Thomas Cook collapses, leaving thousands of travelers stranded
Source: CNN
New York (CNN Business) British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed Sunday night, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers and putting 21,000 jobs at risk. The 178-year-old company said in a statement that its board "concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect" after talks on a financial rescue failed. "An application was made to the High Court for a compulsory liquidation of the Company before opening of business today and an order has been granted to appoint the Official Receiver as the liquidator of the Company," it said in the statement. Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook's chief executive, apologized to customers, employees, suppliers and partners. "This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world," Fankhauser said.
The collapse of an iconic UK company is having ripple effects in Asia. Shares in Chinese firm Fosun Tourism dropped more than 5% in Hong Kong. Fosun Tourism's parent company Fosun International is one of China's biggest conglomerates. It owns all-inclusive holiday firm Club Med. Billionaire founder Guo Guangchang is Thomas Cook's largest stakeholder, according to data provider Refinitiv. "Fosun is disappointed that Thomas Cook Group has not been able to find a viable solution" for its financial troubles, the company said in a statement. "We extend our deepest sympathy to all those affected by this outcome," it added.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority tweeted that all Thomas Cook bookings have been canceled. The move triggers the largest ever peacetime repatriation in the history of the United Kingdom, topping the operation the government carried out after the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines. There are more than 150,000 UK outbound Thomas Cook customers abroad, almost twice the number that were repatriated following the failure of Monarch, according to the aviation authority. "When people get to the end of their holiday, they will be brought back to the UK," Tim Johnson, head of policy at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, told CNN. "We've chartered 40 planes and we're going to be running over 1,000 flights over the next two weeks," he added.
Repatriation flights are only available for passengers whose journey originated in the UK. The aviation authority launched a website where customers can find details on those flights. "Customers currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website," the aviation authority said in a statement. Depending on where travelers are located, return flights will be either on flights operated by the aviation authority or by existing flights with other airlines, according to Thomas Cook
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/business/thomas-cook-collapse/index.html
Yikes! I heard this on the radio this morning and what a mess!
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Brexit hits travel spend
Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said in a blog post that the steep drop in the value of the pound following the 2016 Brexit referendum had piled the pressure on the heavily indebted and "struggling" Thomas Cook.
"All of the travel industry costs are in dollars — for example fuel maintenance and airplane leasing. With the weaker pound, the cost of everything has skyrocketed. For Thomas Cook, this has proved terminal," Branson said, adding that he was "saddened" to see the end of "the pioneer of organized travel."
The roughly 20% fall in the pound's value also meant less spending power for UK travelers abroad. That led them to demand better deals, independent aviation analyst Chris Tarry told CNN Business. This hurt margins at Thomas Cook, which sold flights on its own airline, along with hotel rooms, from brick-and-mortar stores.
"Brexit squeezed demand and made what Thomas Cook were trying to upsell on — that is, the heritage and service — less relevant to consumers. With a less ideal cost base, they couldn't compete simply on price with new entrants," said Richard Clarke, an analyst at Bernstein.
Thomas Cook said in its annual Holiday Report in 2019 that fluctuations in the value of the pound had reduced demand for travel to countries that use the euro. All the while, it has been fighting competition from online booking agencies and discount carriers.
One more problem: Continued uncertainty over Brexit had scared away some potential customers.
"There is now little doubt that the Brexit process has led many UK customers to delay their holiday plans for this summer," Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser said in an earnings statement in May.
Currency issues and people have been cutting back on travel. Maybe alcohol makers might be doing well through Brexit as people drink more to cope with it.
happened about 127 years ago and the reporting would have been outside of LBN criteria. 
A groom who shares the same name as the travel operator Thomas Cook has had his wedding plans ruined by the company's collapse.
Cook and his partner, Amelia Binch, were due to get married on the Greek island of Rhodes on Friday.
Now they are stranded, and aren't sure if the wedding can go ahead.
If it does, they don't yet know whether any of their friends will make it to Greece in time for the ceremony.
“We found out today in the early hours,” Binch told CNN. “We were devastated and still are!”
I remember booking airline tickets to the US through Thomas Cook in the 1960s when I lived in Morocco. I would use their calendar pictures to decorate our apartment there.
It has long been the gold standard for travel. Sic transit gloria. 
... and steps were taken to shore up high-employment industries such as auto manufacturing. I don't believe the US treasury would ever save a foreign private company. Why would they?
