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British travel firm Thomas Cook collapses, stranding hundreds of thousands


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25 minutes ago, edwardflory said:

I am American, I have heard of them all my travel life, you must not travel very much. Their are / were a British Icon.

Not really... Only really been to Thailand... the UK, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan, China, Laos, Singapore, Dubai, Afghanistan, Laos, the USA, Malaysia, Cyprus, Ireland and Cambodia.. So that makes sense I guess. 

 

But I also don’t use travel packages, and this place sounds like I’d find it in the back of a Sears store.

 

 

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1 hour ago, jany123 said:

Hundreds of thousands of plebs out of pocket... very sad but no real issue as the super rich aren’t effected, with the TC CEO averaging 2 million pound a year and having a personal worth of 15 billion.

 

FAF829AA-A811-4EE8-AEAB-B5F8CC179B9E.png

 

Thanks for this.  A lovely illustration of the capitalist system at work in all its glory.....

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Thomas Cook collapses: Why and what happens now?

By Kate Holton, Guy Faulconbridge

 

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FILE PHOTO: A Thomas Cook Airbus A321-200 airplane takes off at the airport in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 28, 2018. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Thomas Cook (TCG.L), the world’s oldest travel firm, collapsed on Monday, stranding hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers around the globe and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.

 

What happens now and why did it collapse?

 

WHO IS AFFECTED?

 

The firm ran hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million travelers a year in 16 countries, generating revenue in 2018 of 9.6 billion pounds ($12 billion). It currently has 600,000 people abroad, including more than 150,000 British citizens.

 

Thomas Cook employs 21,000 people and is the world’s oldest travel company, founded in 1841. The company has 1.7 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) of debt.

 

WHAT HAPPENS TO TOURISTS?

 

The British government has asked the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to launch a repatriation program over the next two weeks, from Monday to Oct. 6, to bring Thomas Cook customers back to the UK.

 

“Due to the significant scale of the situation, some disruption is inevitable, but the Civil Aviation Authority will endeavor to get people home as close as possible to their planned dates,” it said.

 

A fleet of aircraft will be used to repatriate British citizens. In a small number of destinations, alternative commercial flights will be used.

 

About 50,000 tourists are stranded in Greece, mainly on islands, a Greek tourism ministry official told Reuters on Monday.

 

The CAA has launched a special website, thomascook.caa.co.uk, where affected customers can find details and information on repatriation flights.

 

For those customers not flying from Britain, alternative arrangements will have to be found. In Germany, a popular customer market for Thomas Cook, insurance companies will coordinate the response.

 

WHAT IS THE ADVICE TO PASSENGERS?

 

“Customers currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website,” the CAA said.

 

“Thomas Cook customers in the UK yet to travel should not go to the airport as all flights leaving the UK have been canceled.”

 

WHO WILL PAY FOR THE COST OF HOTELS?

 

The CAA said it was contacting hotels and other companies likely to be impacted by Thomas Cook’s collapse to reassure them they will be paid.

 

The regulator said that if holidaymakers are being asked to settle bills they should contact the CAA.

 

Thomas Cook package holiday customers are covered by ATOL – Air Travel Organizer’s License – which protects accommodation and return flights. However, the CAA said some customers may be asked to relocate to other accommodation.

 

WHAT HAPPENS IF A HOLIDAY IS BOOKED FOR THE FUTURE?

 

The CAA says that if customers have not yet started their trips most holidays and flights booked with Thomas Cook are now canceled and customers should not go to the airport.

 

THE LIQUIDATION

 

Thomas Cook said it had entered compulsory liquidation and an order had been granted to appoint an official receiver to liquidate the company.

 

AlixPartners UK LLP or KPMG will be appointed as special manager for the different parts of the business.

 

THE INDUSTRY

 

The impact is already being felt further afield, with Australian travel group Webjet Ltd (WEB.AX) saying it was 27 million euros ($30 million) out of pocket and British online travel group On The Beach (OTB.L) saying it would suffer from helping its customers in resorts who had flown with Thomas Cook.

 

The collapse could provide a boost, however, to major rival TUI (TUIGn.DE), whose shares surged more than 10% in early Monday trading, and to Europe’s overcrowded airline sector, which could benefit from the closure of Thomas Cook’s airline.

 

WHY DID IT COLLAPSE?

 

Thomas Cook was brought low by a $2.1 billion debt pile that prevented it from responding to more nimble online competition. 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.

