i'll see have a very happy new year, i'll see you soon. i'm back with the latest from the bbc london newsroom in half—an—hour. plenty more on our website at the usual address. now though it's back to louise and dan. bye for now. this hello, this is breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our main stories this morning: thousands of people were forced to shelter on a beach to escape bushfires in the australian state of victoria. many were poised to jump into the sea as their town was surrounded by a wall of flame. elsewhere, two people have been confirmed dead, and several others are still missing in the fires. the government says it will raise concerns with the authorities in cyprus about the fairness of a trial of a british woman convicted of lying about being gang raped. lawyers for the 19—year—old insist she was pressured by police into changing her story. the national living wage is to rise by 6.2%. that's more than four times the rate of inflation. the changes take effect in april. more on all of that in just under half—an—hour.

now, in a special programme tom burridge looks back at the collapse of travel firm thomas cook. all chant: what do we want? answers! when do we want them? now! it's a travesty, it's devastating. our lives are ruined because of thomas cook airlines uk. the captain turned around to me and said to me, "it's gone." i went into the flight deck and cried. when do we want them? now! 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 in a uniform and i've got nowhere to go." you can't just leave brits stranded abroad. i want to go home!

bankruptcy, bitterness and rage. i think it's been a national scandal to let a company of that size and that heritage in history just fall like that. they took millions of british tourists abroad every year. the biggest brand offering winter or summer sunshine. thomas cook was the uk's oldest travel business. also, the best—known travel brand on the high street as well. so it had a huge amount of love and respect from its customers and its employees. it changed the way people travel... two weeks in greece, late july. let's see! ..and created a new concept — the package holiday. four people...two weeks... don'tjust book it — thomas cook it.

trips to places like spain became the new 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 didn't show was that thomas cook was in debt. we know we've been in the news a lot recently... the message injuly — 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've just heard in the last few minutes that thomas cook has ceased trading. thomas cook, one of the world's biggest tour operators, has collapsed after last—ditch talks to save the business failed.

britain's oldest travel group, thomas cook, collapses. the company's fleet of planes was grounded in the early hours of this morning, wrecking the holiday plans of so many people. as its planes landed 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. people sort of suspected that it would never happen, and then it did. so it was a very sad day and the repercussions are just 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 company's collapse straight away. i was told to come here now to find out my flight has been cancelled, with three kids. my son's got adhd and autism, and his sister, and they're sobbing their hearts out in the car. i got in touch with thomas cook yesterday and they said everything had gone through and nowt to worry about. yesterday i got in touch with thomas cook to make sure everything was going ahead and they said under no circumstances the holiday would be cancelled. and that we would be put on another plane regardless as to whether thomas cook went into liquidation or not. obviously, i've set off at 3am this morning, and we were given a duty of care number, and they said the holiday can't go ahead because there are no planes available. i was reporting at gatwick once the news broke. look at this. 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 everyone's seen the news, but people were still pitching up to the airports, hoping, probably, that they could somehow get on a flight, get on their holiday. we're gutted, disappointed. i mean, it meant a lot to us. it's our first holiday away together. i'm still angry. we met stephan and zoe, who were supposed to fly to the canaries to scatter her dad's ashes. with them on the trip, their young children. they're devastated, they've cried, you know, they're not themselves, they're quiet. they'd been looking forward to this for months and months. we didn'tjust decide to go, we've planned this. we had to get paperwork for the ashes. we've had to do everything. martin and gemma has been planning their wedding on a greek island, but they'd booked it all with thomas cook. itjust broke my heart. ijust couldn't believe it. i was gutted. i didn't want it to be true. it alljust seems for nothing now.

we are a bit confused and empty. don't really know what to do. all that planning and it's sort of...all gone. but 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 has ever been done before. there's never been a peacetime repatriation that's been as big. so, yeah, we were pretty nervous and absolutely keyed up to do it. but, yeah, kind of 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 be a commercial solution for thomas cook, because this really was not an operation we ever wanted to undertake. i mean, thomas cook — it's the world's oldest travel company, it's employees, it's customers, you know, this was 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. well, this is the main thomas cook—run hotel in palma, and we're being told by staff that everything's 0k, but the management won't speak to us. and if you look, they've got security here for the first time. they're quite nervous. this is one of a number of hotels that we understand are waiting still to be paid

in arrears from thomas cook, and meantime, they are still having to look after the customers too. reception don't know what's happening. theyjust said, "yes, the hotel is open at the moment." we just feel like at any moment, like, we're vulnerable and we could just 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'd be refunded by the uk's atol travel insurance scheme, and some were demanding people pay for a second time. we went out for dinner last night and came back to the hotel and we couldn't get into our room. so we had to go downstairs to the lobby and the lady said you — "basically, give us 340 euro and 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 reassure hotels

