The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said they have flown back 61,000 Thomas Cook customers to the UK which is 40% of holiday makers. On Thursday they used 69 flights to bring back 15,000 people as part of Operation Matterhorn.
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Around 72 flights are expected to operate today and will return around 16,000 customers of Thomas Cook. The rescue flights will continue to October 6th with over 1,000 flights planned. Most holidaymakers are flying home on their planned departure date.
Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA said: “An operation of this scale and complexity will inevitably cause some inconvenience and disruption and I am very grateful to holidaymakers for bearing with us as we work around the clock to bring them home”.
Thomas Cook went into liquidation after last minute negotiations to save the company failed. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the tour operator had “ceased trading with immediate effect”. The company entered compulsory liquidation in the early hours of September 23rd, 2019 after the company failed to secure an extra £200m needed to keep it going.
Around one million customers who had travel booked in the coming months have been told not to go to the airport, as all bookings, including flights and holidays, have been cancelled.
People who are on a package holiday are covered by the Atol scheme. This means they will pay for your accommodation abroad, however you may have to move to a different hotel or apartment. Atol will also pay to have you brought home if the airline is no longer operating. If you have a holiday booked in the future, you will also be refunded by the scheme.
