{"id":6140,"date":"2019-09-25T20:34:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T01:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=6140"},"modified":"2019-09-25T20:34:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T01:34:04","slug":"thomas-cook-collapse-prompts-international-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=6140","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Cook Collapse Prompts International Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Reuters) – The collapse of British travel operator Thomas Cook left hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers abroad and forced governments and insurers to coordinate a huge operation to get them home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FILE PHOTO: Passengers are silhouetted in front of a closed service counter of travel agent Thomas Cook and airline Condor at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, September 24, 2019. REUTERS\/Kai Pfaffenbach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The company ran hotels, resorts and airlines ferrying 19 million people a year to 16 different countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a summary of the impact of the collapse in different countries and efforts to salvage parts of the group: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GERMANY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s German tour business filed for insolvency on Wednesday in a move aimed at separating its brands and operations from its failed parent, and it said it was in talks with potential new investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German government said it was considering an application for a bridging loan from Thomas Cook Germany, a day after it said it would guarantee a 380 million euro ($418 million) bridging loan for Condor, the British group\u2019s German airline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is in contact with the German foreign ministry, insurers and other partners to get customers home. Zurich Insurance, which provided insolvency cover to Thomas Cook Germany, will cover the costs for those on holiday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 97,000 holidaymakers were still stranded on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTRIA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook Austria, which belongs to the German unit, also filed for insolvency on Wednesday, with the aim of continuing in business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE NETHERLANDS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch unit of Thomas Cook canceled all travel booked through Thomas Cook Netherlands and subsidiary Neckermann. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Dutch court on Wednesday granted Thomas Cook Nederland B.V., a Netherlands-based subsidiary, protection from creditors. It employed roughly 200 staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

POLAND<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s Polish unit, Neckermann Polska, said on Wednesday that it has filed for insolvency. Poland regional authorities says around 3,600 customers of Neckermann Polska are still abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BELGIUM<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s Belgian unit ceased carrying passengers on Tuesday and liquidated two businesses, seeking protection from creditors and ultimately a buyer for Thomas Cook Retail Belgium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It still has some 13,400 customers on holidays abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NORDICS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several planes operated by Thomas Cook Scandinavian Airlines have not been able to take off because their leasing contracts remained with the British parent, Danish subsidiary Spies said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not immediately clear how the situation would be resolved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s Nordic business said on Monday it would continue to operate as it is a separate legal entity from its London-listed parent and added that it was looking for new owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nordic business consists of two legal entities, Thomas Cook Northern Europe and Thomas Cook Scandinavian Airlines, and is also known as Ving Group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business operates under several brands: Ving in Norway, Spies in Denmark, Tj\u00e4reborg in Finland, as well as Ving and Globetrotter in Sweden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRITAIN<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Emergency flights had brought 14,700 people back to the United Kingdom on 64 flights on Monday, and around 135,300 more were expected to be returned over the next 13 days, Britain\u2019s aviation regulator said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 70 flights were scheduled to operate on Wednesday to bring back 16,500 people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MEXICO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The collapse of British travel firm Thomas Cook will not have a \u201csignificant impact\u201d on Mexico\u2019s tourist industry as it only represents about 0.4% of the sector\u2019s foreign income, the Mexican tourism ministry said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BULGARIA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s collapse poses a serious challenge to Bulgarian tourism, with dozens of Black Sea hotels facing losses totaling tens of millions of dollars as negotiations for the next summer season take place, its tourism minister said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TUNISIA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tunisian tourism minister Rene Trabelsi told Reuters that 4,500 Thomas Cook customers are still on holiday in Tunisia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British government repatriated about 1,200 tourists via planes sent to Tunisa\u2019s Enfidha airport, and another 4,000 still in Tunisia will return after their holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRANCE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The French arm of the business said on Tuesday it was asking the French commercial court of Nanterre for creditor protection <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook France will hold a meeting of its works council on Thursday about a plan to declare insolvency and to start a recovery procedure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

