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Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of
Thomas Cook AG Thomas Cook AG was an Anglo-German, global travel group. The group had its headquarters in Rochdale, and sold products such as package holidays and flights through its 3 in-house airlines. On 19 June 2007, the group merged with MyTravel Group p ...
 — successor to
Thomas Cook & Son Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. In 1851, Cook arrange ...
 — and
MyTravel Group MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various t ...
until 23 September 2019, when it went into
compulsory liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redist ...
. The group operated as a tour operator and airline, and also operated travel agencies in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. At the time of the group's collapse, approximately 21,000 worldwide employees were left without jobs (including 9,000 UK staff) and 600,000 customers (150,000 from the UK) were left abroad, triggering the UK's largest peacetime repatriation. After the collapse, segments of the company were purchased by others, including the travel stores in the UK, the airlines, the Thomas Cook name and logo, the hotel brands and the tour operators.
Thomas Cook India Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. is an Indian travel agency, headquartered in Mumbai, India, providing travel services including Foreign Exchange, International and Domestic Holidays, Visas, Passports, Travel Insurance and MICE. Founded in 1881 by Thom ...
has been an entirely separate entity since August 2012, when it was acquired by
Fairfax Financial Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a Canadian financial holding company based in Toronto, Ontario, which is engaged in property, casualty, insurance and reinsurance, investment management, and insurance claims management. The company ope ...
and thus was not affected. In September 2020,
Fosun International Fosun International Limited is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company. Founded in 1992 by Guo Guangchang and four others, the company is headquartered in Shanghai and was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2004. Its Co-CEOs are Chen Q ...
launched
Thomas Cook Holidays Thomas Cook Tourism (UK) Company Limited, known as Thomas Cook UK, is an Anglo-Chinese package holiday provider which offers 'Flight + Hotel' packages and Hotel only bookings. The company was launched in 2019, when Chinese firm Fosun Internation ...
as the successor to the company, hiring former Thomas Cook Group staff in the process.


History


Formation

In February 2007, it was announced that
Thomas Cook AG Thomas Cook AG was an Anglo-German, global travel group. The group had its headquarters in Rochdale, and sold products such as package holidays and flights through its 3 in-house airlines. On 19 June 2007, the group merged with MyTravel Group p ...
and
MyTravel Group plc MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various ...
were to merge. The companies announced they expected to make savings of over £75 million a year, following the integration of the two businesses. Under the terms of the merger, the owners of Thomas Cook AG, KarstadtQuelle (later
Arcandor Arcandor AG was a holding company located in Essen, Germany, that oversaw a number of companies operating in the businesses of mail order and internet shopping, department stores and tourism services. It was formed in 1999 by the merger of K ...
), owned 52% of the new group. The shareholders of MyTravel Group owned the remaining 48% share. The merger was completed in June 2007, and took place through the formation of 'NewCo' which effectively purchased MyTravel and Thomas Cook and was then listed on the London Stock Exchange under the name of Thomas Cook Group plc.


2008–2009

On 14 February 2008, Thomas Cook bought booking website Hotels4U.com for £21.8 million. On 6 March 2008, the company bought back its licence to operate the Thomas Cook brand in the Middle East and Asia from the Dubai Investment Group for an amount estimated to be around 249 million euros. In April 2008 Thomas Cook bought the luxury travel firm Elegant Resorts from its founders Geoff Moss and Barbara Catchpole for an undisclosed figure. The company took over
Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...
-based Gold Medal International, owner of
NetFlights Netflights.com is an internet based travel company and part of Gold Medal Travel Group in the United Kingdom supplying flights, hotels, holidays and car hires. Established in 1992 as Airline Network, the company was privately owned 100% by Ken Tow ...
, in a deal worth £87 million in December 2008. On 8 March 2009, Thomas Cook signed a deal with Octopus Media Technology to host, upload, and provide an online video player for Thomas Cook TV. In Spring 2009 Thomas Cook UK signed a deal with International Entertainment Supplier The E3 Group, to exclusively supply entertainment to the group. In June 2009, Thomas Cook's majority shareholder Arcandor filed for bankruptcy, although the group was not affected. Arcandor's shares in Thomas Cook were sold by its creditor banks in September 2009.