that they would be paid. we spoke, in the first three days, we spoke to 3,500 hotels, which — individually — and some of them were, reasonably, quite cross. there was a hotel in mexico that was owed over a million dollars. so they weren't happy. but we did manage to reassure them that the atol—protected customers would be paid for, and that also calmed things down and allowed people to continue their holidays. to understand the scale of the company's demise, it helps to consider its rise, which began — yes — 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's when its debt grew. other factors like competition from online travel agents, or 0tas, then pushed it over the edge. various factors. importa ntly, competition for thomas cook had increased massively in the last decade, so new players likejet2 holidays, the 0tas as well, they've become really, really significant, taking millions of customers now away from the big tour operators. it had been a challenging market, with brexit uncertainty and a weak pound, but, ultimately, thomas cook's problems came back to this huge debt they had been saddled with from a previous business merger, which meant that the business was not able really to be truly profitable because it had to put so much of its profits back into servicing the interest on 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.

hi! the manchester flight's full, right? yeah. the compa ny‘s staff, who'd lost theirjobs, helped out. 0ur rep was really good. he came to that hotel two or three times today, didn't he, to make sure that we could get home and make sure that we knew what was going on and everything. but with confusion inevitable, that first day at airports like palma, in majorca, was the hardest. to watch the operation matterhorn repatriation effort at first was chaotic. it did not go well at all. there were hundreds upon hundreds of thomas cook passengers coming to the airport. many of them anxious, they took cabs — they did not trust whether or not the coaches would turn up. they were told by thomas cook staff and also the civil aviation authority to stay in one corner of the departures lounge, and that built up and built up. there were some people there 18, 19 hours, sitting down, lying on the floor, some crying as well, working out how they could get home.

by day two, it was completely different. the big airlines had come in to help and it was really smooth from there. the civil aviation authority had experience to draw on when monarch airlines collapsed two years ago. then, it had to repatriate more than 100,000 people. but 0peration matterhorn, which cost the uk government £40 million, was significantly bigger. at the beginning of week two, i was allowed on board an airbus a380 tasked with bringing hundreds of people home. this airbus a380 is about to head to sunny majorca to bring around 400 thomas cook customers back here to rainy manchester. this plane, the largest in a fleet of aircraft assembled by the civil aviation authority to bring tens of thousands

of people home. this shows you just how different running a repatriation mission is to operating a commercial airline. the aircraft leave uk airports empty. but once in majorca, the authorities get as many holidaymakers as possible on board. before the company went bust, there were seven thomas cook flights scheduled to leave palma today for uk airports. with this giant aircraft, those seven flights become one into manchester. it's been absolutely fabulous. the holiday has been fabulous. the information was fabulous. we have to get to manchester — we live in brighton, so we've got to get a coach down. so what? people have lost theirjobs. it's all been fabulous. it was worrying, but then things have gone quite smooth. after a while, initially, yes, it was worrying. very lucky.

very lucky, considering all of the staff who have lost theirjobs and people who have lost their holidays. we managed to finish ours, so you can't say any 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's ace! we couldn't believe it when we came up the steps. we're 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 hard to foresee.

silly things, in a way, would go wrong. for example, there were fourairports in cuba. because we only had one big plane, we thought it would be sensible to amalgamate everyone to one airport, great idea, but there wasn't enough fuel in cuba to bus all those people from the four areas to one airport. so, forget that plan! it was things like that that went wrong all the time. i was very, 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.

9,000 people in the uk had lost 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 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 theirfamily. they had always worked together and known the structure and suddenly, it vanished. my name is betty knight. i was cabin crew for thomas cook airlines for 12 years. our management seem to have disappeared off 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've 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 want them? now! 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 wa nt a nswers! we want it now! the impact of what had happened was still sinking in. we just cannot understand what's gone wrong. we've not been paid, a lot of us have children and mortgages, people have gone to food banks. it's unbelievable we are in this situation. we have just been pushed out. i won't get anotherjob, i'm too old to be employed now. it's a travesty. 0ur 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 the big ceos, all the big bonuses, we understand they need to have bonuses but they must have known what was going on. they've been creaming off on it. peter fankhauser has a lot to answer for. peter fankhauser 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. he was paid more than £8 million in the last five years. weeks later, he was grilled by mps. do you think that bonus should be paid back?

