Thomas Cook collapse: UK to repatriate 16,000 people on fourth day

(Reuters/NAN) Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said more than 70 flights were scheduled for Thursday to bring back 16,000 people to the country following the collapse of Thomas Cook.

The authority also said more than 150 Thomas Cook crew and 30 per cent of the total number of passengers, in the first three days of the operation, had already been flown back.

CAA said its flying programme would continue until Oct. 6, with more than 1,000 flights planned in total. The aviation regulator launched the largest peacetime repatriation on Monday.

Similarly, Germany’s Condor, which is owned by British travel operator Thomas Cook, said on Thursday that a Frankfurt court had begun investor protection proceedings that should allow the airline to be restructured. Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel firm, collapsed this week, sparking a scramble for survival among many of its subsidiaries.

Germany said on Tuesday it would guarantee a 380 million euro (419 million dollars) bridging loan for Condor to enable it to continue flying and save jobs. A precondition for the type of investor protection proceedings in Germany that is being used in the Condor case is that a company is not yet insolvent and can be saved. Condor and Thomas Cook GmbH, the second-biggest tour operator in Germany after TUI (TUIGn.DE), are both independent units of the insolvent British parent company. Lucas Floether, who is working on the wind up of Air Berlin, will supervise the process, Condor said.