2010–2015

In July 2010, Thomas Cook Group bought German tourism company Öger Tours, which was owned by
Vural Öger Vural Öger (born 1 February 1942) is a Turkish-German businessman and politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2009. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, part of the Socialist Group. Li ...
. In 2010, the Thomas Cook Group reached an agreement with
The Co-operative Group Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care. The Co-operative Group has over ...
to merge its branch network with that of The Co-operative Travel. The merger was approved by the
Competition Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...
in 2011, and the joint venture was 66.5% owned by the Thomas Cook Group, 30% owned by The Co-operative Group and 3.5% owned by the Midlands Co-operative (renamed the
Central England Co-operative Central England Co-operative, trading as Central Co-op, is a regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, based in Lichfield and which trades from over 400 sites across the English Midlands and East Anglia. The business is owned and d ...
in 2014). The merger created the UK's largest travel network. Thomas Cook's ''Going Places'' branded branches were rebranded under the Co-operative's brand. In May 2012,
Harriet Green Harriet Green (born 12 December 1961) is a British businesswoman, who was chairman and CEO of IBM Asia Pacific, and previously led three IBM business divisions: the Internet of things, customer engagement and education businesses. She was CEO ...
was appointed as the chief executive officer of Thomas Cook Group, succeeding Manny Fontenla-Novoa, who was CEO from 2003 until August 2011. On 1 July 2013, Thomas Cook announced that it would cease publishing the ''
Thomas Cook European Timetable The ''European Rail Timetable'', more commonly known by its former names, the ''Thomas Cook European Timetable'', the ''Thomas Cook Continental Timetable'' or simply ''Cook's Timetable'', is an international timetable of selected passenger rai ...
'', along with closure of the rest of its publishing business. The final edition of the timetable was published in August 2013, but publication resumed in early 2014 under a new publishing company not affiliated with Thomas Cook. In February 2014 Thomas Cook Group sold Gold Medal Travel, including Netflights.com, to
dnata Dubai National Air Travel Agency ( ar, دناتا) (commonly known as dnata) is an Emirati airport services provider which provides aircraft ground handling, cargo, travel, and flight catering services across five continents. History dnata was ...
for a reported £45 million. On 26 November 2014, it was announced that Green was leaving with immediate effect, and that COO
Peter Fankhauser Peter Fankhauser (born 1960) is a Swiss businessman, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Thomas Cook Group from 2014 until its collapse in 2019. Early life and career Born in November 1960, Fankhauser has a doctorate from the Uni ...
would take over as CEO.


Inquest into carbon monoxide poisoning

In October 2006, two young British children, Christianne and Robert Shepherd aged seven and six years old respectively, died from
carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...
caused by a faulty boiler while on a holiday in
Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
booked through Thomas Cook. They were the first such deaths in the company's history. Two Thomas Cook employees were subsequently amongst 11 defendants facing manslaughter by negligence charges at a criminal trial in Greece in 2010; both were acquitted and the company was cleared of any wrongdoing. In 2015, a UK inquest was held into the children's deaths; the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing and concluded that the travel group had "breached its duty of care". After the inquest, ''
The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...
'' published a news story saying that Thomas Cook had received £3 million from the owners of the hotel where the children's deaths had occurred. In response, Thomas Cook made a charitable donation of £1.5m to
Unicef UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to c ...
. However, the children's family said that they had not been consulted about this donation, which became the subject of criticism. In UK newspaper ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' Joanna Bourke wrote: "Nothing Thomas Cook could ever do would bring back the two children killed by carbon monoxide poisoning on a Greek holiday in 2006. But the firm's handling of the case has been a lesson in how not to manage a crisis".


2016–2018

In 2016 the
Co-operative Group Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care. The Co-operative Group has over ...
decided that it would exercise its option to quit the branch network joint venture. Thomas Cook Group announced it would buy out the stakes in The Co-operative Travel owned by The Co-operative Group and Central England Co-operative, taking full control of the retail network and re-branding the high street travel stores that had operated under the Co-operative brand gradually during 2017–18. In March 2017, Thomas Cook announced the sale of its Belgian airline operations to
Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...
. As a result,
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was a Belgian leisure airline owned by the Thomas Cook Group. It operated scheduled flights to destinations throughout Europe and Africa from its base at Brussels Airport. The airline operated from 2002 until 2017. ...
was shut down by November 2017 with two aircraft and all traffic rights being handed to
Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...
. Its three remaining aircraft were relocated to sister companies. In August 2018, a British couple, John and Susan Cooper, aged 69 and 63 respectively, died on a Thomas Cook holiday, while staying at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic in the Red Sea resort of
Hurghada Hurghada (; ar, الغردقة ', ) is a city in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt. It is one of the country's main tourist centres located on the Red Sea coast. Overview Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century. For many decades it wa ...
. According to the Egyptian authorities, John died of a heart attack and Susan died of shock. The couple's daughter, also present at the resort, blamed the faulty air conditioning system at the resort. Thomas Cook hurriedly evacuated around 300 holidaymakers staying in the same hotel after other guests started to fall ill. In November 2018, business analysts suggested that Thomas Cook should split the business to help recover its financial health.


