Thomas Cook news - live: 150,000 British holidaymakers wait for repatriation after Boris Johnson refuses to bail collapsed firm out

Holiday giant's collapse triggers biggest ever peacetime repatriation

Thomas Cook has collapsed after last-minute talks to save the company failed (Reuters)

Thomas Cook, the package holiday giant, has collapsed after last-ditch attempts to save the company failed.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the tour operator has “ceased trading with immediate effect”, putting more than 20,000 jobs at risk worldwide and triggering the biggest ever peacetime repatriation.

More than 150,000 British holidaymakers need to be brought home, with the government and CAA hiring dozens of charter planes to fly customers home free of charge.

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Boris Johnson admitted he had refused the company's request for a £150m rescue package, insisting that doing so would create a "moral hazard".

Key Points

• Downing Street says Thomas Cook bailout would 'not have been good use of money'
• Trade union says employees have been ‘stabbed in the back’ over firm's demise
• Labour's McDonnell says government should have stepped in with rescue package
• Essential advice for holidaymakers as travel giant collapses

[23 September 2019 09:15 · Conrad Duncan]

The head of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) has criticised the government’s response to Thomas Cook’s collapse.

Manuel Cortes has called for “immediate government intervention” to secure the future of the company.

He said:

“This need not have happened – the government had been given ample opportunity to step in and help Thomas Cook but has instead chosen ideological dogma over saving thousands of jobs.

“That they would rather hang our members out to dry instead of rescuing Thomas Cook is shameful and wrongheaded.”

He added that it would have been “cheaper and more cost effective” to save Thomas Cook rather than pay for the repatriation of 150,000 holidaymakers.

[23 September 2019 09:20 · Conrad Duncan]

Mr Cortes also said this morning that Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, has “refused” to meet the trade union to discuss the collapse.

This is what Ms Leadsom said about Thomas Cook earlier today:

[23 September 2019 09:26 · Conrad Duncan]

Labour’s shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, has called the government’s response to the collapse “disgraceful”.

[23 September 2019 09:35 · Conrad Duncan]

Labour have also said its not too late for the government to step in and rescue Thomas Cook.

Ms Long-Bailey said:

“Thanks to the government’s failure to act, staff employed by Thomas Cook may face redundancy while holidaymakers risk being left stranded overseas.   “The government must stop its recklessness and step in to avert this crisis by taking an equity stake”

The Department of Transport and CAA have admitted that the repatriation process will be "hugely complex" but insisted that holidaymakers will be brought home.

[23 September 2019 09:43 · Conrad Duncan]

Earlier this morning, the final Thomas Cook passenger flight landed at Manchester Airport after the company’s collapse.

Sky News has the video below:

[23 September 2019 09:48 · Conrad Duncan]

More from Simon Calder:

Our travel correspondent spoke to BBC News earlier about the cause of Thomas Cook's collapse.

He said internet travel services and the rise of airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair have helped bring about the holiday company’s demise.

He added:

“Thomas Cook did not keep up with the pace. It still maintained the old idea that people would dutifully go into a travel agency, they’d sit down and be told what sort of holiday they could have…

“Unfortunately, the younger generations will simply organise everything the way they want it, probably on their smartphone, and the idea of going in and talking to somebody about it doesn’t exist.”

[23 September 2019 09:55 · Conrad Duncan]

About 50,000 Thomas Cook customers are currently in Greece, according to the country's tourism minister, with about 22,000 of them expected to be flown home over the next three days, AP reports.

Haris Theocharis has said more than a dozen flights are due on Monday at the western islands of Zakynthos, Cephallonia and Corfu, as well as other popular Greek destinations, to start the repatriation effort.

He added that the company's collapse would deliver a strong blow to Greece's key tourism industry, which accounts for about a fifth of the country’s economy.

Matina Stevis-Gridneff, an EU correspondent for the New York Times, agreed that the collapse would have serious consequences for Greece’s tourism industry.

[23 September 2019 10:01 · Conrad Duncan]

Aito, the British-based travel industry trade group, has said the effects of Thomas Cook’s collapse will “reverberate throughout the UK travel industry for many months”.

Derek Moore, Aito’s chairman, said it would cause “considerable human and business cost” in the travel and hotel industries.

The trade group has also called for a levy on airline seat sales, saying a repeat of repatriation of non-protected purchases, first implemented after the Monarch collapse, “undermines the whole Atol-protection system”.

[23 September 2019 10:05 · Conrad Duncan]

The first repatriation flight has left John F Kennedy International Airport in New York with more than 300 passengers heading to Manchester, the CAA has announced.

It is expected to arrive at 5pm today.

[23 September 2019 10:26 · Conrad Duncan]

There is a lot of anger going round from customers who have been affected by Thomas Cook's collapse.

Here is a selection of responses from some of the customers who have had their flights cancelled: