Manchester businesses have vowed to help travellers and staff affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook.
The 海角视频 Civil Aviation Authority announced in the early hours of this morning that the company — one of the oldest tour operators in the world — had ceased trading with immediate effect after a last-ditch rescue bid failed.
All Thomas Cook flights to and from the 海角视频 have been cancelled, forcing the government to mount a worldwide operation to repatriate British holidaymakers. Up to a million forward bookings by customers have also been cancelled.
Up to 150,000 holidaymaker have been left stranded while the collapse has resulted in thousands of job losses.
The company employed 9,000 in the 海角视频 including 3,000 in Greater Manchester.
Trafford=based bespoke travel provider Travel Counsellors has set up a dedicated freephone number and e-mail address for any travellers affected by the Thomas Cook collapse, offering advice and clarity to people confused about how their holiday is protected.
Those looking for advice and guidance on their Thomas Cook booking can call 0800 061 2155 or email thomascookhelp@travelcounsellors.com which will connect them to the company’s head office helpdesk.
海角视频 managing director and CCO Kirsten Hughes, said: “Following the unfortunate collapse of the Thomas Cook Group our priority is to ensure our customers, both in resort and due to travel, are looked after. We became concerned of a potential failure last week and a crisis team at head office guaranteed we were prepared to support our Travel Counsellors and customers if and when the news hit.
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‘Our 24/7 duty office had already run reports to identify affected bookings and we have been in constant contact with our Travel Counsellors to support them.
“We have also set up a dedicated Freephone number and e-mail address for any travellers affected by the Thomas Cook collapse, offering advice and clarity to people confused about what to do and how their holiday is protected, regardless of whether they booked through Travel Counsellors.”
She added: “It is extremely sad news for many thousands of Thomas Cook customers and of course the staff that have been made redundant, and as an industry we must come together to offer support to these people and focus on helping those affected.
“We are also here to offer advice to the Thomas Cook staff who will unfortunately be facing an uncertain future at this time, and would urge these people to get in touch with our careers team to chat about their options (email careers@travelcounsellors.com or call 0161 464 5243).”
Greater Manchester online holiday group On the Beach Group has said it will be assisting customers that are currently on holiday and whose travel plans will be affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook.
The Cheadle-based Stock Market listed company said it anticipates that there will be a one-off exceptional cost associated with helping customers to organise alternative travel arrangements, and lost margin on cancelled bookings.
The group said it expects to be able to recover the costs of the cancelled flights via chargeback claim (as was the case for the Monarch failure in 2017).
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It said: “This one-off exceptional will be booked in the current financial year.
“The Board is currently evaluating the potential effects of the failure on its forecasted performance for the year ending 30 September 2020, and a further update will be provided when appropriate.”
Commenting about the collapse, travel and tourism expert Dr Neil Robinson said the events of the last 24 hours showed ‘the vulnerability’ of the aviation/travel sectors.
“These are very sad times and my heart goes out to employees and customers alike,” he said.
“So where did it all go wrong? The downturn in bookings post the Arab spring back in 2010, saw profits drop as people were reluctant to buy travel product associated with this region and the seeds of change for Thomas Cook and the wider travel sector were already being sown.
“Fast forward a few years and the sector has come under many pressures associated with very slim profit margins for each travel product sold, a possibility of too many players in an already saturated market and one might argue that the product mix on offer at Thomas Cook did not align with what its customers really wanted.
"Their price, promotion and how people actually booked Thomas Cook holidays did not keep pace with changing technology and demand, for example they still had a lot of high street outlets, which incur rental and other costs.
“Thomas Cook’s financial strength has not looked good over recent months, with share prices falling, senior managers leaving and would-be bail out loans not materialising, all adding to the creation of a perfect storm.
“Are other companies set to follow? One hopes not, if in doubt make sure your travel provider has ABTA/ATOL protection, pay with a credit card and keep your fingers crossed, this sorry saga is not over yet. In the meantime let us pay homage to the once great travel provider that provided many of us with our first taste of the jet set & holidays overseas.”
Analyst Russ Mould of Salford-based AJ Bell, said the demise of Thomas Cook ‘is a sad day on many accounts.’
He said: “Ultimately Thomas Cook failed because it didn’t have the cash flow to reinvent itself to fight off growing competition as so much money was going on debt repayments.
“It struggled with very thin profit margins, high levels of competition, rising fuel prices and large borrowings. It also had expensive stores on the high street to maintain and leasing fees on aircraft to keep paying.
“Despite having 22 million customers, the business only made £250m underlying earnings before interest and tax which equates to about £11 a customer. That’s barely anything given the amount of effort involved to run its business and market its holidays.
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“A weak pound and concerns about the impact of Brexit on consumer finances and the economy have resulted in many consumers holding off from booking holidays, plus there has been a growing trend for staycations where people holiday in the 海角视频.
“Removing Thomas Cook from the holiday equation will see increased demand for other holiday companies and sadly that could result in higher prices for consumers.
“In the short term the situation is likely to see a boost in earnings for TUI and Jet2-owner Dart Group, both of whom have seen their share prices jump by 6% to 7% on Thomas Cook’s demise. Quoted airlines have also benefited with EasyJet’s shares up 5.1 per cent and Ryanair up 3.8 per cent.”