Capping a painful year, 178-year-old British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed Sunday night, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers.
The company said in a statement that its board “concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect.”
“An application was made to the High Court for a compulsory liquidation of the Company before opening of business today and an order has been granted to appoint the Official Receiver as the liquidator of the Company,” it said in the statement.
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,” Fankhauser said.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority tweeted Sunday that all Thomas Cook bookings have been cancelled.
The move triggers the largest ever peacetime repatriation in the history of the United Kingdom, topping the operation the government carried out after the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines.
In a statement, the aviation authority said there are “more than 150,000 Thomas Cook customers abroad, almost twice the number that were repatriated following the failure of Monarch.” It said the government has asked it to launch a repatriation program, which would return Thomas Cook customers to the United Kingdom, from September 23 – October 6.
“Due to the unprecedented number of UK customers currently overseas who are affected by the situation, the Civil Aviation Authority has secured a fleet of aircraft from around the world to bring passengers back to the UK with return flights,” it said.
The aviation authority launched a website where customers can find details on repatriation flights.
“Customers currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website,” it said.
Depending on where travellers are located, return flights will be either on flights operated by the aviation authority or by existing flights with other airlines, according to Thomas Cook.
Thomas Cook had been scrambling over the weekend to avoid collapse after the Royal Bank of Scotland and a range of other banks demanded that Thomas Cook Group PLC find £200 million ($250 million) in funding by this upcoming week.
Grant Shapps, the UK’s secretary of state for transport, said in a statement that the government and CAA are “working round the clock” to help people affected by the collapse.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab suggested earlier Sunday while speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr that it was unlikely the government would bail out Thomas Cook, saying ministers would not “systematically step in” to save businesses unless there was a “good strategic national interest.”
Raab did say, however, the British government has a plan to bring home the 160,000 UK travelers possibly stranded by Thomas Cook’s collapse. Thomas Cook on Friday confirmed to CNN that it currently has 600,000 customers on vacation, including those 160,000 from the United Kingdom.
The development comes after a tumultuous year for Thomas Cook. Since May 2018, shares have fallen by more than 96% amid Brexit uncertainty and intense competition in the tourism sector.
