Afia Ohemeng
The 178-year-old company Thomas Cook collapsed on Sunday night, leaving many travelers stranded and and placing an estimated 21,000 jobs at risk.
The board of the company “concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect” after all talks on a financial rescue failed.
All Thomas Cook bookings have been canceled. These include international reservations.
Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, apologized to customers, employees, suppliers and partners.
“This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world.Despite huge efforts over a number of months, and further intense negotiations in recent days, we have not been able to secure a deal to save our business. I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and cause a lot of anxiety stress and disruption,” Fankhauser said.
Thomas Cook’s business, which sells flights on its own airline, along with hotel rooms, from brick-and-mortar stores has been under pressure for years from online rivals and low-cost carriers.
The CNN reports that, Brexit has made matters worse by pushing the pound lower (and the company’s costs up) and deterring some travelers.
The collapse of the iconic UK company has had a ripple effect in Asia.
Repatriation operation underway
This is the the largest ever peacetime repatriation in the history of the United Kingdom. This tops the operation the government carried out in 2017 after the collapse of Monarch Airlines.
There are more than 150,000 UK outbound Thomas Cook customers abroad, according to the Aviation Authority.
Tim Johnson,Head of Policy at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, told CNN, “When people get to the end of their holiday, they will be brought back to the UK, we’ve chartered 40 planes and we’re going to be running over 1,000 flights over the next two weeks”
Unfortunately repatriation flights are only available for passengers whose journey started in the UK.
Customers can find details on their flights on a website launched by the aviation authority.
In a statement released by the Aviation Authority customers “currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website.”
According to Thomas Cook according to where travelers are located, return flights will be either on flights operated by the aviation authority or by existing flights with other airlines.
The aviation authority said it will sort out hotel bills in regards to Thomas Cook travelers abroad on holiday packages protected by the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence.
