isa travesty, it has devastated our lives because of thomas cook airlines uk. the captain turned around to me and said it was gone. i we nt around to me and said it was gone. i went into the flight deck and cried. it has not been possible to save one of the most loved brands in travel. after 178 years it was all over. as i got to the airport, i started to cry because i thought, i'm coming here ina cry because i thought, i'm coming here in a uniform and i've got no to go. you can'tjust leave brits stranded abroad. i want to go home! bankruptcy, bitterness and rage. stranded abroad. i want to go home! bankruptcy, bitterness and ragei think it has been a national scandal to let a company of that size and heritage just fall like that. this is bbc world news today, i'm aaron safir.

they took millions of british our top stories: tourists abroad every year. the australia sees one the worst days in weeks of devastating bushfires, biggest brand offering winter or as the prime minister returns summer biggest brand offering winter or home from holiday. violent storms bring floods summer sunshine. thomas cook was the and mudslides to large parts of western europe as they uk's summer sunshine. thomas cook was the brace for even more heavy rain. uk's oldest travel business, also the best travel brand on the high facing the threat ofjihadist street as well. it had a huge amount violence in west africa — regional leaders gather in nigeria of love and respect from customers to discuss what can be done. and employees. it changed how people the international community needs travel. two weeks in greece, late to be mobilised to understand july. let's see! they created a new that this is notjust a threat in west africa and sahel, concept. the package holiday. don't but to the entire global community. just book it, thomas cook it. trips and liverpool are the world club champions after scoring the only goal in extra time to places like spain became the new against brazilian side flamengo. norm. as tourism boomed. and as our travel addiction took off, thomas cook grew and grew. exotic, enticing destinations were affordable for

millions. but what the glitzy marketing did not show was that thomas cook was in debt. we know we have been in the news a lot recently... the message injuly was all will be fine. keep booking! with thomas cook, your holiday is in safe hands. they were wrong. we just want to bring some breaking news now on thomas cook, we have just heard in the last few minutes that thomas cook has ceased trading. thomas cook, one of the worlds biggest tour operators, has collapsed after last—ditch talks to save the business failed. britain's oldest travel group, thomas cook, collapses. the fleet of planes was grounded in the early hours of this morning, wrecking holiday plans of so morning, wrecking holiday plans of so many people. as its planes landed backin so many people. as its planes landed back in britain one last time, they

we re back in britain one last time, they were seized and impounded at uk airports. that name, a giant of uk travel, was bankrupt. it had taken people on organised trips for a century and a half, but the age of the thomas cook holiday was done. we suspected it would never happen, thenit suspected it would never happen, then it did. it was a very sad day, and the repercussions are continuing to spin out now. check-in at uk airports normally bustling on a monday morning, suddenly a sorry sight. people felt the impact of the companies collapse straightaway. —— make the compa ny‘s companies collapse straightaway. —— make the company's collapse.|j companies collapse straightaway. —— make the company's collapse. i was told to come here now to find out that my flight has been cancelled with three kids. my sun has adhd and autism. they are stopping their hearts out in the car. i got in

touch with them yesterday and they said everything had gone through and there was nothing to worry about.|j got in touch with them and they said under no circumstances the holiday would be cancelled. and we would be put on another plane regardless of whether they went into liquidation or not. we got here at 3m this morning, and we were given a duty of ca re morning, and we were given a duty of care number, and they said there we re care number, and they said there were 110 care number, and they said there were no planes available.|j care number, and they said there were no planes available. i was reporting at gatwick airport when the news broke. look at theirs. yesterday, check in here would have been very busy but with the company collapsing overnight, its airlines effectively vanished. there was inevitable chaos, and you'd think that on a story that big that eve ryo ne that on a story that big that everyone had seen the news but people were still pitching up to the airport hoping that they could get on their holiday. we are gutted, disappointed. it meant a lot to us. it is our first holiday away

together. i'm still angry. we met stephan and zoe, supposed to fly to the canaries to scatter her dad sashes. with them, their young children. they are devastated, they'd been looking forward to this for months and months. we didn't just decide to go, we've planned this. we had to get paperwork for the ashes. we had to do everything. martin and gemma were planning their wedding on a greek island but they booked it all with thomas cook. wedding on a greek island but they booked it all with thomas cookm broke my heart. i couldn't believe it. gutted. didn't want it to be true. we are a bit confused and empty. we don't really know what to do. all of that planning and it's all gone. the big challenge for the

