Thomas Cook crisis: As company demands extra fees, customers held hostage
Travel Company Thomas Cook is believed to be on the brink of collapse as it needs to secure around £200million in funding on Sunday. Customers have claimed that they were held hostage and were prevented from leaving the property unless they paid extra fees on Saturday.
The tour firm's financial difficulties which were piled up over the past year has led to structuring a refinancing plan in August by Chinese company Fosun, which is its biggest shareholder.
Meanwhile, the banks now want the company to raise extra funds or else its administration can collapse. The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) union, which is representing Thomas Cook, is requesting the government to come forward and bail out or else the company may collapse. Thomas Cook's collapse will leave about 150,000 British stranded.
It is noteworthy, that the company is trading fairly and people who still have faith in the travel firm are opting the company for vacations.
Thomas cook which is one of the world's largest travel companies was founded in 1841 to operate temperance day trips and now has annual sales of £9billion. It has 22,000 staff, 9,000 of whom are in the UK and serves 19 million custome5rs a year in 16 different countries.
The firm serves 600,000 customers on holiday, out of which over 150,000 are British.
The government is currently preparing itself for potentially the biggest repatriation exercise in peacetime history if Thomas Cook goes bust.
