A travel giant for 178 years, but now facing fight for its survival

Thomas Cook, one of the world’s largest travel companies, was formed by a cabinet maker of the same name.

Mr Cook organised his first trip in 1841, taking around 500 supporters of the temperance movement on a day trip by train from Leicester to Loughborough. His first commercial venture was an outing to Liverpool in 1845, before expanding to overseas trips in 1855. The first high street shop was opened in 1865 while pleasure trips by plane were launched in 1919.

The Cook family sold the business to the Belgian owners of the Orient Express in 1928, before it became state-owned as part of the nationalised British Railways in 1948.

Thomas Cook returned to private ownership in 1972 and has since switched hands several more times.

The most recent major change was in 2001 when a German travel group became the sole owner of the firm. Today, Thomas Cook Group employs around 22,000 people in 16 countries and has around 19 million customers each year.

If Thomas Cook does collapse, the Civil Aviation Authority is expected to launch a major repatriation operation to fly home UK holidaymakers stranded abroad.

This will involve hiring aircraft at a cost to taxpayers of millions of pounds. When Monarch went bust in October 2017, the government spent £60 million getting passengers home.

Customers who booked a package holiday through Thomas Cook will be financially protected through the Atol scheme. That means those already abroad will be able to continue with their holiday and an alternative flight home will be organised for them. Those with future bookings will be offered a full refund. Anyone who bought a flight-only deal through Thomas Cook is likely to have to contact their credit or debit card provider in a bid to get their money back.