.

Concerns of a prolonged disruption gripped the travel industry too.

Shares of cruise operators such as Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Corp, were down between 3% and 4%, while online travel agencies Booking Holdings and Expedia were down about 1.5%.

Conflict-driven uncertainties lifted crude prices by about 9%, boosting shares of U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron more than 3% in premarket trade.

Stocks of top oilfield services companies SLB, Halliburton and Baker Hughes jumped between 4% and 5%.

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Tristan Veyet in Gdansk, Arunima Kumar and Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Alun John, Arpan Varghese)