Bloomberg BREAKING: 178-year-old travel company Thomas Cook has filed for bankruptcy, leaving tens of thousands of British tourists stranded across Europe - note: I cannot confirm this since I am currently in the Philippines on vacation...hope it does not effect any TTR guest in a negative way if it is indeed true...
Not really 'stranded'. It's also far more reaching than just 'Europe'. Cancun, Jamaica, Cuba and other long haul destinations will also be affected. The UK Govt is launching a £600 Million repatriation project to get everyone home (150,000 people). Worse case, people currently abroad will have to spend an extra few days in their destination. Expenses will be covered by the scheme, and likely compensation. Those that have imminent departures are the only ones that will be affected severely. They will get their money back but miss their holiday Those that booked for non imminent dates with Thomas Cook will get a full refund through ATOL within 28 days. Hopefully, they'll just book with another provider and get a cheaper price. Also have to say, they are the worst UK airline I've ever flown with. But cheap.
Building on Steve's comments and in the news... Thomas Cook’s rivals have seen their share prices soar after its collapse, as markets bet on the firm’s demise narrowing competition in the holiday industry. Shares were up 6.2% in Tui, up 6% in easyJet and up 3.1% in Ryanair. Sad as it is for TC's 22,000 employees and those in related companies in their supply chain, it should be positive in the short term for travel deals as Steve surmises. While UK travellers are being repatriated to the UK, it's not yet clear what other countries are doing for their stranded passengers whose trips didn't originate from the UK. There are currently 600,000 Thomas Cook customers on holiday, of which 150,000 to 160,000 are British. What a mess. So many employees and families are so deeply impacted when companies go under. Been there.
