Thomas Cook has gone into administration after 178 years in business.

Following days of negotiation, the global travel brand failed to secure a £900m rescue deal, resulting in the Thomas Cook board having no choice but to call in AlixPartners as administrators late on Sunday evening (22 September 2019).

Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, commented:

“We have worked exhaustively in the past few days to resolve the outstanding issues on an agreement to secure Thomas Cook’s future for its employees, customers and suppliers.

“Although a deal had been largely agreed, an additional facility requested in the last few days of negotiations presented a challenge that ultimately proved insurmountable.

BREAKING: "We have not been able to secure a deal to save our business" – Chief executive of Thomas Cook Group, Peter Fankhauser apologises to the company's 'heartbroken' staff and customers.

Get the latest on the #ThomasCook collapse here: https://t.co/ZV1DhQ8LZJ pic.twitter.com/VlaT4Uoejf

— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 23, 2019

“It is a matter of profound regret to me and the rest of the board that we were not successful. I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years.

“Despite huge uncertainty over recent weeks, our teams continued to put customers first, showing why Thomas Cook is one of the best-loved brands in travel.

“Generations of customers entrusted their family holiday to Thomas Cook because our people kept our customers at the heart of the business and maintained our founder’s spirit of innovation.

“This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world.”

Thousands of holidays cancelled – repatriation begins

All Thomas Cook holidays have been cancelled, resulting in thousands of holidaymakers having to apply for refunds and 150,000 Thomas Cook customers have been left stranded abroad.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has therefore been called on by the government to launch the biggest ever peacetime repatriations to help customers stranded overseas and bring them back to the UK.

The CAA has secured a fleet of aircraft from around the world to bring passengers back to the UK with return flights. It has advised customers currently overseas to check thomascook.caa.co.uk for advice and only go to the airport once they have an alternative flight confirmed.

UK travel trade association ABTA has also leant its support to those customers affected from the Thomas Cook collapse. Understanding that customers will be “extremely anxious about their holiday bookings”, the group has said its immediate aim is to help them to understand what steps they need to take if they are currently away on holiday or if they have a forward booking, and to assist ABTA member companies in supporting their customers.

Thomas Cook Group Plc operated several businesses that sold holidays and other travel arrangements, including five companies that are ABTA Members:

• Thomas Cook Retail Limited – ABTA W8361, J8601 & ATOL 0020
• Thomas Cook Tour Operations Limited – ABTA V6896 & ATOL 1179
• TCCT Retail Limited – ABTA Y6564, L8164 & ATOL 10585
• Future Travel Limited – ABTA W6370, G856X & ATOL 5704
• Freedom Travel Group Limited – ABTA W6417, G8381 & ATOL 6042

The group has also included an airline business which is not a member of ABTA.

ABTA has developed specific guidance for each situation, which is available now on its website.

CEO of ABTA Mark Tanzer commented: “Along with many others in the industry, I am extremely saddened by today’s news about the demise of Thomas Cook.

“It is one of the UK’s most iconic travel companies and today thousands of staff are facing losing their jobs.  For customers and other travel businesses working with the Group, this will be an extremely worrying time.

“ABTA has developed detailed advice to support customers and ABTA members about what to do next.”

Thomas Cook’s failure to secure a deal leaves 20,000 staff, including 9,000 in the UK, unemployed.

Rebecca Thornley-Gibson, partner at City law firm DMH Stallard and a specialist in employment matters, with a particular emphasis on the UK travel industry, has issued this statement:

“Most of the travel industry were on a constant refresh on their phones in the early hours of this morning anxiously waiting to see if their worst fears would be allayed.

“Devastatingly for the industry they were not and the Thomas Cook Group disappeared from the travel landscape at 2am this morning.

“There are and will continue to be multiple impacts from the loss of 9,000 jobs in the UK in Thomas Cook.  The impact on a short-term basis will be mitigated by the rights of employees to claim payments including arrears of pay, statutory redundancy, holiday and notice payments from the Insolvency Service. If these are paid promptly employees will at least have some time to catch their financial breath as they seek alternative roles elsewhere.

“A very sad day for Thomas Cook, the travel industry and all those ancillary supply services that will now face uncertainty due to their future loss of revenue.”

This article will be updated.