British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed on Sunday night, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers and putting 21,000 jobs at risk.
Thomas cook group’s airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines UK, Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, Condor and Thomas Cook Aviation, grounded all their fleet of 117 aircraft, and 21,000 employees in 16 countries will be left unemployed.
Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, apologized to customers, employees, suppliers and partners.
The government has chartered 45 jets to bring customers home and they will fly 64 routes on Monday, 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 as Malaysia.
Thomas Cook Airlines was established in 2003 after being renamed from the former JMC Air. The airline operated an ‘all Airbus fleet’ operating the Airbus A-321 and Airbus A-330.
Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics were established in 2017 after the acquisition of Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium to Lufthansa. The airline operated 6 Airbus A320-200 aircraft and operate in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, previously known as MyTravel Airways A/S until their parent’s merger with Thomas Cook AG is a Scandinavian airline that operated flights from Denmark, Norway and Sweden to worldwide destinations.
Condor Flugdienst is a German carrier who were established in 1956 being previously a fully owned subsidiary of Lufthansa operates a mixed fleet of both Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
Last week, the debt-laden company filed for Bankruptcy protection in USA with the anticipation of securing 200 million pounds ($250 million) to avoid collapse. But in Britain itself Boris Johnson did not want to save the company, nor its employees?
Chinese shareholder of the company Fosun Group said it would inject £450 million ($560 million) into the business, but refused to add another £200 million to a £900 million loan it provided.
The company had reported a loss of £1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) for the six months to March 31. The collapse of the iconic UK company had ripple effects in Asia.
Shares in China’s Fosun Tourism dropped by nearly 5% in Hong Kong. The billionaire founder of parent company Fosun International, which owns all-inclusive holiday firm Club Med, is Thomas Cook’s largest shareholder.
Shares in rival European travel groups got a boost on Monday. Germany’s TUI gained more than 6%, while low-cost airline EasyJet — which is making a big push into the holidays business — were up nearly 4%.
CNN / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
