Thomas Cook travel / airlines declares bankruptcy

IATA ICAO Callsign MT TCX THOMAS COOK

Roughly 600,000 travellers are stranded around the world tonight after British travel provider Thomas Cook declares bankruptcy.

The Thomas Cook Group was a British global travel group. It was founded on the 19th June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG (itself the successor to Thomas Cook & Son) and MyTravel Group. The group operated in two separate segments: a tour operator and an airline. Thomas Cook was listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Thomas Cook, a 178-year-old British travel company and airline, declared bankruptcy early Monday morning local time in the UK, suspending operations and leaving hundreds of thousands of tourists stranded around the world. The travel company operated its own airline, with a fleet of nearly 50 medium and long-range jets, and owned several smaller airlines and subsidiaries, including German carrier Condor.


As of August 2019, the Thomas Cook Group Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

Aircraft	In Service	Orders	Passengers			Notes
			P	E	Total
Airbus A320-200	16	—	–	180	180	Operated by Condor and Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics
Airbus A321-200	57	1	–	220	220	Operated by Thomas Cook Airlines UK and Scandinavia, Condor and Thomas Cook Aviation
Airbus A330-200	9	—	49	273	322	Operated by Thomas Cook Airlines UK and Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia
Airbus A330-300	3	—	–	408	408	Operated by Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia
Boeing 757-300	15	—	–	275	275	Operated by Condor
Boeing 767-300	16	1	53	217	270	Operated by Condor
Total	117	2

Thomas Cook still had several flights in the air as of Sunday night, but was expected to cease operations once they landed at their destinations.
Condor posted a message to its site late Sunday night saying that it was still operating, but it was unclear whether that would change. Condor’s scheduled Monday morning flights appeared to be operating normally. Around 600,000 Thomas Cook customers were reported to be travelling, of which were 150,000 British and were abroad, scheduled to fly home with Thomas Cook. The British Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) prepared plans, under the code name “Operation Matterhorn,” to repatriate stranded British passengers. According to the CAA, those rescue flights would take place between September 23rd and October 6th, leading to the possibility that travellers could be delayed for up to two weeks.
Initial rescue flights seemed poised to begin immediately, with stranded passengers posting on Twitter saying that they were only being delayed a few hours as they awaited chartered flights.
The scale of the task has reports calling it the “largest peacetime repatriation effort” in British history, including the operation the government carried out when Monarch Airlines collapsed in 2017.


Britain's biggest ever peacetime repatriation has got under way in an effort to bring home 150,000 British holidaymakers who were stranded after the collapse of Thomas Cook.
Codenamed Operation Matterhorn, Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA, said it had launched "what is effectively one of the UK's largest airlines" in order to repatriate British holidaymakers. He said: "News of Thomas Cook's collapse is deeply saddening for the company's employees and customers, and we appreciate that more than 150,000 people currently abroad will be anxious about how they will now return to the UK.



Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said dozens of charter planes, from as far afield as Malaysia, have been hired to fly customers home and hundreds of people were working in call centres and at airports.
Mr Shapps said: "Thomas Cook's collapse is very sad news for staff and holidaymakers.
"The Government and UK CAA is working round the clock to help people.