 

Thomas Cook needed another 200 million pounds on top of a 900 million pound package it had already agreed, to see it through the winter months when it receives less cash and must pay hotels for summer services.

 

The request for an additional 200 million pounds torpedoed the rescue deal that had been months in the making.

 

Thomas Cook bosses met lenders and creditors in London on Sunday to try to thrash out a last-ditch deal to keep the company afloat. They failed.

 

Under the original terms of the plan, top shareholder Fosun - whose Chinese parent owns all-inclusive holiday firm Club Med - would have given 450 million pounds ($552 million) of money in return for at least 75% of the tour operator business and 25% of its airline.

 

Thomas Cook’s lending banks and bondholders were to stump up a further 450 million pounds and convert their existing debt to equity, giving them in total about 75% of the airline and up to 25% of the tour operator business.

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-23
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9 hours ago, Basil B said:

Old news...

Since Friday they have been trying to get the government to bail them out to the tune of £200M, hotels have been turfing guests out of their rooms or even holding them hostage until the pay for their rooms. 

 

Probably with all assets leased or mortgaged TC has nothing left as security against any loans, thankfully our government did not bail out TC, wise move as all they would be doing would be kicking this problem into touch, package tours are history.

 

Unfortunately the package tour companies pay for rooms a long time after the guests vacate them so hotels may be owed a lot of money and just taken a big hit on future bookings, so understandably hotel owners will try to get guests to pay again.

 

Down side of this will be hotel owners trying to get tour companies to pay up front or at least reduce the waiting time for payment which will put pressure on other tour operators.

 

And Brexit will have been a very heavy straw on the camels back...

I think it is German owned

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I don't know what the Brits are complaining about, they can get that Dunkirk feeling all over again, years later they can tell their grandchildren "we stood alone at the airport", a splendid end to a holiday and the government gets to fly them home to blighty, the miracle of Cooks cock up

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9 hours ago, quadperfect said:

Seems like a big deal to me. Is this a brexit thing?

Thomas cook thats a pretty big fish. Maybe real sign of the times to come.

It's a big deal if you are abroad but to the rest of us it's just another dinosaur going extinct. 

You can do it cheaper by booking direct these days. I mean you pay the best fair fare price. No third parties sucking up money. 

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5 hours ago, HOAX said:

Saying you haven't heard of Thomas Cook is like a Frenchman saying he haven't heard of Canada.

I'm French Canadian and never heard about this Cook. 

 

Edit: I travelled extensively but never used a travel agency in my life. That might explain it. 

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3 hours ago, vinny41 said:

What went wrong at Thomas Cook

In May this year, Thomas Cook Group announced an astonishing £1.5 billion winter loss, £1.1 billion of which was due to an impairment charge relating to that merger with MyTravel

https://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2039355

Anyone interested in the Thomas Cook collapse - PLEASE read the link provided by https://forum.thaivisa.com/profile/294411-vinny41/

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3 hours ago, jany123 said:

Hundreds of thousands of plebs out of pocket... very sad but no real issue as the super rich aren’t effected, with the TC CEO averaging 2 million pound a year and having a personal worth of 15 billion.

 

 

Someone worth $15b working as a CEO for a 'paltry' £2m a year? Nope, just not believable. 

 

More likely a website typo and should be $15m, which ain't too shabby.

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10 hours ago, Basil B said:

And Brexit will have been a very heavy straw on the camels back...

Booked when the GBP was € 1,17 and now 1,13 and US$  € 1,30 and now 1,25. Margins in the tourist industry already very low, so a 4% loss... they cannot survive.

Who is next ?

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10 hours ago, Basil B said:

And once again a big company has been trading for a long time while insolvent, and what action will be taken against the Directors? 

 

beats me why a company that receives up front payments needs 90 or more days to pay its bills... 

Because always the big ones use the small ones as bank. How you think Tesko, Asda, Morrisson, etc do it ? 

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4 hours ago, Forethat said:

Not surprised to see someone attempt to blame Brexit. TC executives probably can't believe their luck when Brexit can be made the scapegoat...

 

I looked through a couple of TC balance sheets. For instance, in 2015 TC reported an absolute mountain of debts. Even more interesting, the annual report concludes that they failed to increase their impact on the Internet market. My conclusion is:

Thomas Cook built a little empire, made available by massive credits. And along came the likes of hotels.com, skyscanner.com, momondo.com and a myriad of others. And now they're in the red. My point is that even though they made a small profit in 2015, they didn't accumulate all that debt post Brexit referendum. They should have picked better analysts 10-15 years ago. 

