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
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Your support makes all the difference.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".
Thomas Cook’s collapse has scuppered plans for weddings and honeymoons for many British customers.
One wedding party told the Press Association that they face losing £40,000 for flights and hotels booked through the holiday company.
Meanwhile, Martin Nowell said he was “devastated” after learning that his first holiday with his partner Pixie Flageul to Egypt could not go ahead.
Another couple, Layton Roche and Natalie Wells, told the Guardian that their dream wedding in Kos, Greece, had been cancelled after they had almost 50 guests booked through Thomas Cook.
“Dreams have been crushed,” Mr Roche said.
Downing Street has defended the government’s decision to not bail out Thomas Cook, claiming it would “not have been a good use of taxpayers’ money".
A No. 10 spokesperson said:
"A bailout would not have been a good use of taxpayers' money. We would have had to repatriate people later down the line and have lost more money in the process.
"It is obviously a very competitive market and it isn't the government's role to prop up companies when this sort of issue arises.
"Our decision was that injecting cash into the situation was not going to make it any better."
The spokesperson added that there would be “serious concerns” about some of the bonuses paid to Thomas Cook’s directors before the collapse.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has released a short statement on the holiday company’s collapse.
Ms Sturgeon said her thoughts were with the Thomas Cook workers who have been affected by today’s news and their families.
AP has reported that Germany’s economy ministry has confirmed that it has received an application for a bridging loan from Condor, a subsidiary of Thomas Cook.
However, the ministry has not specified how much money Condor is asking for or said when it will decide on the application.
A figure of about 200m euros (£177m) has been reported by the news agency dpa, citing an unidentified government source.
The German government provided a loan to prevent the immediate grounding of Air Berlin after it filed for insolvency in 2017.
There's a cruel irony to this local news story – a man named Thomas Cook has told the Nottingham Post he is “devastated” because his dream wedding may be cancelled due to the collapse of the company which shares his name.
Mr Cook said he is due to marry in Rhodes, Greece, on 27 September and has spent nearly £10,000 on the trip with his partner Amelia Binch.
He added:
"Thomas Cook promised us a surprise on our wedding because of my name but this was not the surprise we were expecting.”
Tom Watson, Labour’s embattled deputy leader, has also commented on the collapse.
Like his party’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Mr Watson has asked why the government did not intervene to save the historic travel company.
Reuters has reported that Thomas Cook will be sold as a whole or in parts after its collapse, according to the company's second-largest shareholder.
Neset Kockar, who holds an 8 per cent stake in the UK-based travel company, said Thomas Cook owes "a few hundred million pounds" to Turkish businesses that may not be paid after it is sold.
Gill Furniss, Labour’s shadow minister for consumer affairs, has written to Andrea Leadsom calling for Thomas Cook bosses to lose their bonuses and asking for clarification on what support will be available to the 9,000 British workers whose jobs are at risk.
Ms Furniss also noted that MPs are currently unable to question the government on these issues due to the prorogation of parliament.
She wrote:
“In normal times, we would be putting these questions to you in the House of Commons, but the undemocratic prorogation of parliament has prevented parliamentarians from representing the people by raising this vital issue.”
The Press Association has some figures to put the repatriation effort in context:
- There are 600,000 Thomas Cook travellers who have been left stuck at 53 destinations in 18 countries.
- More than 150,000 of those are Britons.
- The airlift is almost twice the size of the repatriation effort required when Monarch went bust in October 2017.
- The final cost of the programme is expected to be around £100 million.
- Forty charter planes have been brought in from as far afield as Malaysia to assist with the mass airlift.
- All of the travel company's flights have been cancelled - that means the 105 aircraft it operates have been grounded.
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