2019: Final year and collapse

In February 2019, the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' newspaper said that the Thomas Cook Group had received bids for its airline business, which included
Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vu ...
, and also the company as a whole. In March 2019, Thomas Cook UK announced 21 travel office closures and the redundancy of 300 staff, justifying the decision with the fact that 64% of bookings had been made online in 2018. In May 2019 the company reported that it had secured £300 million of emergency funding from its banks. Then in May 2019, the company announced a loss of £1.5 billion for the first half of its financial year, with £1.1 billion of the loss being attributable to goodwill write-downs. In June 2019, Thomas Cook said that it was in talks with the Chinese company
Fosun International Fosun International Limited is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company. Founded in 1992 by Guo Guangchang and four others, the company is headquartered in Shanghai and was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2004. Its Co-CEOs are Chen Q ...
with regard to the possible sale of its tour operator business. On 28 August 2019, Thomas Cook announced that Fosun would pay £450 million for 75% of the firm's tour business and 25% of its airline. By September 2019, Thomas Cook Group was "the most shorted company on the London Stock Exchange," and reports began to emerge that the company was "in last minute negotiations" with bondholders, in order to approve the Fosun takeover. Less than a week later, Thomas Cook asked
HM Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...
to fund a £200 million gap in the company's finances to prevent the firm falling into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
. The company had by that point secured £900m in funding as part of a
debt-for-equity Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private or public company or a sovereign entity facing cash flow problems and financial distress to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore accounting liquidity, liquidity so ...
swap, including £450m from Fosun. Despite this, a late demand is reported to have emerged from the Group's funders, including
Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster B ...
and Halifax, who insisted that the Group be sufficiently recapitalised to ensure operations were protected through to January, when bookings are traditionally quieter and liquidity would be challenging. This demand meant the group needed an extra £200 million of funding to keep the company operational. These efforts did not succeed, with the UK Government
Secretary of State for Transport The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...
Grant Shapps Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who is serving as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy since October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Transport in the Johnson governm ...
rejecting any discussion of UK intervention. Media reports had earlier indicated that a group, including the Turkish government and a group of Spanish hoteliers backed by Spanish ministers, had offered financial support in order to assist their domestic industries, but that rescue had failed because "the British government said it was not prepared to provide any financial guarantees to underpin the funding package." A final failed attempt to prevent the Thomas Cook Group from administration or liquidation took place the evening of 22 September 2019. At around midnight on 23 September, airports in the UK began to impound Thomas Cook aircraft upon arrival, citing "default in payment of airport charges". Shortly after 02:00 BST, the
Civil Aviation Authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...
(CAA) announced that the Thomas Cook Group had entered liquidation and ceased operations with immediate effect, leaving around 600,000 tourists overseas. The collapse of the company marked the end of a brand name that had been in continuous use since 1841. The collapse triggered an operation initiated by the CAA, aiming to repatriate 150,000 British citizens from abroad. The operation was codenamed 'Operation Matterhorn' and overtook the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines as the UK's biggest peacetime repatriation. Around 40 aircraft from various airlines, including
easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate air ...
and
Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and ...
, as well as at least one
Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
from
Malaysia Airlines Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB; ms, Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad), formerly known as Malaysian Airline System (MAS; ), and branded as Malaysia Airlines, is the flag carrier airline of Malaysia and a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. (The ...
, were chartered. Insurance companies took care of customers from Germany, one of the former company's biggest markets. David McHugh of
CTV News CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the national ...
reported that there were many factors that led to the collapse: a high debt load of £1.6 billion ($2 billion) combined with a changing travel market and online competition, events such as terrorist attacks in tourist destinations including Tunisia, the European heat wave in 2018, uncertainty caused by
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...
, and high fuel costs.


