Thomas Cook Group facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Thomas Cook Group plc

Former type	Public
Traded as	LSE: TCG FWB: TCG OTCMKTS: TCKGY
ISIN	ISIN: [https://isin.toolforge.org/?language=en&isin=GB00B1VYCH82 GB00B1VYCH82]
Industry	Hospitality, tourism
Fate	Ceased trading and entered into compulsory liquidation
Predecessors	Thomas Cook & Son Thomas Cook AG MyTravel Group
Successors	Hays Travel (acquisition of Thomas Cook UK travel stores) Sunclass Airlines (formerly Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia) Thomas Cook Holidays (Fosun Tourism Group) (acquisition of Thomas Cook name and logo, Casa Cook and Cook's Club hotel brands by Fosun)
Founded	5 July 1841; 183 years ago (1841-07-05) in Leicester, England as Thomas Cook
Founder	Thomas Cook
Defunct	23 September 2019; 5 years ago (23 September 2019)
Headquarters	London, England, United Kingdom
Area served	Global
Key people	Frank Meysman Non-Executive Chairman Peter Fankhauser (CEO)
Products	Charter and scheduled passenger airlines, package holidays, cruise lines, hotels and resorts
Services	Package holidays Flights Hotels
Revenue	£9,584 million (2018)
Operating income	£250 million (2018)
Net income	-£163 million (2018)
Number of employees	21,000
Divisions	Thomas Cook Group Airlines
Subsidiaries	Thomas Cook Retail Thomas Cook Airlines UK Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia Condor Thomas Cook Aviation Club 18-30 (1998–2018) Thomas Cook Hotels & Resorts Thomas Cook Tour Operations (UK) Tjäreborg Spies Neckermann Neckermann Reisen Öger Tours Bucher Reisen Air Marin Ving

A Thomas Cook store in the United Kingdom, which is now operated by Hays Travel

Thomas Cook Group plc was a big travel company based in the United Kingdom. It was formed on June 19, 2007, when two companies, Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group, joined together. Thomas Cook Group offered holidays, flights, and had travel agencies across Europe.

Sadly, the company stopped trading on September 23, 2019. When it closed, about 21,000 people around the world lost their jobs. Also, 600,000 customers were stuck abroad. This led to the UK's biggest ever effort to bring people home from other countries.

After the company closed, different parts of it were bought by other businesses. This included its travel shops, airlines, and even the Thomas Cook name and logo. It's important to know that Thomas Cook India is a completely separate company. It was not affected by the closure. In September 2020, a company called Fosun International started a new travel business called Thomas Cook Holidays. They even hired some former Thomas Cook Group staff.

History of Thomas Cook Group

How the Company Started

In February 2007, it was announced that Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc would join forces. They believed this merger would save them over £75 million each year. The owners of Thomas Cook AG, KarstadtQuelle, owned 52% of the new company. MyTravel Group shareholders owned the other 48%.

The merger was finished in June 2007. A new company, 'NewCo', was created. It bought both MyTravel and Thomas Cook. This new company was then listed on the London Stock Exchange as Thomas Cook Group plc.

Changes from 2008 to 2009

The Thomas Cook Group logo used between 2007 and 2013

In February 2008, Thomas Cook bought a website called Hotels4U.com for £21.8 million. In March 2008, the company bought back the right to use the Thomas Cook brand in the Middle East and Asia. This cost about 249 million euros. In April 2008, Thomas Cook also bought a luxury travel company called Elegant Resorts.

Later in 2008, they took over Gold Medal International, which owned NetFlights, for £87 million. In March 2009, Thomas Cook made a deal with Octopus Media Technology for its online video player. In Spring 2009, they also partnered with The E3 Group for entertainment supplies. In June 2009, Thomas Cook's main owner, Arcandor, went bankrupt. However, this did not affect the Thomas Cook Group itself.

From 2010 to 2015

In July 2010, Thomas Cook Group bought a German tourism company called Öger Tours.

A Thomas Cook Travel agency in Bradford, showing the company's logo from 2001–2013

In 2010, Thomas Cook Group agreed to combine its travel shops with those of The Co-operative Travel. This partnership was approved in 2011. Thomas Cook Group owned 66.5% of the new business. This merger created the largest travel network in the UK. Thomas Cook's 'Going Places' shops were renamed under The Co-operative brand.

