On Sunday, British holiday giant Thomas Cook announced it was going into liquidation “with immediate effect”, after 178 years of operation.
The company struggled to survive the impact of the Brexit uncertainty and competition, analysts suggest, with last minute attempts to salvage it failing this weekend.
The UK government refused to bail the firm out so as not to create the impression that this would happen systematically. 21,000 people now face losing their jobs, of which 9,000 are in the UK.
As a result, 600,000 customers currently on holiday saw their bookings, flights, accommodation payment cancelled. Of them, 150,000 are British nationals, meaning that the UK government would carry out the biggest repatriation of its citizens during peace in history.
For some players in the travel industry, Thomas Cook’s collapse translated into a sudden uplift the following day. On Monday, shares of Dart Group, who own Jet2, soared to 7% to £9.28; TUI’s shares went up to 7% priced at £9.00; Easy Jet saw a 4% increase.
FTSE 100 closed on Monday at 16.30 with -0.26% as investors moved fast to Thomas Cook rival firms.
Rux speaks six languages and has been an international correspondent and editor of several current affairs and lifestyle magazines and newspapers in Eastern Europe.
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