Peter Fankhauser, the chief executive of Thomas Cook, apologised on Monday for the liquidation of the world’s oldest travel company, which left thousands of passengers stranded around the globe and sparked the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British History.
“I would like to apologise to our millions of customers and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years,” Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to get stranded British travelers home and revealed that the government had rejected a request from Thomas Cook for a bailout of about $187.1 million because doing so would have set up a “moral hazard”.
The firm ran hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million travelers a year in 16 countries, generating revenue in 2018 of $12 billion. It currently has 600 000 people abroad, including more than 150 000 British citizens.
Thomas Cook employs 21 000 people and is the world’s oldest travel company, founded in 1841. The company has $2.1 billion of debt.
