Picture copyright Getty Photographs
Picture copyright
Getty Photographs
Taxpayers face a invoice of no less than £156m for the response to the collapse of Thomas Cook dinner, in line with a report by the federal government’s spending watchdog.
The travel company’s collapse last September left 9,000 employees out of labor and 150,000 holidaymakers stranded.
The Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO) mentioned the federal government had agreed to pay £83m in the direction of the price of getting prospects again residence, in addition to £58m in redundancy and associated funds.
However the remaining value isn’t but identified.
Different prices embody no less than £15m for liquidating the enterprise.
When the world’s oldest journey firm collapsed, the Division for Transport (DfT) instructed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to repatriate all 150,000 Thomas Cook dinner prospects who have been stranded abroad.
This included roughly 83,000 who had not booked a visit with Atol safety, which meant they weren’t robotically entitled to be flown residence freed from cost.
The DfT is reimbursing the price of repatriating these passengers.
Nevertheless, the NAO mentioned “the ultimate value is probably not identified for a while”, partly resulting from invoices for repatriation prices nonetheless being acquired.
Labour MP Meg Hillier, who chairs the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee mentioned “classes have to be learnt and future dangers understood”.
“Authorities seems to be set to foot the invoice, with business off the hook,” she mentioned.
“The sources to cowl different airways going bust is now very restricted. New laws are urgently required.”
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AFP/Getty Photographs
The collapse led to the biggest-ever peacetime repatriation of 150,000 stranded holidaymakers
A DfT spokesperson mentioned: “As a result of unprecedented scale of the operation, different airways didn’t have sufficient capability to repatriate these overseas.
“With out this effort, stranded passengers could not be assured a secure journey residence, inflicting stress and disruption to households, which might have had a knock-on impact on the broader economic system with so many staff overseas.”
A complete of 746 flights from 54 airports have been concerned within the repatriation effort, referred to as Operation Matterhorn.
The report additionally warned that restricted sources could be left within the fund which gives help to prospects whose holidays are protected by the Atol scheme.
The CAA informed the NAO the £481m of repatriation and refund prices associated to the Thomas Cook dinner collapse would deplete the vast majority of the fund’s sources.
The NAO mentioned the federal government had agreed to again up that fund, if it can not meet the prices ought to another Atol-licensed firm go bust.
This might imply additional prices to taxpayers if one other massive journey firm collapses within the close to future, the report added.
In December final yr the federal government confirmed plans for new airline insolvency legislation, which might permit carriers to maintain their planes flying lengthy sufficient to repatriate passengers.