Failed airlines’ planes will fly tourists home

AIRLINES which go bust in future will have their planes seized by the Government and used to bring home holidaymakers under new laws designed to save taxpayers millions.

The collapse of Thomas Cook last month triggered a £100million operation by the Civil Aviation Authority to repatriate almost 150,000 stranded tourists on a fleet of 62 chartered jets. However, the expense raised questions over why it was unable to use Thomas Cook’s crew and fleet of planes.

Ministers were accused of failing to learn from the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines. A review had called for reform to allow insolvent airlines to continue flying for a short time to bring passengers home. But Government claimed it had not had time to change the law by the time Thomas Cook went under.

Now Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is vowing to bring in reforms. He said: ‘ To bring over 140,000 Thomas Cook passengers home, the Government and UK CAA worked together round the clock and, with the support of people across the globe, carried out the biggest peacetime repatriation exercise in UK history.

‘I’m determined to bring in a better system to deal with similar situations in future [and] bring in airline insolvency reforms as quickly as possible.’

A Department for Transport spokesman added: ‘ Being able to make use of existing assets and staff to get people home will help to cut the costs of these repatriation efforts when they occur, make repatriation easier to deliver and also reduce the disruption felt by passengers.’