The UK Civil Aviation Authority launched largest peacetime repatriation on 23 September 2019 to bring more than 150,000 people back to the UK. Yesterday, 70 flights operated to bring back more than 14,000 passengers.
So far, the CAA has brought over 95 per cent of people back to the UK on the original day of departure of their Thomas Cook flight.
Over 70 flights are scheduled to operate today, to bring back a further 16,500 people. The
Flying programme continues until Sunday 6 October with more than 1,000 flights planned.
Richard Moriarty, Chief Executive of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “We have now operated over 130 flights in the first two days of this operation, returning almost 30,000 people to the UK. So far, we are flying home 95 per cent of people on their original date of departure at the end of their holiday. I would like those remaining on holiday to enjoy the rest of their stay because we aim to also fly you home on the day when you were originally booked to fly with Thomas Cook, or very shortly thereafter. This remains a highly complex operation and I would like to thank holidaymakers for their patience as some inconvenience and disruption is likely. I'd also like to stress my thanks to the UK airline industry and our partners which have lent us incredible support for what is the UK's largest ever peacetime repatriation”.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Thomas Cook would have run out of cash by October 4, 2019, according to solvency documents reported by the Financial Times.
The travel group needed to find funds to pay bills from hotels and creditors of up to £500 million. When the company filed for insolvency, it had just £956,670 in group cash reserves and £31.2 million. Thomas Cook had a balance sheet deficit of £3.1bn, weighed down by £1.9bn of debt, inter-company payables and amounts owed to third party payment service providers, bonding providers and guarantees to CAA.
The FT reports that the documents show how hard the management fought to find a last-ditch attempt to save the company. Thomas Cook received five non-binding offers for all or part of its airline, one non-binding offer for a sale of the tour operator from Fosun, its largest shareholder, and one offer for its Nordic business. All were rejected by the company as undervalued and which would leave the company in the same dire financial state.
Over the summer, it has been revealed, that payment service providers took their own steps to withdraw services and/or withholding cash collections, as the financial position of the company worsened. In September, suppliers started to demand up-front payment for services which exacerbated the situation. Unable to secure additional funds from Fosun or elsewhere, the company entered insolvency.