General Chat

Haven't seen a post on this yet hope I have not missed it.

Thomas Cook has collapsed after last-minute negotiations aimed at saving the 178-year-old holiday firm failed.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the tour operator had "ceased trading with immediate effect".

It has also triggered the biggest ever peacetime repatriation, aimed at bringing more than 150,000 British holidaymakers home.

Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook's chief executive, said the firm's collapse was a "matter of profound regret".

Commenting as the company entered compulsory liquidation, Mr Fankhauser also apologised to the firm's "millions of customers, and thousands of employees".

The tour operator's failure puts 22,000 jobs at risk worldwide, including 9,000 in the UK.

The BBC's Transport Correspondent Tom Burridge said that 16,000 holidaymakers are booked to come back on Monday. Authorities hope to get at least 14,000 of them home on chartered flights.

The government has chartered 45 jets to bring customers home and they will fly 64 routes today in an undertaking dubbed Operation Matterhorn. The size of the fleet will make it temporarily the UK's fifth-largest airline.

Operators including EasyJet and Virgin have supplied some aircraft, with jets coming from as far afield a

My SiL and her Hubby were due to travel to Crete on Tuesday on a package but due to the uncertainty had already decided that they wouldn't go and were prepared to lose their money. They will now get their money back.

Also, our next door neighbours flew to Turkey with TC last Wednesday for a two week holiday.

This collapse is going to affect a huge number of people both now and in the future.

I do feel for all those who are on holiday now and hope that there is not too much hassle getting back home.....such mammoth task!

Such a worry for those away from home, although they will be brought back it may not be the same time and it is the uncertainty, especially if you have little ones or if you are on medication and not taken any extra with you.

I think it will affect all future holidays too, they had so many customers to places like the Canaries that the other airlines are going to have to absorb them. Watch the price go up now! OK I am cynical but it is what often happens.

The anticipated enjoyment of such holidays abroad are apt to be decimated by worry of reaching the chosen destination plus a safe & speedy return home at the end.

And lets no forget the airline's staff job losses.

Thomas Cook have been in trouble for years, borrowing heavily to stay afloat.. Listening to theToday programme on Radio 4 this am, it appears that the money that top management have taken out of this ailing company is mind boggling and totally disgraceful! There is talk of trying to claw some of this back, but it would appear to be a forlorn hope. I think a lot of people will be put off package holidays after this!

The other item of news connected with this is that hotels in Tunisia are apparently holding Thomas Cook tourists hostage, refusing to let them go to the airport, because they haven't been paid.

Hotels not being paid is not just a Thomas Cook thing. It is standard practice for holiday firms to pay hotels a couple of months in arrears.

Kath. x

Thomas Cook must have seen this coming for quite a long time yet they were still happy to take people's money I call it greed, greed, greed bby the top people taking off the poor who work hard all year for their one or two weeks in the sun and then something like this to happen disgraceful

It's not just Thomas Cook, Linda. It happens all the time.

I used to work in a department which dealt with bankruptcies and liquidations, and more often than not the bosses knew they were in trouble ages before they did anything about it. I don't think it was greed, more a case of misplaced optimism - if we keep going, perhaps it will work out. The trouble was, it usually didn't!

And this applied to anyone from the local builder to the big companies. Also pride - they didn't want to admit defeat.