French organization Entreprises de Voyage said that about 10,000 French tourists could be affected by the bankruptcy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPAIN<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The collapse has affected 53,000 Britons in Spain, Spanish Acting Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto told reporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ministry has been in touch with German and Swedish authorities to ensure Thomas Cook subsidiaries continue to operate at least for the winter season, she added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

GREECE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A Greek tourism ministry official told Reuters that about 50,000 tourists were affected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CYPRUS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cyprus says 15,000 Thomas Cook customers were stranded on the island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

HUNGARY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s Hungarian unit Neckermann Magyarorszag said it was continuing its operations and all passengers would be able to return from abroad as planned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said its financial situation was stable and its assets were sufficient guarantee that its passengers would not suffer any financial damage. It said passengers should contact its offices directly about upcoming flights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RUSSIA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook\u2019s Russian tour operator subsidiary, Intourist, said the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook will have no impact on clients, Executive Director Sergei Tolchin told Interfax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TURKEY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish Ministry of Tourism said it will provide support for local companies affected by the Thomas Cook collapse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The head of the country\u2019s Hotelier Federation said about 45,000 tourists from the UK and elsewhere in Europe are in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOROCCO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Morocco\u2019s tourism ministry said it had created a crisis unit to handle the fallout from Thomas Cook\u2019s collapse. Thomas Cook operated two flights to Marrakesh a week. No official numbers were given. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EGYPT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook operator Blue Sky Group said that 25,000 reservations in Egypt booked up to April 2020 had been cancelled. Blue Sky currently has 1,600 tourists in Egypt\u2019s Hugharda resort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

INDIA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Cook India said it had been unaffected as it has been a separate entity since August 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The collapse of British travel operator Thomas Cook left hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers abroad and forced governments and insurers to coordinate a huge operation to get them home. The company ran hotels, resorts and airlines ferrying 19 million people a year to 16 different countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[797,89,5637,5992,2203,4957,5676,1397],"tags":[420,118,92,3239,2085,160,3422,1927,3013,2489,2139,2432,5014,988,3909,655,622,3416,5260,3917,7020,2797,6737,2863,7023,507,7024,1767,4301,4350,2389,207,1631,571,688,411,4714,745,7016,1771,7027,2558,805,3341,6682,199,7026,1657,2933,3615,883,2037,4443,7017,1929,718,412,1514,1557,5620,2611,1902,7018,1089,231,2294,7014,1362,7015,3660,978,755,1932,2977,1505,3415,7021,3979,2801,1691,1658,7022,2079,1032,1522,444,7019,7025,1693],"class_list":["post-6140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airline-news","category-aviation-news","category-business-news","category-economic-news","category-finance-news","category-global-politics","category-international-news","category-stock-news","tag-airline","tag-airlines","tag-airport","tag-austria","tag-authorities","tag-aviation","tag-belgian","tag-belgium","tag-black","tag-blue","tag-bridge","tag-britain","tag-bulgaria","tag-business","tag-collapse","tag-company","tag-condor","tag-cook","tag-countries","tag-cyprus","tag-danish","tag-denmark","tag-dutch","tag-egypt","tag-enfidha","tag-england","tag-entreprises","tag-europe","tag-file","tag-finland","tag-foreign","tag-france","tag-french","tag-germany","tag-government","tag-greece","tag-greek","tag-group","tag-guarantee","tag-hotels","tag-hugharda","tag-hungary","tag-india","tag-insolvency","tag-insurance","tag-international","tag-intourist","tag-investor","tag-kingdom","tag-loan","tag-mexico","tag-ministry","tag-morocco","tag-neckermann","tag-netherlands","tag-new","tag-news","tag-norway","tag-operations","tag-parent","tag-poland","tag-polish","tag-polska","tag-regional","tag-resort","tag-resorts","tag-response","tag-russia","tag-salvage","tag-scandinavian","tag-sea","tag-sky","tag-spain","tag-spanish","tag-sweden","tag-thomas","tag-tjareborg","tag-tour","tag-tourism","tag-transport","tag-transportation","tag-tunisia","tag-turkey","tag-turkish","tag-unit","tag-united","tag-ving","tag-voyage","tag-zurich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6143,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions\/6143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}