authorities was at airports abroad. when the company folded there were 150,000 people already on thomas cook holidays in places like majorca. now, it was down to the uk government to get every single one of them home. we knew the scale of what we had to undertake. nothing like this had ever been done before. there has never been a peacetime repatriations as big. we were pretty nervous and absolutely keyed up to do it. but yeah, biting our fingernails at the same time. the operation was codenamed matterhorn, the civil aviation authority had been planning it for weeks. we really, really hoped there was going to bea really, really hoped there was going to be a commercial solution for thomas cook because this was not an operation we ever wanted to undertake. thomas cook, the worlds old est undertake. thomas cook, the worlds oldest travel company. its employees and customers, it's really sad. i think actually almost up to two days

beforehand, we thought there was the possibility of a commercial solution but of course, you have to prepare for scenarios that are very different. but even before the operation to bring people home had begun, hotels were, for a while, refusing to let customers leave. as my colleague gavin lee witnessed first hand in majorca. this is the main thomas cook run hotel in parma, and we are told by staff everything is ok but management will not speak to us. they've got security here for the first time. they are quite nervous. it's one of a number of hotels we understand are waiting to be paid in arrears from thomas cook and meantime, they are still having to look after customers too. reception do not know what is happening. they said yes, the hotel is open at the moment. we feel like at any moment we are vulnerable and could be asked to leave. thomas cook customers had paid for their holidays, but many hotels which were owed money by the company were

initially unaware that they had been refunded by the uk's atoll travel insurance scheme and some were demanding people pay for a second time —— mike atol. and there we went out for dinner last night and came back to the hotel and we couldn't get into our room. we went downstairs to the lobby and the lady said basically give us 340 euros and you can get back into your room. so thatis you can get back into your room. so that is what we had to do. it was up to the uk's civil aviation authority to the uk's civil aviation authority to reassure hotels that they would be paid. we spoke in the first three days to three and a half thousand hotels, which individually and some of them were reasonably quite cross. one hotel in mexico was owed over $1 million. we said the atol protected customers would be paid for and that

would allow people to continue the holidays. to understand the scale of the company's demise, it helps to consider its rise which began right backin consider its rise which began right back in the 1800s. one of its shops can even be spotted on the corner of st mark's square in venice in 1898. the firm then enjoyed a century of growth and success, a winner in the modern age. but, in 2007, it merged with mytravel, to create a much bigger group. that is when its debt grew, and other factors bigger group. that is when its debt grew, and otherfactors like competition from online travel agents, or ota plant, pushed it the edge. competition had increased

massively in the last decade, like jet2 holidays, and otas took millions of customers away from tour operators. with brexit uncertainty and a weak pound, ultimately their problems came back to this huge debt they were saddled with from a previous business merger which meant the business was not able to be truly profitable because it had to put so much of its profits back into servicing the debt. in the wake of thomas cook's downfall, the immediate priority was to get the tens of thousands of tourists back to britain. the company's staff, who had lost theirjobs, helped out. our rep was really good, he came to that hotel two or three times today to make sure we could get home and make sure we make sure we could get home and make sure we knew what was going on. with

confusion inevitable, the first day at airports like parma, was the ha rd est. at airports like parma, was the hardest. watching the matterhorn repatriations at first was chaotic. it didn't go well at all. there were hundreds of airport passengers coming, they were anxious, they took cabs, they did not know if the coaches would turn up. they were told by thomas cook staff and by the civil aviation authority to stay in one corner of the departure lounge and that built up and built up. there were some people therefore 18 01’ there were some people therefore 18 or19 there were some people therefore 18 or 19 hours, sat on the floor, some crying, working out how they would get home. by day two, it was com pletely get home. by day two, it was completely different. they care line is came into help and it was really smooth from there. —— of the big airlines. the civil aviation authority had experience to draw on, when monica airlines collapsed two

yea rs when monica airlines collapsed two years ago. then, it had to repatriate more than 100,000 people —— mike monarch airlines. but operation matterhorn, which cost the uk government £40 million, was significantly bigger. at the beginning of the second week, i was allowed on an airbus a380 which was tasked with bringing hundreds of people home. this airbus a380 is about to head to sonny mielke to bring around 400 thomas cook customers back here to rainy manchester. this plane is the largest in a fleet of aircraft and was assembled by the civil aviation authority to bring thousands of people home —— sunny majorca. this shows how different repatriations is to running an airline, they leave uk

airports empty but when they are in majorca, authorities get as many people as possible on board. before the company went bust, there were seven thomas cook flights scheduled to leave parma today for uk airports. with this giant aircraft, those seven air flights become one into manchester. it has been fabulous, the holiday was fabulous. information was fabulous. we have to get from manchester to bournemouth, but so what, people have lost their jobs. initially, yes, it was worrying. very lucky, considering all of the staff who have lost their jobs and people who have lost their holidays. we managed to finish hours so holidays. we managed to finish hours so you cannot say more than that really. then, the flight back and the paper cups a reminder about who was supposed to fly them home. but,