i can say i worked tirelessly for the success of this company and i'm deeply sorry i was not able to 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 in charge of thomas cook during the period when the debt really grew. he insisted he wasn't to blame for the company's demise. 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 get — i couldn't face the world. got a bit anxious. suffered from anxiety and probably 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 weren't earning huge salaries at thomas cook are facing a new reality this christmas. i'm now near retirement. it's not likely i will get anotherjob. and it's just... why did it finish in that way? that's not how i wanted to finish my career. it's just a big feeling of loss. one of our friends, she ended up with her partner using her redundancy to live in a hotel, in a b8b and she was declared homeless.

she has been on the waiting list for some while. another friend was put out of her accommodation very quickly. she's having to be supported. i think it's 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's failed me. it isn'tjust me. loads of ex—colleagues going through the same situation and the system's failed us. we paid tax, national insurance all our working lives to be given nothing. it makes me angry and frustrated with the system.

you're powerless, you are made to feel like you're just a number and it doesn't matter. 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 theirjob 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 a £1.7 billion debt, if you lost £1.5 billion in the last six months alone, if you issued another profit warning, this is entirely different to the condor situation which was a fundamentally profitable airline.

but a positive turnaround for some staff, who went back to work. hays travel announced it was saving around 500 thomas cook stores. i'm actually 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'd lost theirjobs, were with the bbc‘s colletta smith when they got a call to say that they were now not unemployed. they are opening and we just have to 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 other jobs, looking for other work and then to be told they got theirjobs back was incredible. they were in tears, hugging each other, we were thenjoining 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 romanticjourney came to an abrupt end. thomas cook employees and thomas cook customers, whether they had their holiday or were waiting for their insurance to pay out, and our staff and all the people who helped, it was something like 1 million people affected. that's an enormous number and on top of that, you've got all of those hotels abroad and in some areas, these were hotels that 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. and something we will continue to write about for years,

if not decades, i'm sure. i think it's been a national scandal to let a company of that size and heritage and history just fall like that. life has moved on, and i don't think you ever actually know or get the answers to questions that the crew and people who work for thomas cook would seek. 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 want answers, we want them now! what do we want? answers! when do we want them? now! we will be back with your breakfast headlines in a moment,

but first, time to get the news, travel and weather where you are. see you then. good morning from bbc london. i'm tarah welsh. young volunteer police cadets are being used to help the met fight against knife crime. over the last six months, teams in every borough have helped carry out searches of parks and other public spaces for knives and weapons. we launched it in november, 2018 following a successful operation. i was asked by the head of the violent crime task force to launch it across the whole of london. this is our six month of operations, and the 26 knife. during that period we have deployed

353 of our volunteer police cadets, and we have search 135 parks, this is the 136th park to date. it's the last day of 2019. and this new year sees the 20th birthday of the london eye. built for the millenium, it was only meant to be in place for five years but is now a permanent landmark on our skyline. it was designed as part of a competition with its 32 capsules representing each one of the london boroughs. and the landmark will be one of the key features in tonight's event on the south bank. 12,000 fireworks will be let off from three barges in the thames and on the london eye. and the team only has a couple of hours to rig the display on the eye after it closes to the public at 6pm. it's around about half nine, ten o'clock, we get the eye into lockdown. so with 2.5 hours to go, we find out when we have some of it, all of it or not of it. fingers crossed it will be all of it. but it's a very anxious moment when we run that test at 10pm in the evening with two hours to go, praying that we have green, green,

green across the board. let's take a look at the travel situation now. 0n the tubes there's are minor delays on the bakerloo line and the picadilly line is closed between uxbridge and rayners lane. great western railway is running a reduced service today because of major engineering works. now the weather with gill brown. the final day 2019 is here and it's off to a very misty, murky start. the fog is around this morning, so please do take care, it is also going to be a cloudy end to the year. we will be hanging onto the cloud, plenty of cloud around, a very grey and overcast day on the whole. it's a little cooler than yesterday, we're still hanging onto double figures — just. top temperatures at 10 degrees. the good news is if you have plans to either new year's eve it should be dry.

there is a of cloud, but i think nothing if few a fireworks can't brighten things up a little bit later on. 0vernight, i think we will see those temperatures fall away to around three celsius. so, it's a grey end to 2019, a bit of a great start to 2020 as well. bye for now. good morning. welcome to breakfast with louise minchin and dan walker. 0ur headlines today: the terrifying moment thousands of people took refuge on the shore in australia to escape bush fires engulfing their town. we were bracing for the worst, because it was black. like, it should have been daylight but it was black like midnight. and we could hear the fire roaring. the uk government says it's seriously concerned about a fair