Post-collapse

On 9 October 2019, independent travel agent
Hays Travel Hays Travel Limited is an independent travel agent chain headquartered in Sunderland, England. According to recent statistics, the company has the largest number of retail travel shops in the United Kingdom. As an independent agent, Hays Travel ...
announced that it had acquired all 555 former Thomas Cook travel stores in the UK, and planned to re-employ a "significant number" of former employees. Hays, which already operated 190 of their own stores, expected to retain over 25% of the retail staff, saving roughly 2,500 jobs. Meanwhile, on 30 October 2019, an investment consortium consisting of Norwegian property tycoon
Petter Stordalen Petter Anker Stordalen Bjorvand (born 29 November 1962) is a Norwegian billionaire businessman, hotel and property developer and self-proclaimed environmentalist. He has an estimated net worth of US$1.3 billion stemming from investments in hote ...
and private equity firms Altor and TDR Capital announced that they had acquired the assets of Thomas Cook Northern Europe (also known as the Ving Group) including the Ving, Spies and Tjäreborg travel agencies, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, and the Sunwing and Sunprime hotel brands, with Stordalen and Altor owning 40% each and TDR Capital owning the remaining 20%. Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia was then rebranded as
Sunclass Airlines Sunclass Airlines A/S (formerly Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia) is a Danish charter airline that operates charter services from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The company is affiliated with Ving Group, a Nordic tour operator. It and Vin ...
. There were reports on 31 October 2019 that Swiss-based investment firm LMEY Investments intended to re-acquire the Aldiana hotel brand, which it jointly owned with Thomas Cook, by buying Thomas Cook's 42% minority shareholding. Fosun International purchased the Thomas Cook name and logo, along with the Casa Cook and Cook's Club hotel brands, for £11 million on 1 November 2019. Then, on 8 November 2019, it was announced that Thomas Cook's airport slots had been sold to
easyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate air ...
and
Jet2holidays Jet2holidays is a British package holiday provider and tour operator. It was formed in 2007 as a subsidiary of Dart Group PLC (now renamed Jet2 PLC), and a sister to Jet2.com, the third-largest scheduled airline in the UK. As of 2018, Jet2holi ...
for £36 million, with the former acquiring Gatwick and Bristol and the latter acquiring Birmingham, London Stansted and Manchester. Thomas Cook Germany announced that it would close down on 1 December 2019, after having failed to find a buyer, with administrators in talks to sell Thomas Cook Germany's tour operators Öger Tours, Bucher Reisen, Neckermann and Air Marin and find buyers for hotel brands Sentido and Smartline. Neset Kockar, the chairman of Turkish tour operator Anex Tours, acquired Russian tour operator
Intourist Intourist (russian: Интурист, a contraction of , "foreign tourist") was a Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Uni ...
from Thomas Cook's liquidators on 15 November 2019. Meanwhile, Anex Tours acquired Thomas Cook Germany's tour operators Öger Tours and Bucher Reisen, saving 84 jobs, on 21 November 2019. Anex Tours also acquired the trademark rights for tour operator Neckermann Reisen from Thomas Cook Germany's liquidators on 2 January 2020. The German travel group DER Touristik acquired the Sentido hotel brand, with the deal subject to antitrust approval, on 4 December 2019. Thomas Cook Balearics had closed down after becoming insolvent on 26 December 2019. On 24 January 2020, it was announced that Polish carrier
LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally incorporated as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (corporation), S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. Established in 1928, LOT was a founding member of IATA and remains one of List of airlines by foundat ...
had acquired German airline Condor, with the acquisition expected to be completed by April 2020 once antitrust approval had been secured. However, on 13 April 2020, it was announced that LOT Polish Airlines had withdrawn its offer to acquire German airline Condor, with the German government agreeing to support Condor with emergency liquidity. The German airline Thomas Cook Aviation filed for bankruptcy due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
on 2 April 2020. On 16 September 2020,
Fosun International Fosun International Limited is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company. Founded in 1992 by Guo Guangchang and four others, the company is headquartered in Shanghai and was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2004. Its Co-CEOs are Chen Q ...
relaunched Thomas Cook as
Thomas Cook Holidays Thomas Cook Tourism (UK) Company Limited, known as Thomas Cook UK, is an Anglo-Chinese package holiday provider which offers 'Flight + Hotel' packages and Hotel only bookings. The company was launched in 2019, when Chinese firm Fosun Internation ...
, an online travel company with 50 employees.