some did travel in style for the first time. never thought i would see the day that we would be sat in business class, i think it is ace! you can believe it when we came up the steps, we are in business class, aren't we? brilliant, we've never flown like this before! the civil aviation authority had to operate a complicated flight schedule over two weeks. overall, it was a job well done. the planning had paid off, some problems werejust done. the planning had paid off, some problems were just hard to foresee. silly things, anyway, would go wrong. for example, there were four airports in go wrong. for example, there were fourairports in cuba. go wrong. for example, there were four airports in cuba. because we only had one big blind, we thought it would be sensible to amalgamate eve ryo ne it would be sensible to amalgamate everyone to one airport but there wasn't enough fuel in cuba to bus all those people to one airport. it

was things like that that went wrong all the time —— make one big plane. i was very glad when the last plane landed! it was, for many, notjust a job. but a dreamy lifestyle. travel, sunshine, and working for a powerful brand. but in a flash, it was all gone. 9000 people in the uk had lost theirjobs. is it here we sign for theirjobs. is it here we sign for the redundancy courses? they came together soon after at manchester airport. as i got to the airport, i started to cry because i thought i've come here in a uniform, but

i've come here in a uniform, but i've got nowhere to go. my colleague simon browning was there. people who i've spoken to, nobody expected it to happen. it was like the death, a death in their family. to happen. it was like the death, a death in theirfamily. they had worked together and known the structure and suddenly, it vanished. my name is betty night. i was cabin crew for thomas cook airlines for 12 years. our management seem to have disappeared into the sunset with millions and millions of pounds. while all of our lovely passengers and customers have been helped by the civil aviation authority who have done an incredible job and they have done an incredible job and they have been assisted, our cabin crew, members of ourcabin have been assisted, our cabin crew, members of our cabin team, have been stuck without even a word or a phone call. in really dire circumstances. what do we want? answers! when do we

wa nt what do we want? answers! when do we want them? now! within days, thomas cook staff had travelled from different parts of the country to westminster. we want answers! the impact of what had happened was still sinking in. we just cannot understand what has gone wrong. we've not been paid, a lot of us have children and mortgages, people have children and mortgages, people have gone to food banks. it's unbelievable we are in this situation. i won't get anotherjob, i'm too old to be employed now. our lives are ruined because of thomas cook airlines uk. but top of their minds were questions about how the business went under. why did this company not go into administration but they went into liquidation overnight, in two hours. why? it's not on, we need answers and we need them now. all of the big ceos and their big bonuses, we know they need to have bonuses but they must have

known what was going on. peter fankhauser has a lot to answer for. he was in charge when thomas cook went bust. this is a statement i hoped i would would never have to make. it is deeply distressing to me that it has not been possible to save one of the most loved brands in travel. thank you. you was paid more than £8 million in the last five yea rs than £8 million in the last five years —— he was paid. weeks later, he was grilled by mps. do you think that bonus should be paid back?|j that bonus should be paid back?” can say i worked tirelessly for the success can say i worked tirelessly for the success of this company and i'm deeply sorry i was not able to secure deeply sorry i was not able to secure the deal. this man also faced questions. can we just ask, secure the deal. this man also faced questions. can wejust ask, do secure the deal. this man also faced questions. can we just ask, do you feel responsible for the failure of the company? manny fontenla-novoa was responsible for the company when the debt really grew. he insisted he

was not to blame for the demise of the company. when we heard the news on the morning of the 23rd, i was still awake. i was watching it unfold. i was heartbroken, devastated. for about two weeks after that, i couldn't even get dressed. i couldn't face the world. got a bit anxious. suffered from anxiety and depression actually as well. it took me a good three or four weeks to be able to go back out there and start applying forjobs. when that came to an end for me and i realised i was no longer involved in that industry, it was such a shock. the benefits, emotionally and psychologically, to fly are great. when that ends as suddenly as it did, it is a huge loss. people who were not earning huge salaries at

thomas cook are facing a new reality this christmas. i'm now near retirement. it is not likely i will get anotherjob. retirement. it is not likely i will get another job. why retirement. it is not likely i will get anotherjob. why did it finish in that way? that's not how i wanted to finish my career. it is a big feeling of loss. one of our friends, she ended up with her partner using her redundancy to live in a hotel, ina b&b her redundancy to live in a hotel, in a b&b and she was declared homeless. she has been on the waiting list, another friend was put out of her accommodation very quickly. she is having to be supported. it happened so quickly, overnight. what do you think the overall impact has been on you, in the three months since? simon has discovered many people still out of work have struggled to get financial support from the state. i think the system has failed

me. it isn'tjust me. loads of ex collea g u es me. it isn'tjust me. loads of ex colleagues going through the same situation and the system has failed us. situation and the system has failed us. we paid tax and national insurance all our lives to be given nothing. it makes me angry and frustrated with the system.” nothing. it makes me angry and frustrated with the system. i have paid my tax. i've worked hard and i've done everything that has been expected of me to contribute to our society. when i needed the department for work and pensions, when i needed jobseeker's allowance, i haven't been able to access that. my claim for that has been cancelled by them three times. and then i am told that i caused the delay? you are left bewildered by the system. we put all of these claims to the department for work and pensions, they have said they are sorry and are urging all former thomas cook staff to keep in touch with their job centres so they can urgently try and fix these claims.

