Rally in airlines helps Britain's FTSE edge higher

* FTSE 100 up 0.1 percent

* TUI Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) , easyJet rally after updates

* GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF - news) lower after restructuring plans

* Ex-divs also weigh on the index (Adds detail, updates with more company news)

By Alistair Smout

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - British blue chips edged higher on Thursday, supported by travel and airline stocks after a number of encouraging corporate updates from the sector.

TUI Travel rose 3.7 percent, the top FTSE 100 riser, after it said profit jumped 11 percent, beating forecasts.

Airline easyJet rose 2.3 percent, with traders saying sentiment in the travel and leisure sector had been boosted after easyJet and Irish peer Ryanair, which is not in the FTSE 100, both reported higher passenger numbers.

Ryanair was up 7.2 percent at all-time highs after lifting its profit guidance.

The sector extended a rally from Wednesday, after the UK finance minister George Osborne said he was scrapping air passenger duty for children.

"Both easyJet and Ryanair figures paint a similar picture, and in combination with the low oil price, these traffic figures are especially encouraging," Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct, said.

"The changes in air passenger duty weren't fully reflected, and that's also going to help the low-cost carriers."

The FTSE 350 Travel and Leisure sector was up 0.9 percent, taking its rally since lows on Oct. 16 to over 20 percent as the sector benefits from a lower oil price.

Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.1 percent higher to 6,723.69 at 0928 GMT.

It tilted into positive territory after a flat start, helped by a 3 percent rise for consumer goods firm Unilever after it said it plans to form a new stand-alone business unit for its struggling spreads business.

Sage group (LSE: SGE.L - news) rose 3.6 percent, with the software firm benefiting after a spate of broker upgrades following better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday.

The index recouped some of a 0.4 percent drop in the previous session. It was still up 10.6 percent from a mid-October low but was 2.8 percent off the year's high of 6,904.86, set on Sept 4.

Miners came under pressure, with Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) down 2 percent and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) down 1.3 percent after target price cuts from BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Utility Severn Trent was down 1.8 percent as it traded without entitlement to its latest dividend payout, along with Next (Other OTC: NXGPF - news) , London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) , Whtibread and Land Securities (LSE: LAND.L - news) . (Editing by Tom Heneghan)