In May 2012, Harriet Green became the new chief executive officer of Thomas Cook Group. On July 1, 2013, Thomas Cook announced it would stop printing the Thomas Cook European Timetable. This was part of closing its publishing business. The last timetable was printed in August 2013. However, a new company later started printing it again.

In February 2014, Thomas Cook Group sold Gold Medal Travel, including Netflights.com, for about £45 million. In November 2014, Harriet Green left the company. Peter Fankhauser, who was the chief operating officer, took over as CEO.

Important Events and Company Response

In October 2006, two young British children, Christianne and Robert Shepherd, sadly died while on a holiday in Corfu. This happened because of a faulty boiler. After this, a UK investigation looked into the deaths in 2015. The investigation found that Thomas Cook had not met its responsibilities.

After the investigation, a newspaper reported that Thomas Cook had received money from the hotel owners. In response, Thomas Cook gave £1.5 million to Unicef. However, the children's family felt they should have been asked about this donation. Many people criticized how Thomas Cook handled the situation.

In August 2018, a British couple, John and Susan Cooper, also died on a Thomas Cook holiday in Hurghada. Egyptian authorities said John died of a heart attack and Susan died of shock. The couple's daughter believed a faulty air conditioning system was to blame. Thomas Cook quickly moved about 300 other holidaymakers from the hotel after some guests became ill.

From 2016 to 2018

In 2016, The Co-operative Group decided to leave the joint travel shop business. Thomas Cook Group bought their shares, taking full control of the retail network. The high street travel shops that had used The Co-operative brand were gradually renamed during 2017–18.

In March 2017, Thomas Cook sold its Belgian airline business to Lufthansa. This meant Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium closed down by November 2017. Its planes and flight rights went to Brussels Airlines.

In November 2018, business experts suggested that Thomas Cook should split its business. They thought this would help the company get back on its feet financially.

2019: The Final Year and Closure

In February 2019, the Financial Times newspaper reported that Thomas Cook Group had offers to buy its airline business, which included Condor. There were also offers to buy the whole company. In March 2019, Thomas Cook UK announced it would close 21 travel offices and cut 300 jobs. This was because 64% of bookings in 2018 were made online.

In May 2019, the company announced it had received £300 million in emergency money from its banks. However, it also reported a huge loss of £1.5 billion for the first half of its financial year. In June 2019, Thomas Cook said it was talking with the Chinese company Fosun International about possibly selling its tour operator business. On August 28, 2019, Thomas Cook announced that Fosun would pay £450 million for 75% of its tour business and 25% of its airline.

By September 2019, Thomas Cook Group was facing big financial problems. Reports said the company was in last-minute talks to get approval for the Fosun deal. Less than a week later, Thomas Cook asked the UK government for £200 million to prevent the company from closing. The company had already secured £900 million in funding, including £450 million from Fosun.

However, the company's lenders, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax, asked for an extra £200 million. This was to make sure the company could keep running through January, a quieter booking period. These efforts failed. The UK government decided not to provide any financial help. Media reports said that the Turkish government and Spanish hoteliers had offered support. But the rescue failed because the British government would not give financial guarantees.

A final attempt to save the Thomas Cook Group happened on the evening of September 22, 2019. Around midnight on September 23, airports in the UK started holding Thomas Cook planes. This was because the company had not paid airport fees. Shortly after 2:00 AM British Summer Time, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that the Thomas Cook Group had closed down. This left about 600,000 tourists stranded overseas. The company's closure marked the end of a brand that had been around since 1841.

The CAA then started 'Operation Matterhorn' to bring 150,000 British citizens home. This was the UK's largest peacetime effort to bring people back from abroad. About 40 planes from different airlines, like easyJet and Virgin Atlantic, were used. Insurance companies helped customers from Germany, which was one of the company's biggest markets.

Many things led to the company's closure. These included a large debt of £1.6 billion, changes in the travel market, and online competition. Events like terrorist attacks in places like Tunisia, the hot summer in Europe in 2018, and uncertainty from Brexit also played a part. High fuel costs added to the problems.

After the Closure

On October 9, 2019, a travel agent called Hays Travel announced it had bought all 555 former Thomas Cook travel shops in the UK. Hays planned to hire many former Thomas Cook employees. Hays already had 190 of its own shops. It expected to keep over 25% of the retail staff, saving about 2,500 jobs.

On October 30, 2019, a group of investors bought parts of Thomas Cook Northern Europe (also known as the Ving Group). This included the Ving, Spies, and Tjäreborg travel agencies, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, and the Sunwing and Sunprime hotel brands. Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia was then renamed Sunclass Airlines.

