Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest tour operator, founded in the year 1841, today after some tumultuous months has gone into liquidation. With the help of its largest shareholder Chinese firm Fosun in August Thomas Cook had secured a £900m rescue deal, but couldn’t raise a further £200m recently demanded by banks. The tour operator employed 22,000 people worldwide, including 9,000 in the UK and had in present 600,000 customers on vacation.
Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, said the tour operator has been under pressure for years from online rivals and low-cost carriers. Brexit has made matters worse by pushing the pound lower (and the company’s costs up) and customers delaying booking holidays because of Brexit.
Meanwhile in Germany Condor despite the fact that its parent company Thomas Cook Group has filed for insolvency continues its flight operations and will apply for a state-guaranteed bridging loan.