FLIGHT WRECK
Thomas Cook collapse – Stranded passengers spend night sleeping in airports as Brits say ‘we’re left in the wilderness’
STRANDED Thomas Cook holidaymakers have been forced to bed down on airport floors as thousands battle hellish queues following the firm's collapse.
Around 135,000 Brits are waiting to be rescued and brought back to the UK after the travel giant went bust.
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Around 15,000 holidaymakers were flown home on an estimated 61 flights yesterday.
The Civil Aviation Authority is expected to bring back 16,800 people on 74 flights today.
A fleet of 45 aircraft has been charted to lead the UK's largest repatriation mission since World War Two using jets as far away as Malaysia.
It is expected to last two weeks and the rescue mission - from 53 destinations in 18 countries - will cost £100 million.
Stranded Brits described chaotic scenes at airports as they try to get home.
Passenger Jim Falconer, from Glasgow, was stuck at Palma Airport in Majorca.
He told Sky News: "There's just not enough information. Yesterday evening a Thomas Cook rep told us 'everything is fine, everything is fine'. Now we just feel in a wilderness."
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A worried mum added: "It's an utter mess. I have two children with autism with me. I paid extra for help and it's nowhere to be seen."
Kat, who is stuck in Cancun Airport, described the scene as an "utter shambles", adding "there is no information from anyone".
Meanwhile Ricky Houston, from Scotland, said his flight from Corfu to Newcastle had been delayed by nine hours.
He said: "From Thomas Cook we didn't get anything. I feel sorry for the reps because I don't think they knew anything either.
"It was the hotel which kept us up to date. Everyone in the hotel here is shocked, and everyone in this hotel has come with Thomas Cook. For us, it's an inconvenience, for them it's their livelihoods."
Scottish tourists hoping to fly back to Glasgow from Majorca said they now expected to head to Birmingham - 250 miles away - before getting home by coach.
Holidaymakers stranded at Mugla Dalaman Airport in southern Turkey also faced travel chaos.
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RACE AGAINST TIME
A mum stranded in Spain said will run out of vital food supplies for her disabled daughter unless the family can be flown home soon.
Demine Warner, 25, is worried because Aubree, who is vision impaired, has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and needs to be tube-fed milk through her stomach.
They flew out on the Thomas Cook break to Almeria, Spain with partner Lance Coericius, 30, on September 18, for their first family holiday.
They were due to fly home to Essex on September 25, but are now anxiously waiting to hear when they can fly as Demine only brought enough supplies to last till Wednesday.
She said: "We still haven't heard anything. I'm worried about my daughter as she is on medical milk and cannot eat the food here.
Wendy Kingman, 49, needs daily medication and only has enough to last until Wednesday, when she is due to fly home to Ely, in Cambridgeshire.
She suffers from CRPS which causes chronic pain, for which she takes morphine, and also needs daily thyroid tablets.
She told The Sun: “We haven’t got a clue what’s going on. There’s no information at all.
“I’m coming to the end of a two-week holiday which has been absolutely lovely, but now I’m really starting to worry."
Have you been affected? If so please email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502.
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'DISGUSTING'
Brits told of being held "hostage" in their hotels after staff threatened them with eviction unless they pay thousands of euros following the collapse of Thomas Cook.
Stephen McGonnell and Stacey Robinson, whose daughter Olivia is sick with a chest infection, were handed handwritten invoices at the Hotel Troya in Tenerife.
Stacey, from Bolton, told : "The manager just wrote the figure on a piece of paper, slid it over to me, smirking, and said 'pay or you’re out'.
"I said we’ve paid for this trip already and we have a sick baby, this is ridiculous.
"So now we are frightened to leave the room empty in case they come up and remove all our stuff.
"We don’t know what to do because what if we pay and can’t get it back? So now we’re prisoners in our hotel with a sick baby."
Another holidaymaker said Thomas Cook hotel staff threatened to call the Spanish police if they did not pay their £1,100 bill today.
Callum Weston, 27, and Bethany Sharp, 23, have been told they have to pay up at the Bahia De Lobos in Fuerteventura or else the cops will get involved.
The couple got engaged on their first night of their 10-day holiday on September 18 after paying more than £2,000.
Callum told The Sun Online: "The receptionist said to me that if we didn’t make a payment the police would be informed.
“I haven’t broken the law. He didn’t explain why the police would be involved – it was just a threat.
“It is disgusting how they are treating us. We will wait to see how it plays out in the morning.
“I am going to sleep with one eye open tonight. I am half expecting them to bang down the door.”
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DREAMS DASHED
Devastated Brits told how they had their wedding plans ruined, honeymoons scuppered and dream holidays put on hold.
A devastated groom called Thomas Cook has had his dream wedding in Greece dashed by the travel firm that shares his name.
Thomas, 29, and his partner Amelia Binch, 27, from Hucknall, Notts., are now stuck in Rhodes after booking the dream getaway and wedding package through the disaster-hit operator.
The distraught couple have been told the wedding might not go ahead on Friday, as the Thomas Cook package included the wedding ceremony, flowers, cake, decorations and entertainment.
Mr Cook, who works for Rolls-Royce, said: "Thomas Cook promised us a surprise on our wedding because of my name but this was not the surprise we were expecting.
"I am just devastated. We have got more than 30 friends and family coming out, half are stuck at home in limbo. My best man is still in England. No one here knows anything.
