22,000 jobs at risk as Thomas Cook collapses

Thomas Cook, the travel company which can trace its roots back to the East Midlands, has collapsed, leaving 22,000 jobs worldwide in jeopardy and 150,000 British holidaymakers stranded abroad.

Talks to save the 178 year old firm, which was set up by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to transport temperance supporters by railway between Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham, collapsed last night (22 September).

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that the government and UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has hired dozens of charter planes to fly customers home free of charge.

All customers currently abroad with Thomas Cook who are booked to return to the UK over the next two weeks will be brought home “as close as possible” to their booked return date, says the Government.

The flights will start operating from today (23 September.

Customers are being “strongly advised” not to cut short their holiday or go to the airport without checking the website for information about their return journey.

The UK CAA is also contacting hotels accommodating Thomas Cook customers, who have booked as part of a package, to tell them that the cost of their accommodation will also be covered by the government, through the Air Travel Trust Fund/ATOL cover.

Hundreds of staff from many government departments and agencies, including the UK CAA, the Department for Transport (DfT), and the Foreign Office (FCO), will be deployed in call centres and at airports to help people.

Shapps, said:

Thomas Cook’s collapse is very sad news for staff and holidaymakers. The government and UK CAA is working round the clock to help people. Our contingency planning has helped acquire planes from across the world – some from as far away as Malaysia – and we have put hundreds of people in call centres and at airports.

But the task is enormous, the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history. So, there are bound to be problems and delays. Please try to be understanding with the staff who are trying to assist in what is likely to be a very difficult time for them as well.”

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said: “This will be a hugely worrying time for employees of Thomas Cook, as well as their customers. Government will do all it can to support them. I will be setting up a cross-government taskforce to monitor local impacts, will write to insurance companies to ask them to process claims quickly, and stand ready to provide assistance and advice.

“I will also be writing to the Insolvency Service to ask them to prioritise and fast-track their investigation into the circumstances surrounding Thomas Cook going into liquidation.”

The government has held a series of meetings to plan the operation, which is codenamed Operation Matterhorn. Further ministerial meetings will be held today.

The operation is led by the UK CAA but also involves DfT, FCO, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and other departments.

The operation is modelled on the successful repatriation of passengers after the collapse of Monarch Airways. The final cost of that operation to taxpayers was about £50m. The repatriation effort with Thomas Cook is about twice the size.

A Government statement said: “Thomas Cook’s financial problems are substantial, long-standing and well documented and government financial assistance would not have resolved them.”

Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said: “We have worked exhaustively in the past few days to resolve the outstanding issues on an agreement to secure Thomas Cook’s future for its employees, customers and suppliers. Although a deal had been largely agreed, an additional facility requested in the last few days of negotiations presented a challenge that ultimately proved insurmountable.

“It is a matter of profound regret to me and the rest of the board that we were not successful. I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years. Despite huge uncertainty over recent weeks, our teams continued to put customers first, showing why Thomas Cook is one of the best-loved brands in travel.

“Generations of customers entrusted their family holiday to Thomas Cook because our people kept our customers at the heart of the business and maintained our founder’s spirit of innovation.

“This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world.”