Corporate affairs

Below are the financial records of the Thomas Cook Group plc between 2008 and 2018 and the combination of
Thomas Cook AG Thomas Cook AG was an Anglo-German, global travel group. The group had its headquarters in Rochdale, and sold products such as package holidays and flights through its 3 in-house airlines. On 19 June 2007, the group merged with MyTravel Group p ...
and
MyTravel Group MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various t ...
in 2007.


Ownership

At the time of the 2007 merger, 52% of the shares in the new company were held by the German mail-order and department store company
Arcandor Arcandor AG was a holding company located in Essen, Germany, that oversaw a number of companies operating in the businesses of mail order and internet shopping, department stores and tourism services. It was formed in 1999 by the merger of K ...
(the former owner of Thomas Cook AG) and 48% owned by the shareholders of MyTravel Group. Arcandor filed for bankruptcy in June 2009, and its shares in Thomas Cook were sold in September 2009. As of June 2016, Thomas Cook Group plc's three major shareholders were
Invesco Invesco Ltd. is an American independent investment management company that is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional branch offices in 20 countries. Its common stock is a constituent of the S&P 500 and trades on the New York stock exc ...
(19%),
Standard Life Investments Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-terms savings company in the UK which is owned by Phoenix Group. History 1825–2010 The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance ...
(10%), and the business magnate and investor
Guo Guangchang Guo Guangchang (, born February 1967) is a Chinese businessman and investor. He is the chairman and co-founder of Fosun International Limited, and a representative of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. According to Hurun ...
(7.03%). The remainder of the stock floated freely.


Operations

Thomas Cook Group employed approximately 21,000 staff worldwide, with 9,000 in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
.


UK retail arm

Thomas Cook Retail Limited was the UK travel agent, and successor to
Thomas Cook & Son Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. In 1851, Cook arrange ...
stores. It was a subsidiary of the Thomas Cook Group, who operated a total of 555 travel stores all over the United Kingdom. The agents primarily sold package holidays under the in-house British tour operator Thomas Cook Tour Operations, and flight-only bookings with
Thomas Cook Airlines Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. ...
. On 23 September 2019, the business entered
compulsory liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redist ...
, like all other UK entities in the group.


Tour operators


In Destination Management

Thomas Cook In Destination Management Limited was an overseas management company, operating on behalf of its British sister tour operator and airline. The business was in charge of managing bus transfers to hotels and providing hotel 'reps' for Thomas Cook customers. It ceased operations on 23 September 2019 after Thomas Cook Group and its UK entities entered
compulsory liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redist ...
.


Hotel chains

Thomas Cook Hotels and Resorts Limited was the Thomas Cook Group's wholly owned hotel business. The majority of hotels were located in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, primarily in countries within the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
. Brands included Casa Cook, Sentido, Sunprime, Cook's Club, Aldiana, Sunwing, SunConnect, and Smartline.


Aviation

The Thomas Cook Group's airline division operated as one operating segment, the
Thomas Cook Group Airlines Thomas Cook Group Airlines Limited was an airline holding company of the defunct British Thomas Cook Group. The airlines operated as a single operating segment of the Thomas Cook Group to allow aircraft to be used when and where they were needed ...
(TCGA).


Airlines


Fleet

The
Thomas Cook Group Airlines Thomas Cook Group Airlines Limited was an airline holding company of the defunct British Thomas Cook Group. The airlines operated as a single operating segment of the Thomas Cook Group to allow aircraft to be used when and where they were needed ...
fleet consisted of the following aircraft before its collapse:


Sponsorship

Thomas Cook was a main sponsor of
Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and
Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
football clubs. On 22 May 2009, Manchester City announced that its six-year partnership with Thomas Cook would conclude at the end of the
2008–09 Premier League The 2008–09 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th season since the establishment of the Premier League in 1992. Manchester United became champions for the 11th time on the penultimate wee ...
season. Thomas Cook was a sponsor of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. As one of the UK's biggest and most popular providers of package holidays, Thomas Cook was appointed to provide "affordable and accessible" holidays and accommodation throughout the games.


Notes


References


External links

*
www.thomascook.com
��Former official Web site *
Company archive: The Thomas Cook Archive has been transferred to the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland in Long Street, Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, LE18 2AH as of January 2020
{{Authority control 1841 establishments in England 2019 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1841 British companies disestablished in 2019 Companies based in Peterborough Companies formerly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Cambridgeshire Transport companies established in 1841 Transport companies disestablished in 2019 Travel and holiday companies of the United Kingdom Travel agencies