Thomas Cook, one of Britain’s largest airlines has failed to reach an agreement with creditors thus entering administration as of 02:15 on Monday the 23rd of September 2019.
Thomas Cook, founded on the 31st of March 2003 is the worlds oldest travel firm and has become one of Britain’s largest carriers. Offering a variety of destinations throughout Europe, Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean on charted and scheduled flights as well as their world famous vacation packages. Through the years they’ve become one of the UK’s most renowned airlines.
Thomas Cook airlines was officially born in March of 2003 along with Thomas Cook’s three tier market strategy of Thomas Cook, JMC, and Sunset. The brand all started from an English businessman by the name of none other than Thomas Cook. The idea sprouted on him while walking to Leicester to attend a meeting for the Temperance society. He started his journey by taking 500 occupants to a teetotal rally up north in Loughborough on the 5th of July 1841. Each occupant paid one shilling (former British coin) for the journey and that’s where Thomas Cook got his start in the travel industry. Going forward Thomas Cook himself would regularly offer tours around the UK and Scotland to hundreds of willing spectators. The first big break for Thomas came in 1851 when he put together an event for 150,000 people to travel to the Great Exhibition in London, England. Moving forward Thomas grew his brand exponentially when he offered his first travel experience abroad with tours in Belgium, Germany, and France. You can say Thomas Cook was the pioneer of tourism throughout Europe as he made it possible in numerous countries most notably Italy.
Now in the year of 2019 Thomas Cook has become one of the worlds most recognized and oldest travel brands. Carrying over 8 million passengers to destinations around the world in the year of 2018, they’ve solidified their brand as one of the best travel agencies in the world.Thomas Cook operated a fleet of aircraft ranging from the smaller A321 aircraft to the long haul fleet operated by the Airbus A330 aircraft.
Photo by: Thomas Cook Airlines UK
Thomas Cook was most known for their vacation packages which included reduced fares to some of Europe’s most visited holiday destinations and all inclusive resorts around the world. Thomas Cook also has a numerous amount of stores around the UK offering their world famous vacation packages to perspective buyers. Thomas Cook is also recognized as a British charter airline along with it’s regularly scheduled operation. It was recognized as the worlds best charter airline back in 2017 at the World Travel Awards in Vietnam. The Thomas Cook airline group is made up of Thomas Cook Airlines UK, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, Thomas Cook Airlines Balearic’s, and Condor which is a German based carrier. The airlines all have operating bases in their respective countries and throughout Europe and all offer reduced travel and vacation packages to resorts throughout their network.
For the past year Thomas Cook has been in a financial struggle from a refinancing plan introduced just last year in August which we saw led by the companies largest shareholder, Fosun which is a Chinese company. The airline was approached by banks whom wanted the airline to scrounge up extra money in the amount of 200m pounds or go into administration. Last night we found out the company hadn’t reached an agreement with it’s creditor and thus has entered into administration as of this Monday morning at 02:15 on the 23rd of September 2019. The UK government will be initiating project Matterhorn as result. The project is set to return over 150,000 British vacationers to the UK.
As for travelers currently on holiday with Thomas Cook, the airline has assured that you are covered under Atol, which is a fund paid for through industries levies. Those who have booked flights only are not subject to Atol protection and should check with their card provider or travel insurance to find out if their flights will be covered. You can check Thomas Cook’s twitter for more information below.
Furthermore the UK government has stated that various airlines will step up to the plate to return the stranded passengers to the UK. Those carriers and aircraft are as follows.
CCA charters for Thomas Cook collapse:
HiFly A380 ex BYJ
Titan B752 ex STN
BA Cityflyer E190 ex SEN
Atlas Air B744 ex SNN
Turkish A330 ex IST (with an irregular flight number)
National B752 ex YQX
Grand Cru A320 ex VNO
3× Eastern B763 Ex US
Malaysia A380
The collapse of Thomas cook is said to affect around 600,000 customers with 150,000 of them being British travelers. As for the employee’s of Thomas Cook, roughly 21’000 jobs were put on the line pending the entrance to administration. Now employee’s are forced to seek new jobs after the collapse of the long time airline. Unconfirmed sources on Twitter have said that Thomas Cook UK staff were told to not show up to work today (September 23rd). Thomas Cook did not respond confirming or denying the tweet but rather told travelers the following: “Hi Brooke, our flights and holiday operations are operating as normal. We are working on recapitalization plans to provide financial stability for the Thomas Cook Group going forward. Vincent”.
For more information on the current situation and possible flight or holiday disruptions we urge you to contact Thomas Cook directly on one of their social media platforms: @ThomasCookUK.
Have a holiday booked? Get in touch: [email protected]. Follow our social media for frequent updates on the current situation. Thank you for reading.
