Thomas Cook no longer trading.

[Doctor Gollum]

He's a twa tt not a journalist.

He posted an article with the title including the word 'collapsed' at around 11pm.

This was changed at around 01:30 to 'on the brink of collapse' although the article itself wasn't changed at all.

Rightly or wrongly, they weren't obliged to announce anything until 7am today.

Incidentally, although the website was still up after midnight, you couldn't actually book anything, (I looked )

[redelitev6]

He's a twa tt not a journalist.

He posted an article with the title including the word 'collapsed' at around 11pm.

This was changed at around 01:30 to 'on the brink of collapse' although the article itself wasn't changed at all.

Rightly or wrongly, they weren't obliged to announce anything until 7am today.

Incidentally, although the website was still up after midnight, you couldn't actually book anything, (I looked )

He might have been a bit previous with the word "collapse" but the writing was on the wall for all too see , I think more people would have been surprised if it had been rescued ?

[Doctor Gollum]

I knew at 17:30 yesterday, which is when I got a text asking my availability over the next four days.

Each flight was formally told once it was on its way back.

But, yes, the writing has been on the wall since early summer, although they might have hung on to the end of the month...

[TheBoy]

But never fear, because its all an illusion, because Project Fear is a figment of every (respectable) economists' imagination

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Badly run companies will always go bust, Brexit or no Brexit. TC has been on the skids for many years, while the directors have been paying themselves many millions in bonuses while they still could.

[TheBoy]

Badly run companies will always go bust, Brexit or no Brexit. TC has been on the skids for many years, while the directors have been paying themselves many millions in bonuses while they still could.

No doubt Monarch was a badly run company as well

Some companies will always fall first.  But being a regular visitor to a few countries, Brexit *IS* having a dramatic impact on the number of people going on foreign hols, and earlier this year, a resort we go to annually was virtually devoid of Brits (which suits me fine).

So I suspect Monarch and TC are just the start of holiday oriented firms going. As was entirely predicted 3yrs ago.

[Doctor Gollum]

To be fair to Monarch, the family that ran it from inception wanted to cash out. Once Graybull Capital got involved things changed and I suspect that there were various political and non retail commercial reasons for its demise.

It had previously cut back its operation to improve performance but was slow to react to a rapidly changing market. A lot of their aircraft went to TC and crew ended up between TC and EasyJet.

Thomas Cook simply owed too much money to remain viable.

I suspect that many of the crew will end up either at BA or EasyJet, and if EasyJet also pick up the routes and aircraft, there will be some decent deals on offer moving forward.

None of which will help those being turfed out of their hotels

[TheBoy]

Thomas Cook simply owed too much money to remain viable.

They have had it hard for a decade - initially the 2008 financial crash, then the impact of the Arab Spring due to their locations, and the final straw being the huge reduction in bookings due to Brexit uncertainty and the associated looming technical recession.

Brexit will take many more casualties over the next couple of generations 

[omegod]

Saw earlier that TC aircrew are still staffing the TC planes being used for repatriation, I guess the CAA will pay them for their time but still shows a bit of dedication in a shitty time 

[Doctor Gollum]

I noticed on the news that one of the aircraft grounded in Manchester was actually a lease from a Lithuanian carrier, so that is perfectly feasible 

[Rods2]

Airlines, holidays companies & trains have much in common where profits are largely non-existent unless you are very fleet footed & keep firm control of costs, especially advertising. Most national carriers have had numerous bailouts from their governments where they are seen as prestigious icons for that country & where overall they have never made a profit. The profits they make in the boom times are more than wiped out during recessions.

September to December is always the peak time for holiday companies & travel agents going bust, where they use the forward cash flow where you pay before they incur the travel costs to keep staving off the inevitable but where most holiday companies & travel agents slow down rapidly in September from the summer peak & make losses in their two quietest months of October & November often relying on bank overdraft support, if the banks don't like the look of a poor balance sheet & the risk, they withdraw support, so the company goes bust.

[Varche]

Badly run companies will always go bust, Brexit or no Brexit. TC has been on the skids for many years, while the directors have been paying themselves many millions in bonuses while they still could.

No doubt Monarch was a badly run company as well

Some companies will always fall first.  But being a regular visitor to a few countries, Brexit *IS* having a dramatic impact on the number of people going on foreign hols, and earlier this year, a resort we go to annually was virtually devoid of Brits (which suits me fine).

So I suspect Monarch and TC are just the start of holiday oriented firms going. As was entirely predicted 3yrs ago.

Still plenty of Brits going to Spain, up on last year so no Brexit effect there.

I read today in the Spanish press that Thomas Cook transports 3.5 million Europeans to mainly the Balearics and the Canaries. It is a disaster for Spain. Even if some company picks up or mops up the forward bookings , they wont want to be paying the rates Thomas Cook agreed. I bet Jet2 and Tui are working overtime on the maths!

[Doctor Gollum]

Both predominantly fly from regional airports, so their customer bases are much more evenly spread.

Jet2 has a slight advantage in that it runs online only, so effectively has one office as opposed to TUIs high street presence.

[redelitev6]

My Daughter and her Boyfriend were "repatriated" from Turkey last night , came back to the same airport and at the scheduled time , no dramas , the "rescue" from her all inclusive hotel with a nice pool and good food must have been a big relief 

[Doctor Gollum]

My Daughter and her Boyfriend were "repatriated" from Turkey last night , came back to the same airport and at the scheduled time , no dramas , the "rescue" from her all inclusive hotel with a nice pool and good food must have been a big relief 

That's how it's supposed to work in an ideal world. The reason that they don't guarantee the same airport is that they tend to use much larger aircraft, ie A380/A340-600/747s with two or three times the capacity of the original flights