Thomas Cook collapse sparks largest peacetime repatriation mission in British history

The collapse of iconic British travel operator Thomas Cook has thrown the travel plans of thousands of customers into chaos.

Minutes after the tour operator filed for liquidation early Monday, holiday makers took to Twitter and social media platforms to vent their anger and seek help over nixed holidays and flights.

Layton Roche, of Bolton, UK, tweeted he and his bride-to-be were packed and ready to get on a plane to the Greek island of Kos to celebrate their wedding. He implored Thomas Cook to keep it together for the “next 24 hours” to make it happen.

Four hours later, the bad news hit.

The bankruptcy filing of the 178-year-old travel company in London, effectively cancelled all holidays and flights booked through the company’s units, leaving the UK to mount what it said will be the largest peacetime repatriation of hundreds of thousands of stranded travellers.

As the company seeks protection to work through its mounting debt problems, tourists and holiday makers are inundating the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority for help to make their way home, leaving some who have paid for but not yet started their trips out of luck.

The company’s chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, said he deeply regrets the shutdown.

“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,” he said.

“I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption.”

About 150,000 Britons, along with 350,000 foreign nationals, are stranded on Thomas Cook holidays, The Financial Times reported.

195,000 passengers hit as British Airways faces first global pilot strike

Describing the repatriation plan, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said dozens of charter planes, from as far afield as Malaysia, had been hired to fly customers home free of charge.

He said hundreds of people were staffing call centres and airport operations centres.

“The task is enormous, the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history. So there are bound to be problems and delays,” he said.

An earlier repatriation exercise following the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines cost the UK government about £60 million. The Thomas Cook effort is much larger and likely to be far more costly.

The repatriation flights are only for passengers whose trips started in the UK.

Many tourists expressed frustration with the lack of details on social media. While others who had booked paid-up Thomas Cook holidays were mulling any recourse.

A British holidaymaker told BBC radio on Sunday that the Les Orangers beach resort in the Tunisian town of Hammamet, near Tunis, demanded that guests who were about to leave pay extra money, for fear it wouldn’t be paid what it is owed by Thomas Cook.

Ryan Farmer said many tourists refused the demand, since they had already paid Thomas Cook, so security guards shut the hotel’s gates and “were not allowing anyone to leave”.

42 times tourists were caught behaving badly

It was like “being held hostage,” said Farmer, who is due to leave Tuesday.

He said he would also refuse to pay if the hotel asked him.

The collapse of Thomas Cook, which began in 1841 with a one-day train excursion in England and now operates in 16 countries, caps months of talks with Thomas Cook’s investors, led by Fosun Tourism Group.

The Chinese firm, which owns the Club Med resort chain, proposed a US$1.1 billion bailout in exchange for control of Thomas Cook’s tour operations and a minority stake in its airline.

Last week, the London-based company said it needed £200 million (US$250 million) more, leading to the rapid unravelling of its rescue prospects.

China's Warren Buffett is doing a deal with Thomas Cook

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK government was right not to bail out the company, arguing that travel firms should do more to ensure they don’t collapse.

“We need to look at ways in which tour operators one way or another can protect themselves from such bankruptcies in future,” Johnson said.

“One is driven to reflect on whether the directors of these companies are properly incentivised to sort such matters out.”

Bloomberg and Associated Press