Thomas Cook in serious trouble

[Ibbie]

CAA said to be drawing up contingency plans for repatriations if necessary.

https://news.sky.com/story/thomas-cook- ... e-11814043

[Woody]

We flew with them to Spain this summer, was quite impressed definitely better than British Airlines

[Capetonian]

A great pity, another name like Monarch goes to the wall. I do wonder how crap like BA survive and the better airlines don't. (I don't really wonder, it's a rhetorical comment.)

[TheGreenGoblin]

People are calling for the government to intervene to save "an iconic UK company" and that it will take more government/CAA money to unsnarl the stranded passenger situation than the £200,000,000 loan guarantee that may help save the company. While I am not normally apt to suggest that governments bail out ailing companies, a loan guarantee seems preferable to making 9000 employees redundant. A state saved and funded bank like RBC should be coerced to make such a loan based on the government guarantee.

What do other posters here think?

Thomas Cook races to secure more rescue funds

Edited due to some noughts missing from the sum.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Is the problem short term or long term?
Long term I think, TC are too expensive. They may be better service and value, but fewer people every year have the money. The World isn't getting any safer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is joining the poor, jobs are less stable. None of that is going to change any time soon.

Why can't they get private finance?
What makes anyone think the Government knows any better? They haven't been in the airline business very long
Name me a large business where a UK Government bailout has been anything other than a waste of taxpayers' money, and if you can find one then convince me the situations are similar - I don't think there is one.

[ian16th]

Name me a large business where a UK Government bailout has been anything other than a waste of taxpayers' money, and if you can find one then convince me the situations are similar - I don't think there is one.

Rolls Royce 1971.

Though not similar.

[TheGreenGoblin]

1. Why can't they get private finance?

2. Name me a large business where a UK Government bailout has been anything other than a waste of taxpayers' money, and if you can find one then convince me the situations are similar - I don't think there is one.

1. Uncertainty about the company's future in the current market and political environment I guess.

2. Probably not although one might argue that BA was one government hole that was saved over and over again that, amazingly, is still flying!

As for the rest as one of the ever poorer middle class I can only say "too true!"

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I'll agree there are a few where Government rescues worked, but Rolls Royce was a case of technical speculation and mismanagement, both of which were solvable internally.

[ian16th]

I'll agree there are a few where Government rescues worked, but Rolls Royce was a case of technical speculation and mismanagement, both of which were solvable internally.

Plus the small matter of 'The Defence of the Realm'!

[Undried Plum]

RBS was bailed out by HMG. Massively more important to the nation than a struggling bucket&spade outfit that's still stuck with a 19th century business model in the 21st century.

[TheGreenGoblin]

RBS was bailed out by HMG. Massively more important to the nation than a struggling bucket&spade outfit that's still stuck with a 19th century business model in the 21st century.

But if Thomas Cook goes bust what am I to do with all the Baedeker's I had purchased for my hols next year?

Maybe I am a throwback or a fossilized old fart but I quite like the idea of the old fashioned 19th century model! Anybody for a guided tour around the classical world next year?

[Undried Plum]

Thomas Cook is ****.

Even the Motley Fool can see that.

In the 19th century the ordinary punter did not have the ability to pick and choose between transport providers, or to choose from a wide range of hotels at the destination and did not have access to the comms to make a booking at the destination and arrange for taxis etc. Nowadays anybody can do that at the stroke and click of a mouse.

The business model is broken. So is the company.

If BALPA feels so strongly, let 'em put their own money on the line and pony up the £200M that is needed to keep the broken reed afloat until January.

[Capetonian]

It seems that that the taxpayer (not HMG) is facing a £200 bill to repatriate the passengers who might/will be stranded.

Two things come to mind. Would it not make sense to cancel the outbound flights, on the basis that anyone travelling out now is likely to have to be rescued.

The other is why don't the 'government' pay TC at cost to operate the rescue flights to bring pax home, it would probably be cheaper than last minute charters, given that the operations are already planned?

[Boac]

Company goes, AOC goes, aeroplane she no fly.

[Capetonian]

Good point, Boac, but I understand that the airline is a separate entity from the travel company.

[Boac]

I suspect you cannae have one without the other. Who holds the AOC?

[Capetonian]

I don't know but I would assume the airline, which apparently is viable.

[Tall Bird]

TC didn't cover itself in glory when dealing with its clients at a hotel I go to, about an hour from the Cuban capital. A couple of years ago Hurricane Irma hit the island. All companies bar TC evacuated their folk on flights out. TC eventually got their customers into a brothel in Havana. I loved the reaction of a UK customer who wrote on Facebook about TC's lack of action 'this is serious, even the Canadians are leaving.'

[Ibbie]

The end is approaching.

https://news.sky.com/story/thomas-cook- ... e-11815380

[Ex-Ascot]

Maybe Cape could help with this:

About half of Thomas Cook customers have only booked flights only and may not come under Atol protection, but the Monarch precedent suggests the government would assume responsibility for bringing them home.

Why? Let the idiots walk.