Holidaymakers have accused rival travel firms and airlines of cashing in on the collapse of Thomas Cook through a hike in fares.

The airline and holiday company announced it was cancelling all flights and bookings in the early hours of Monday morning morning after it failed to secure a last-ditch rescue deal.

People who booked flights with Thomas Cook who are now trying to find replacement deals, have said that in some cases prices for the flights have tripled.

Thousands more stranded Thomas Cook passengers will be repatriated on Tuesday for free as the rescue operation continues into its second day. Around 15,000 holidaymakers were flown home on an estimated 61 flights on Monday, after the travel company collapsed.

READ MORE: Dominic Raab - Thomas Cook travellers will not be left stranded abroad

David Kirkwood posted screenshots on social media appearing to show how a holiday in Cyprus increased in cost by £800 between 7.30am and 11.30am on Monday. He described the situation as "soulless", "money grabbing" and "opportunist".

Holidaymaker Angela Mills said a flight from Glasgow to Rhodes, Greece, was £280 on Sunday, but was now £1,000.

A woman using the Twitter handle @cherrie2502 stated that she booked a Thomas Cook flight for £215 last week when a Jet2 flight on the same route was £284, but the latter has now gone up to £511.

"Way to go on price gouging," she added.

James Dunkerley claimed he had tried to book flights to Menorca before and after the airline went bust and saw a massive difference in the price of air fares.

READ MORE: Hundreds stranded in Turkey as Glasgow-bound flight grounded with technical fault

"Paid for two fights to Menorca with Barclaycard and they’ve told me to contact Thomas Cook," he wrote on social media. "Tried another flight with Jet2 and £47 yesterday £145 today. How are they allowed to do this?"

Some analysts say the price hikes reflect high demand on routes with few spare seats.

And a spokeswoman for Jet2.com said: "Our pricing, as is common practice in the travel industry, is based on the principle of supply and demand.

"As supply reduces, an inevitable consequence is that prices increase. However, we are looking at adding more supply (flights and seats) to help customers at this time."

The Civil Aviation Authority has launched a special website, thomascook.caa.co.uk, where affected customers can find details and information on repatriation flights, as well as advice on accommodation for both ATOL and non-ATOL customers.

The CAA say that due to the significant scale of the situation, some disruption is inevitable, but the it will "endeavour to get people home as close as possible to their planned dates". This will apply to both ATOL protected passengers and those who are not protected.

It says that those currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website.

It advises that Thomas Cook customers in the UK yet to travel should not go to the airport as all flights leaving the UK have been cancelled.

ATOL Protected passengers with future bookings are entitled to a full refund for their cancelled holiday.

Passengers currently overseas may also make claims for the cost of replacing ATOL protected parts of their trip, or for out of pocket expenses as a result of delayed flights home.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it would launch a service to manage all refunds by September 30 once the flying operation has progressed. This refunds service will seek to process all refunds within 60 days of full information being received.