Thomas Cook collapses, leaving thousands of travelers stranded

[Up All Night]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/business/thomas-cook-collapse/index.html

Capping a painful year, 178-year-old British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed Sunday night, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers.

The company said in a statement that its board "concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect."

"An application was made to the High Court for a compulsory liquidation of the Company before opening of business today and an order has been granted to appoint the Official Receiver as the liquidator of the Company," it said in the statement.

Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook's chief executive, apologized to customers, employees, suppliers and partners.

"This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world," Fankhauser said.

[Up All Night]

 The British government has a plan to bring home the 160,000 UK travelers possibly stranded by Thomas Cook's collapse. Thomas Cook on Friday confirmed to CNN that it currently has 600,000 customers on vacation, including those 160,000 from the United Kingdom.

[Up All Night]

The British government has a plan to bring home the 160,000 UK travelers possibly stranded by Thomas Cook's collapse. Thomas Cook on Friday confirmed to CNN that it currently has 600,000 customers on vacation, including those 160,000 from the United Kingdom.

[Sofia]

Geez, they stranded their own employees???  Were financial accounts completely frozen or what?  You'd think the pilots would want to get home so they'd just fill up the tanks and fly back.  No??  Awful to imagine all those employees stuck out there without being paid - every day's wages lost affects rent.

[JUAN]

My surprise is that people still use travel agents.

[PB]

Geez, they stranded their own employees???...

Oh hell no.  They gave themselves bonuses before shutting down and stranding the people who used their travel services. 

You know, just another cheap, greedy, incompetent, unethical company- like, say, Wells Fargo and PG&E around here.  Good riddance.