Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook, the world’s second largest travel company, has closed operations, leaving a huge number of travellers stuck in hotels and airports around the globe. El País says ‘The collapse of the British travel group Thomas Cook has delivered a massive blow to the Spanish tourism industry. Around 3.6 million passengers travel to Spain on Thomas Cooks’ regular and chartered flights each year, the majority of whom (3.2 million) fly to the Balearic and Canary Islands, according to data from the Spanish airport authority AENA. The British travel group also works with 20 hotels in the Balearic Islands, 20 in the Canary Islands and six in the rest of the country, according to the company’s webpage’.

There were some 70,000 passengers in Spain when the company pancaked.

Thomas Cook invented package tours, offering visits to attractions by train in 1841 between certain British cities. It grew from this small beginning to a huge tour company, until its dramatic end on Monday.  ‘...Around 9,000 UK staff and 21,000 worldwide were left without jobs and 600,000 customers left abroad, triggering the UK's largest peacetime repatriation’ says Wiki here.

What caused the collapse? An article back in May from The Independent says ‘Thomas Cook blames Brexit uncertainty as it announces £1.5bn loss’. So, there’s that. Beyond the politics of course comes the greed. From The Guardian this Monday: ‘Former Thomas Cook bosses under fire for excessive pay. CEOs of the collapsed travel firm received more than £35m in 12 years despite financial woes’.  Then we read of hedge funds making a massive killing out of the death of the company.  

The Guardian again: ‘UK ministers accused of sealing Thomas Cook's fate. Offers from Spain and Turkey to save firm reportedly had no support from Westminster’.

As for Spain: ‘Goodbye to Magaluf? Thomas Cook's bankruptcy threatens 'drunken tourism'

The company that just went bust was one of those that offered this type of 'low cost' tour packages for the British’ here and ‘Thomas Cook's bankruptcy will impact "dramatically" on tourism in Spain’, noting that ‘...It will have a "dramatic" impact on the Canary Isles tourism sector, as stated by the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas. But not only in the Canary Islands. Spain is the main destination for all-inclusive operator customers. Aena figures at 3.6 million customers that the different airlines of the group sent to Spanish cities during the past year...’. An article from Las Provincias here. From a sad Facebook post: ‘Thomas Cook have ceased trading. I have just rebooked flights to come down and they have gone up £200 since Saturday. Be prepared for high increases’. Finally, El País looks at ‘Operation Matterhorn’, the repatriation of 150,000 clients and a million holidays booked. The thought is (as another Facebook posting notes), thank heavens for the EU rule ‘Package Travel Directive 2015/2302/EU’ that protects European travellers for cancellation, repatriation and refunds.  

Later (From Business over Tapas Nº 320): The untimely collapse of Thomas Cook continues to throw up stories from the media. A few of them follow here:

·Thomas Cook directives took six million euros out of the hotels in the Balearics two days before the crash says Última Hora here.  

·‘At least 500 hotels to shut down imminently in Spain after Thomas Cook collapse as tourism boss begs Ryanair to pick up slack in winter sun flights’. The Olive Press here.

·The Daily Mail provides a hatchet job on one of the previous bosses at his Spanish mansion here.  Not that anyone is going to feel sorry for the fellow, who they say earned 17 million pounds in his four years at the company.

·’Ryanair tripled the price of its flights to Mallorca and the Canary Islands after the bankruptcy of its rival Thomas Cook. Prices sky-rocketed from the United Kingdom to the Spanish islands only hours after the tour operator collapsed’, says El Español here.

·The Guardian says here that ‘Thomas Cook was brought down by incompetence, not boardroom greed’.

·From El Confidencial Digital comes ‘9,500 dismissals of drivers, tour guides, rent-car personnel ... thanks to the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook. The fall in activity due to the closure of the tour operator is causing the early termination of contracts, especially in Andalucía, Catalonia and the Valencian Community’.

·From Preferente here: ‘Thomas Cook: 500 hotels in Spain to close immediately. Of those 500 hotels, 100 depended exclusively on the British tour operator, while in the other 400, the volume of customers ranged from 30% to 70%. Official estimates estimate the amount of outstanding debt stands at 200 million euros’.