Fosun International bought the Thomas Cook name and logo, along with the Casa Cook and Cook's Club hotel brands, for £11 million on November 1, 2019. On November 8, 2019, it was announced that Thomas Cook's airport slots (permission to land and take off) were sold to easyJet and Jet2holidays for £36 million. Thomas Cook Germany announced it would close on December 1, 2019, as it could not find a buyer.

Neset Kockar, chairman of Anex Tours, bought the Russian tour operator Intourist from Thomas Cook's liquidators. Anex Tours also bought Thomas Cook Germany's tour operators Öger Tours and Bucher Reisen, saving 84 jobs. The German travel group DER Touristik bought the Sentido hotel brand. Thomas Cook Balearics closed down in December 2019.

On January 24, 2020, it was announced that LOT Polish Airlines would buy the German airline Condor. However, on April 13, 2020, LOT Polish Airlines pulled its offer. The German government agreed to help Condor with emergency money. The German airline Thomas Cook Aviation went bankrupt in April 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On September 16, 2020, Fosun International relaunched Thomas Cook as Thomas Cook Holidays. This is now an online travel company with 50 employees.

How Thomas Cook Group Operated

Thomas Cook Group had about 21,000 employees worldwide. About 9,000 of these were in the United Kingdom.

UK Travel Shops

Thomas Cook Retail Limited was the company's travel agent business in the UK. It was a part of the Thomas Cook Group. It ran 555 travel shops across the United Kingdom. These shops mainly sold package holidays from Thomas Cook Tour Operations and flights from Thomas Cook Airlines. On September 23, 2019, this business also closed down.

Tour Operators

Thomas Cook Group had many tour operators in different countries:

Hotel Chains

Thomas Cook Hotels and Resorts Limited was the company's hotel business. Most of its hotels were in Europe. Its hotel brands included Casa Cook, Sentido, Sunprime, Cook's Club, Aldiana, Sunwing, SunConnect, and Smartline.

Aviation

The Thomas Cook Group's airline part was called the Thomas Cook Group Airlines (TCGA).

Airlines

Here are the airlines that were part of the Thomas Cook Group:

Airline	Country	Image	Joined	What it did	What happened to it
Thomas Cook Airlines UK	United Kingdom		2003–2019	This airline started in 2003. It used Airbus A321 and A330 planes.	Closed down on September 23, 2019.
Condor	Germany		2001–present	Condor Flugdienst is a German airline that started in 1956. It uses both Boeing and Airbus planes.	Still flying today.
Thomas Cook Aviation	Germany		2017–2020	This airline started in 2017. It used six Airbus A320 planes.	Its planes went to Condor in December 2019. The company went bankrupt on April 2, 2020.
Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics	Spain		2017–2019	This airline started in 2017. It used 6 Airbus A320-200 planes.	Its planes went to Condor. The company closed down on December 26, 2019.
Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia	Norway Denmark Sweden Finland		2007–2019	This airline flew from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. It used Airbus A321, A330-200, and A330-300 planes.	Bought by a group of investors and renamed Sunclass Airlines on October 30, 2019.
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium	Belgium		2002–2017	This was a Belgian airline. It flew to places in Europe and Africa.	Stopped flying when it was sold to Lufthansa AG in 2017.
Thomas Cook Airlines Canada	Canada		2010–2013	This was a Canadian airline. It flew to places in the Caribbean, Mexico, and North America.	Stopped flying when Thomas Cook Group sold Sunquest Vacations in March 2013.

Aircraft Fleet

Before it closed, the Thomas Cook Group Airlines had these planes:

Sponsorships

Thomas Cook was a main sponsor for the football clubs Manchester City and Peterborough United. On May 22, 2009, Manchester City announced that its six-year partnership with Thomas Cook would end. Thomas Cook also sponsored the London 2012 Summer Olympics. As a big holiday provider, Thomas Cook was chosen to offer "affordable and accessible" holidays and places to stay during the games.

Images for kids

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  The Thomas Cook Group logo used between 2007 and 2013

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  A Thomas Cook Travel agency in Bradford, showing the company's logo from 2001–2013

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  Thomas Cook Airlines UK plane

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  Condor airline plane

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  Thomas Cook Aviation plane

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  Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics plane

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  Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia plane

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  Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium plane

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  Thomas Cook Airlines Canada plane