LONDON: Thomas Cook’s 178-year existence was hanging by a thread on Sunday after the iconic British travel firm struggled to find further private investment and is now relying on an unlikely government bailout.
The operator said it needed £200 million ($250 million) or else face administration, which could affect 600,000 holidaymakers and require Britain’s largest repatriation since World War II.
A source close to the negotiations said the company had failed to find the cash from private investors and would collapse unless the government intervened. But ministers are unlikely to step in due to worries about the pioneering operator’s longer-term viability, the Times reported, leaving it on the brink.
“We will know soon if agreement is reached,” the source said.
The firm’s shareholders and creditors were due to meet on Sunday, with a meeting of the board of directors to be held later in the day.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which represents workers at the company, called on the government to save the firm.
“The company must be rescued no matter what,” said TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes.
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey called on the government to step in by “taking an equity stake to avoid this crisis”.
Foreign Minister Dominic Raab promised tourists affected that they would not end up stuck abroad.
“I can reassure people that in the worst-case scenario, the contingency planning is there for people to avoid being stranded,” he said.
Two years ago, the collapse of Monarch Airlines prompted the British government to take emergency action to return 110,000 stranded passengers, costing taxpayers some £60 million on hiring planes.
The government at the time described it as Britain’s “biggest-ever peacetime repatriation”.
Jobs threat
But holidaymakers were already reporting problems, with guests at a hotel in Tunisia owed money by Thomas Cook being asked for extra money before being allowed to leave, according to a tourist.
“After an hour they left the hotel and are currently at the airport,” said a spokesman for the Tunisian interior ministry. — AFP
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