The ax will fall on Thomas Cook and its customers? The british tour operator has to find £ 200 million (€227 million) of additional funding if it wants to avoid the collapse and the repatriation of its thousands of customers scattered across the world. Shareholders and creditors were gathered this Sunday morning, before a board of directors in the afternoon which is to decide on the fate of the group.
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With 22,000 employees, of which 9000 to the United Kingdom, the case is of importance. All the more so that in the event of bankruptcy, it will be necessary not only to cope with a plan of mass dismissal, but also immediately arrange the repatriation of 600,000 tourists around the world, of which 150,000 British, which would make it the most important operation since the Second world war in the country.
“We estimate to 10,000, roughly, the number of French currently traveling with Thomas Cook,” says the Figaro Jean-Pierre Mas, the president of the Business Travel (EDV). These are not the only ones to be affected. “In the event of a bankruptcy filing, all the customers who have booked a holiday with Thomas Cook would lose the advances already paid,” he continued. With TUI, Club Med, Thomas Cook is one of the three main tour operators that account for the Hexagon. “He treats each year 600,000 customers in France”, said Jean-Pierre Mas.
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The anxiety also affects the hundreds of service providers, Thomas Cook, who see their incomes threatened, some may also have to put the key under the door if the tour operator goes bankrupt. At Hammamet, in Tunisia, the leaders of the Orangers have briefly delayed the departure of a group of tourists, “the time to verify that the payment” of their stay had been made, said a spokesman for the ministry of Interior tunisian contacted by AFP.
in Addition to the travelers who worry about their return, others cry out on social networks that their travel plans, sometimes organized in long-standing, fall to the water. The british authorities, such as Thomas Cook repeat, however, that all packages purchased in the european Union are protected in the framework of an EU directive. In Britain, it is the guarantee ATOL will come into play if Thomas Cook goes bankrupt, and the repatriation of holiday makers will be organised by the british Authority of civil aviation (CAA). In France, it is this same directive of 11 December 2015 that applies.
Taken over by the chinese Fosun
According to a source close to the folder, contacted by AFP, the option of new private investors seemed to be excluded in discussions that have taken place the previous day, stating that the pioneer of tour operators also attempted his luck with the government to inject the missing funds. The union TSSA has also written on Saturday to the minister of Business and Industry for him to claim an “urgent meeting” and exhort them to “stand ready to help Thomas Cook with a real financial support”. The department of Transport and Thomas Cook, as well as several accounts payable by the tour operator in respect of which RBS, refused to comment in the immediate future.
both tour operator and airline, the group generates around 10 billion pounds (11,32 billion euros) in revenue per year. But it has been weakened since a few years by a fierce competition between tour operators and by an uncertain economic environment, particularly in the United Kingdom with the blur surrounding the Brexit and the fall of the pound.
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The group was considered to be no longer viable as is, and has launched a vast restructuring plan with a takeover of its activities as a tour operator by the chinese Fosun and his airline company by its creditors. But the 900 million pounds promised is not enough and Thomas Cook has need of a further 200 million to continue its activities.
