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 employees have been paying tribute to the travel company on social media today.
About 21,000 jobs are at risk globally, including 9,000 jobs in the UK, due to the firm’s collapse.
About 2,400 passengers are estimated to have been affected by Thomas Cook flights which have been cancelled to and from Glasgow Airport, the Press Association has reported.
Seven inbound and seven outbound flights at the city's terminals were grounded due to the firm’s collapse.
This graph shows how Thomas Cook's fate was sealed in its final year as its share price plummeted.
Picture: Statista
Thomas Cook's collapse is a warning to other tourism operators as online sales continue to grow, says data and analytics company GlobalData.
Nick Wyatt, head of research and analysis for travel and tourism, said:
Thomas Cook’s demise was catalyzed by an accelerating consumer preference for booking holidays online with the UK online travel sales market value set to grow by 6.3 per cent between 2019 and 2020 and 8.4 per cent between 2020 and 2021 according to GlobalData forecasts.
The age of the typical package holiday tour operator is changing as increasing numbers of holidaymakers use online sites to put together their holidays themselves. The proliferation of internet resources (which range from review sites to booking platforms) has allowed the holidaymaker to play travel agent themselves, thus reducing the need for the services of companies like Thomas Cook.
Tour operators with a similar strategy and core values should now reconsider their growth strategies, listening to both consumers and employees within their workforce on how to move forward.
Data from analysts Cirium shows the impact that the collapse of Thomas Cook will have on the holiday company’s key airports, reports travel correspondent Simon Calder.
The data firm calculated that Manchester will be worst hit. The UK’s third busiest airport (after Heathrow and Gatwick) will lose 172 flight departures a week during the summer season – which ends in October.
In passenger terms, assuming 90 per cent occupancy, the loss will be 41,000 seats.
The Thomas Cook closure could be enough to see Manchester drop to fourth place nationally, behind sister airport Stansted.
Glasgow will be highly affected proportionately, with a loss of 46 departing flights and 10,600 passengers per week.
East Midlands, Newcastle and Stansted will each lose 28 flights a week, representing around 6,000 passengers for each airport.
West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway are offering holidaymakers affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook free travel or refunded tickets to and from Birmingham or Liverpool airports.
While “Operation Matterhorn” aims to repatriate 155,000 British travellers as close to the original time of travel as possible, many passengers will land at a different airport from the one they left from.
The two train operators, which are both run by a Dutch-Japanese consortium, will offer Thomas Cook customers dropped at the wrong airport free transport to the appropriate station.
They will also refund Advance train tickets which were bought for holidays which are no longer going ahead.
Holiday companies are stepping to help out those stranded by the Thomas Cook collapse.
Forest Holidays has announced it is offering all available midweek cabin breaks free of charge at all 10 of its UK locations to people who have been unable to go on holiday this week due to the demise of Thomas Cook. The breaks are available for check-in from today for a four-night stay until Friday 27 September.
Interested parties need to email complimentary@forestholidays.co.uk with proof of their booking, a contact telephone number, the number of people travelling and their preferred Forest Holidays location. Cabins will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
Elsewhere, Lanzarote Retreats has said all available accommodation will be gifted to any families left stranded in Lanzarote by the collapse. It is happy to provide services and all available accommodation to any visitors, free of charge.
Justin Francis, CEO of Responsible Travel, said Thomas Cook's demise could stem from the company losing sight of its purpose over the years:
Thomas Cook was founded by a visionary with a clear purpose - temperance.
It’s ironic, in the age of purpose driven brands, that over a long period of time Thomas Cook management lost sight of the need for a clear reason for being. They never recaptured the visionary talent of its founder or accepted that offering family orientated package holidays was not a purpose driven or defendable position.
They will be a case history of a business driving through the rear view mirror. My hope is that the name and brand can be relaunched, by someone with some vision for what customers will need in a low carbon, more biodiverse 2050.
Eric Leenders, managing director of Personal Finance at UK Finance said:
Paying with a debit or credit card can provide customers with additional protection if something goes wrong. For credit cards this protection covers the whole cost of an item or service even if the customer has only paid the deposit on credit and may cover additional reasonable expenses.
Customers who are currently travelling with or scheduled to travel with Thomas Cook and have paid by credit and debit card are advised to check whether they are ATOL protected in the first instance and if not then speak with their individual bank or card issuer.
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