 

Blaming Brexit seems a bit opportune, if you ask me. 

Cherry picks a couple of factoids without reference to where they can be verified, concocts a theory through a mountain load of supposition and opinion.  Not surprised to see you mount this weak defence of a brexit that is sending your countrymen to the wall as you type your laconic deflections either.  Toodle pip!

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13 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

Sounds like they haven't even been paying the airport gate fees. Obviously bankrupt. There is no Chapter 11 bailout corruption in UK so TC looks toast.

Will there be an investigation into the incompetence of high paid  corporate boofheads who ran TC into the ground.?

Unlikely.

Airline passengers these days are nothing but cheap cattle to be herded in massive sheds.

Glad my travelling days are done.

 

Someone posted on FB that the CEO has received GBP 20 million in bonuses over the last 5 years. 

 

I haven't corroborated or disproved that. 

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1 hour ago, Slip said:

Cherry picks a couple of factoids without reference to where they can be verified, concocts a theory through a mountain load of supposition and opinion.  Not surprised to see you mount this weak defence of a brexit that is sending your countrymen to the wall as you type your laconic deflections either.  Toodle pip!

Seems to me like I'm the one providing hard facts and YOU are the one....well, I haven't got a clue what you're up to, to be fair.

 

https://www.thomascookgroup.com/investors/insight_external_assest/FY15-Results-Presentation-SLIDES.pdf

https://www.thomascookgroup.com/investors/insight_external_assest/Thomas-Cook-Group-plc-Annual-Report-2015-1.pdf

 

Screenshot 2019-09-23 at 16.31.48.png

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2 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Someone posted on FB that the CEO has received GBP 20 million in bonuses over the last 5 years. 

 

I haven't corroborated or disproved that. 

I think that is correct. According to insiders he had done a tremendous job, I am not in a position to judge that.

 

But even if correct, it just doesn't seem fair, even though his bonuses wouldn't have made any difference.

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6 hours ago, Forethat said:

Not surprised to see someone attempt to blame Brexit. TC executives probably can't believe their luck when Brexit can be made the scapegoat...

 

I looked through a couple of TC balance sheets. For instance, in 2015 TC reported an absolute mountain of debts. Even more interesting, the annual report concludes that they failed to increase their impact on the Internet market. My conclusion is:

Thomas Cook built a little empire, made available by massive credits. And along came the likes of hotels.com, skyscanner.com, momondo.com and a myriad of others. And now they're in the red. My point is that even though they made a small profit in 2015, they didn't accumulate all that debt post Brexit referendum. They should have picked better analysts 10-15 years ago. 

 

Blaming Brexit seems a bit opportune, if you ask me. 

Quote

The scale of the crisis affecting Thomas Cook was laid bare on Thursday as the embattled travel firm posted a £1.5bn first-half loss, issued its third profit warning in less than a year and admitted that British customers have postponed travel plans for this summer because of Brexit uncertainty.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/may/16/thomas-cook-slumps-to-loss-as-brexit-chaos-hits-travel-plans

Nice to see our "head in the Sands Brexiteers" in denial mode again... OMG they will be saying the earth is flat next. ????

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Very surprising that people still use a physical travel agency for holidays....with internet that puts every Tom, Dick and Sally within the reach to individually book flights, hotels rental cars, why go to any ripoff shop selling Tours at double the cost ? Do it online and save money....times have changed for the best (for your wallet) and for the worst (for those who will helas loose their jobs)....

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10 minutes ago, Basil B said:

 

DId you read that in the Guardian? Really? Well, that came as a shock... 

 

Now we only have to sit back and figure out why it was only only Thomas Cook's customers who gave up their holiday travel plans.

 

Meanwhile, back in the real world, a majority of travel agencies are doing great because they adjusted their business models to fit today's market.

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7 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

Very surprising that people still use a physical travel agency for holidays....with internet that puts every Tom, Dick and Sally within the reach to individually book flights, hotels rental cars, why go to any ripoff shop selling Tours at double the cost ? Do it online and save money....times have changed for the best (for your wallet) and for the worst (for those who will helas loose their jobs)....

And THAT is the REAL reason Thomas Cook went titty up.

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