Any civil aviation folk here?

I'm puzzled - Thomas Cook goes down the pan, and the same happens as every time an airline or travel agent goes down: there's a mad panic while the government worries about how to get the pax back. We hear songs of 'world's greatest repatriation' and 'great complexity' and the like... and yet it seems to me that the planes are still all in one piece, the pilots are all available, the flight crews are all still looking for work.

So why the hell isn't the obvious happening? Use the existing planes with existing crews flying to the expected airports at the expected times? You fly 'em out empty, bring 'em back full. After a fortnight or so, everyone already on their travels has returned - to the place they expected to be, having had the holiday they expected to get. No-one who hasn't already gone is getting out, but that's not happening anyway.

Am I missing something blindingly obvious?

Neil

Be a good idea.....however given the company is not solvent and is no longer operating, no wages, no insurance, no pilots no employees etc etc.....the planes were impounded by the CAA on the tarmac for non payment of fees defaulting on airport charges etc this morning in the UK. I suppose the other way of doing it to stop selling new holidays etc three weeks ago and then continue to pay your employees until everyone is back home, they don't tend to do that though do they; instead everyone is left in the shit!

Good editorial of why it all went tits up (hardly a sound business model....'awarding' your CEO £2m pa for running a company that has losses of £1.5bn and operates a business with out of date consumer practices/selling....the salaries of blue chip Execs are a total joke too. Remember the Phoenix 5....basic fraud and theft! I could run it into the ground for far less than that.

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.

How the hell can anyone justify paying the Chief Exec £2m a year when the company is in that much debt?

They have to pay that to get the "brightest and the best" Captains of industry blah blah blah.

I'm also lead to believe it all trickles down...

Something trickles down but it sure isn't the money or perks!

What Happens Now

To answer your original question Neil, Mr Mentor Pilot gives a good description on what happens and why.

You can also learn how to fly a 737 if you follow all his videos.

They obviously monitor FCCUK:

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...ying-to-repatriate-customers-thomas-cook

I rest my case.