thomas cook staff are also perplexed by the fact that the company's german airline, condor, was kept afloat and is still operating today. the government was forced to defend its decision not to save thomas cook's uk airline. whilst i hear people saying, why didn't you just put the money in, the answer is all you would have to do is open their books and realise, if you have £1.7 billion of debt, if you lost £1.5 billion of debt, if you lost £1.5 billion in six months alone, if you issued another profit warning, this issued another profit warning, this is entirely different to the condor situation which was a fundamentally profitable airline. but a positive turnaround. staff, who went back to work. hays travel announced it was saving around 500 thomas cook stores. i'm sat with all of my team now, they would all be happy to come back to the branch. nicola and her

colleagues, who thought they had lost theirjobs, colleagues, who thought they had lost their jobs, well with colleagues, who thought they had lost theirjobs, well with the bbc‘s a letter smith when they got a call to say that they were now not unemployed. they are opening and we just have two contact them. clapping it wasjust incredible, for me one of the most amazing moments as a journalist to be in the room at that moment when someone's life is turned around in seconds. they thought they would be made redundant. they were already looking for otherjobs, looking for other work but then to be told they got theirjobs back was incredible. they were in tears, hugging each other. we were joining in. you couldn't not, in a room like that. it was so exciting and emotional. just incredible to be there. as travel evolved over the decades, thomas cook navigated huge change

and reaped the rewards. but, in 2019, that romantic journey and reaped the rewards. but, in 2019, that romanticjourney came to an abrupt end. thomas cook employees and thomas cook customers, whether they had their holiday or were waiting for the insurance to pay out, and our staff and all the people who help, it was something like1 million people affected. it's an enormous like1 million people affected. it's an enormous number like1 million people affected. it's an enormous number and on top of that, you've got all of those hotels abroad and in some areas, these hotels were really relying on thomas cook passengers to revitalise the economy. certainly the biggest story i've ever covered in 13.5 years of travel trade journalism. we will continue to write about it for years, if not decades, i am sure.” think it has been a national scandal to let a company of that size and heritage and history just to let a company of that size and heritage and historyjust fall like that. life has moved on, and i don't think you ever will get the answer to questions that the crew and

people who work for thomas cook would say. the oldest brand in british travel is gone. and, those who were the heart and soul of the company will be picking up the pieces well into the new year. we wa nt a nswers, we wa nt pieces well into the new year. we want answers, we want them now! what do we want? answers! when do we want them? now! good evening. we have numerous flood warnings still in place following what has been a very wet few weeks. in fact, a wet few months here in the uk. more rain is already falling in england and wales. there are

flood warnings in force, you can get details on the website. further flooding through the night and into sunday is welcome as this area of low pressure, and this mass of cloud, rushes in from the atlantic. there will be five to ten millimetres of rain but in some places double that. it sits on the ground, it is so saturated, the ground, it is so saturated, the ground, given the rain that we have had. spray and standing water on fast routes, drizzly cloud and hill fog. low—level fog is a concern further north. as we had this morning. some icy patches in the north, temperatures falling close to freezing. the fog could be the main hazard in northern areas. rain in the east first thing tomorrow morning. this area of low pressure drives the weather through sunday. westerly wind driving in showers, particularly in western and northern coasts, and the travel islands —— channel islands as well. the rain drags its heels in the morning and

elsewhere, this misty and low cloud, fog as well, which at this time of year struggles to clear but with wind picking up a bit, we see it has not lingered as long as the dayjust gone. sixes and sevens, similar to today but in scotland it will feel chilly. in the run—up to christmas, similarair mass chilly. in the run—up to christmas, similar air mass across the uk. mild airto the similar air mass across the uk. mild air to the south, colder air to the north. average temperatures, it looks like most of the rain will come by night. for many, except scotland, on monday you can see those showers rattling in frequently to northern and western areas. elsewhere, a good deal of dry weather. this developing area of rain takes away some activity. that comes in on monday night. monday itself looks dry and bright. for many parts of the uk, away from the north and the west of scotland. rain ru ns north and the west of scotland. rain runs through on monday night, returning to dry weather by tuesday

but more rain is on the way later 00:28:02,182 --> 2147483051:50:46,599 rather than sooner on christmas day. 2147483051:50:46,599 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 goodbye.