"I have been planning this for two years and it has all gone to pot. We have paid for everything. It is shattering. We don't know what we can do. Thomas Cook staff have been good but they lost their jobs."
Thousands of exhausted Brits returned to the UK yesterday after 10-hour delays on the first repatriation flights yesterday.
The first rescue flight landed in Gatwick from Split, Croatia, shortly before midday.
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Diane and Geoff Haslam, from Bolton, arrived from New York on the first repatriation flight to land at Manchester airport.
Geoff said the lack of communication was "very poor" and they were "so glad to be home".
Mick Fraser and his wife Maria, from East Grinstead in West Sussex, touched down at Gatwick shortly after 3pm - 10 hours later than planned.
But the 51-year-old Tube driver praised the staff's professionalism, saying: "The reps were good as gold, they kept us fully informed. You can't fault the Thomas Cook local reps."
Rash decisions were a ticket to oblivion
By Lisa Minot, Sun Travel Editor
FOR more than 178 years, Thomas Cook was a byword for holidays.
Yet it took little more than a decade for the company to spiral into the crippling debt that destroyed the travel giant.
Its demise was set in motion by a series of catastrophic business decisions — starting with the 2007 merger with rival holiday firm MyTravel, owner of Airtours.
No sooner had the deal been done by then CEO Manny Fontenla-Novoa than cracks appeared.
MyTravel was far weaker than thought and debts began to rack up. Just a few years later, Fontenla-Novoa was instrumental in another disastrous merger with the Co-op’s travel business.
It was a crazy decision to expand its high street presence as customers were booking online.
Combined, the two had more than 1,200 high street agencies.
Slowly, the company began to slim down. When it went bust yesterday, just 560 stores remained after closures and redundancies.
Then came the seismic effects of terrorism. The Arab Spring and subsequent atrocities in Egypt and Tunisia hit Thomas Cook hard.
Their strongest markets were closed when in 2015 the Foreign Office banned travel to Tunisia after the slaughter of 30 Brits in the resort of Port El Kantaoui.
Meanwhile, its rival TUI, the UK’s largest operator, was attracting customers with exclusive holidays. And while the company was restructuring, it perhaps took its eye off its Northern heartland.
Slowly, surely, Jet2.com began offering flights and package trips from a host of regional airports.
Thomas Cook’s website’s transformation was too little too late.
By May of this year, the company posted a £1.5billion loss, with more than £1billion written off from that MyTravel merger.
The failure to secure £200million tipped Thomas Cook over the edge. But it was the group’s rash business decisions and inability to move with the times that shut the oldest and best-loved travel brand.
The 178-year-old British travel firm had until 11.59pm on Monday to pay the £200m it owed its creditors or else they'd go under.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the liquidation of Thomas Cook as a "very difficult situation" and vowed his Government would do its "level best" to get Brit holidaymakers home.
Mr Johnson yesterday questioned whether directors should pay themselves "large sums of money" as their businesses go "down the tubes".
Speaking to reporters in New York, he said: "How can we make sure that tour operators take proper precautions with their business models where you don't end up with a situation where the taxpayer, the state, is having to step in and bring people home?
"I have questions for one about whether it's right that the directors, or whoever, the board, should pay themselves large sums when businesses can go down the tubes like that."
Questions and answers
Q: I am still on holiday. Can I carry on and how do I get home?
A: Under the Civil Aviation Authority ATOL scheme all package hol customers can carry on and will be flown home as close to their original date as possible. See or call 0300 303 2800 (UK and Ireland) or +44 1753 330 330 (when abroad).
Q: What if my hotel wants cash?
A: Refuse. Hotels need to contact ATOL themselves. If you do have to pay, keep all receipts and you will be reimbursed under ATOL. You can also claim for expenses.
Q: What if I only bought flights?
A: Normally you do not get ATOL protection but the CAA says everyone will be brought home.
Q: I’ve booked but haven’t travelled yet. What happens to my holiday?
A: You are also covered and will get a refund, but it will take time.
Q: My booked hol does not include a flight. Am I still covered?
A: Not by ATOL. Advice on what to do at
Tips for tourists
Q: I'm out of the country on a Thomas Cook holiday - what happens now?
A: The Civil Aviation Authority’s Operation Matterhorn will coordinate the repatriation of customers at the end of their holiday.
Q: I only bought Thomas Cook flights. Am I still protected?
A: No. Unfortunately, only package holiday customers are covered by the company’s Atol licence. Rival airlines may offer special rescue fares.
Q: I am on a Thomas Cook holiday and my hotel is insisting I pay them again. What do I do?
A: Refuse to pay. You have already paid Thomas Cook. The hotelier will have to apply via Atol.
Q: I have booked a Thomas Cook holiday? What happens now they've gone bust?
A: Anyone who has booked a package holiday is also covered by Atol and can apply to the CAA for their money back.
Thomas Cook's chief executive Peter Fankhauser said his company had "worked exhaustively" to salvage a rescue package.
He said the tour operator's collapse was a "matter of profound regret" as he apologised to the company's "millions of customers, and thousands of employees".
Thomas Cook - which began in 1841 with a one-day train excursion in England - failed to convince lenders to cut the money it owed to see them through the winter period.
Liquidators will now see if any money can be found within more than 25 Thomas Cook companies to hand back to staff and creditors.
Thomas Cook collapse: UK aviation authority launches the largest repatriation since the second world war
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