(Title Image: Andrew Thomas via Wikipedia under Creative Commons Licence BY-SA-2.0)
An estimated 150,000 tourists have been affected by the collapse of the UK’s oldest travel company, Thomas Cook, which entered administration on September 23rd 2019 after failing to secure a £250million bailout.
There are no concrete figures for the number of people from Wales affected, but Cardiff Airport – from which Thomas Cook operated some charter flights – said up to 6,000 people flew from the airport with the company in the weeks before its collapse.
28 high street stores in Wales will close and 9,000 jobs were set to be lost in the UK alone – amongst 22,000 worldwide.
The UK Government, who opted against providing a bailout, have organised a repatriation effort with the Civil Aviation Authority which will run until October 6th 2019 at an estimated cost of £100million – described as the UK’s biggest ever peacetime repatriation operation.