Counting the cost of Thomas Cook collpase

Thomas Cook would have run out cash within days according to a court witness statement by its Chief Executive. The travel group was facing demands of almost £500m from a long list of hotel partners and creditors at the end of September 2019 according to insolvency documents filed by the company. It was left with just £956, 670 in cash reserves and £31.2m in the bank when it went bust.  Yesterday the Civil Aviation Authority continued the process of repatriating 130, 000 passengers to the UK as hotel partners, insurers and landlords began counting the cost of its collapse. 74 planes in Thomas Cook airlift as holiday crisis spreads. TUI and First Choice customers are also facing last-minute holiday cancellations because their flights were with Thomas Cook. 

Thomas Cook received five non-binding offers for all or part of its airline, one non-binding offer for a sale of the tour operator from Fosun and one offer for its Nordic Unit. But all bids were rejected, with board deciding they are unlikely to realise sufficient value and would leave the capital structure of the remaining group in a state that “unlikely to be sustainable.”

As the companies finances worsened the company concentrated on securing a restructuring deal backed by Fosun its banks and some of its bondholders. About £750m was identified as the money required to support the group’s business plan but this was raised to £900m.

Over the years Thomas Cook helped arrange holidays for millions of Brits including Sir Winston Churchill paid £33. 11s.4d for train tickets from London to Calais so he and new wife Clementine could go on their honeymoon to Italy in 1908.  The couple stayed in Lido Palace Hotel on Lake Maggiore in Baveno. Chuchill had such a great time that he sent a letter to his mum, saying he had “loitered and loved” at the hotel, then known as the Grand.