Thomas Cook latest: Repatriation begins - BBC News
All holidays and flights are cancelled after the firm collapses, putting 21,000 jobs at risk.
In the end Thomas Cook was a victim of that serial company killer – debt. When you owe £1.7bn, not much needs to go wrong to tip you over the edge – and with Thomas Cook a lot had been going wrong.

In fact, Thomas Cook has been struggling for a decade. Mergers with MyTravel and Co-Op had left it with 1,200 high street stores JUST as consumers were moving online.

It had a near death experience in 2011 but was saved when its lenders agreed to support it during a restructuring that saw it close over 600 bricks and mortar outlets.

Thomas Cook’s basic business model is to buy up package holidays in bulk months in advance and then sell them on. It's inherently risky as terror attacks, currency moves, unexpected heatwaves in the UK and uncertainty about ease of travel and insurance arrangements after Brexit could and did hit demand leaving the company exposed.

In May it announced a loss of £1.5bn, pushing it further into debt. Its largest shareholder, the Chinese company Fosun - which also owns another holiday company, Club Med – offered to plough in £450m but the company’s lenders didn’t think there was enough cash to see it through the lean winter months.

It required another £200m and when that couldn’t be raised privately, it turned to the government, which refused, just as it had with contractor Carillion to prop up a private company with taxpayers' money.

Thomas Cook’s chief executive took home £8m in pay and bonuses in the last four years and there will be an investigation into the conduct of directors. That will be little comfort to 21,000 Thomas Cook workers who are facing unemployment rather than a bit of holiday disruption.