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Roughly 600,000 travelers are stranded around the world after British travel provider Thomas Cook declares bankruptcy



Thomas Cook, a 178-year-old British travel company and airline, declared bankruptcy early Monday morning local time in the UK, suspending operations and leaving hundreds of thousands of tourists stranded around the world.

The travel company operates its own airline, with a fleet of nearly 50 medium and long-range jets, and owned several smaller airlines and subsidiaries, including German carrier Condor. Thomas Cook still had several flights in the air as of Sunday night, but was expected to cease operations once they landed at their destinations.

Condor posted a message to its site late Sunday night saying that it was still operating, but it was unclear whether that would change. Condor's scheduled Monday morning flights appeared to be operating normally.

Around 600,000 Thomas Cook customers were reported to be traveling, of which were 150,000 British and were abroad, scheduled to fly home with Thomas Cook, the company told CNN.

The British Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) prepared plans, under the code name "Operation Matterhorn," to repatriate stranded British passengers. According to the CAA, those rescue flights would take place between September 23 and October 6, leading to the possibility that travelers could be delayed for up to two weeks.

Initial rescue flights seemed poised to begin immediately, with stranded passengers posting on Twitter saying that they were only being delayed a few hours as they awaited chartered flights.

The scale of the task has reports calling it the "largest peacetime repatriation effort" in British history, including the operation the government carried out when Monarch Airlines collapsed in 2017.

Costs of the flights were expected to be covered by the ATOL— or Air Travel Organiser's License — protection scheme, a fund which provides for repatriation of British travelers if an airline ceases operations.

Airplanes from British Airways and easyJet would be among those transporting stranded passengers home, according to the Guardian, as well as chartered planes from leasing companies and other airlines. Thomas Cook Airlines' destinations included parts of mainland Europe, Africa, the US, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Airplanes were being flown to those destinations on Sunday night, according to the BBC.

Costs of the flights were expected to be covered by the ATOL— or Air Travel Organiser's License — protection scheme, a fund which provides for repatriation of British travelers if an airline ceases operations.