FILE PHOTO: A Thomas Cook Airbus A330-200 aircraft taxis across the tarmac at Manchester Airport in Manchester, Britain September 4, 2018.
The Civil Aviation Authority said Thomas Cook has ceased trading, its four airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the UK, will lose their jobs. The company had several months ago blamed a slowdown in bookings because of Brexit uncertainty as one of the contributing factors to its crushing debt burden.
"Due to the significant scale of the situation, some disruption is inevitable, but the Civil Aviation Authority will endeavor to get people home as close as possible to their planned dates," the aviation authority said in a statement. It only recently raised $1.12 billion , including receiving money from leading Chinese shareholder Fosun.