Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel firm, collapsed on Wednesday, stranding hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers around the globe and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.
The firm ran hotels, resorts and airlines in 16 countries, generating revenue in 2018 of US$12 billion.
It currently has 600 000 people abroad, including more than 150 000 British citizens.
Founded in 1841, Thomas Cook employed 21 000 people.
Thomas Cook was brought low by a $2.1 billion debt pile that prevented it from responding to more nimble online competition. It had been in negotiations to obtain $250 million in emergency financing when it declared bankruptcy.
With debts built up around 10 years ago due to several ill-timed deals, it had to sell three million holidays a year just to cover its interest payments.
As it struggled to pitch itself to a new generation of tourists, the company was hit by the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, one of its top destinations, and the 2018 Europe-wide heatwave which deterred customers from going abroad.
In a statement posted on its website, 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.”
The Thomas Cook Group was a British travel company famous for offering a distinct convenience to travelers: the ability to have all the pieces of their vacations linked, from flight to hotel room to local transport to tours, and even meals. The brand offered one-stop shopping for those who needed a getaway: Book a Thomas Cook vacation, and the only thing you’d need to do was pack a bag and go. The company even ran its own hotels and in recent years, operated its own airline. Its slogan pointed to the all-inclusive aspect of its business model: “Don’t just book it,Thomas Cook it.”
Thomas Cook Airlines was flying passengers to at least 82 destinations around the world, in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe.
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