The great escape: UK flies home 14,700 Thomas Cook customers first day after collapse
Nearly 15,000 people returned to Britain yesterday on specially chartered flights to save the passengers left stranded by the collapse of Thomas Cook.
The megalith effort of flying people back to the UK is set to continue for the next two weeks as 135,300 people need planes to come home, the Civil Aviation Authority said.
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Yesterday the organisation transported 14,700 people back to the UK. More than 95 per cent of those who were scheduled to fly back on the day were able to, even after their airline collapsed.
The CAA put on 64 flights over the day, it said, and is expecting 74 more to fly today, bringing 16,800 Brits home. It plans another 1,000 flight before 6 October in what is thought to be the largest peacetime repatriation in history.
“A repatriation of this scale and nature is unprecedented and unfortunately there will be some inconvenience and disruption for customers. We will do everything we can to minimise this as the operation continues,” CAA boss Richard Moriarty said.
The CAA also revealed that its site which was set up to detail information on the Thomas Cook collapse, had been viewed 6.8m times. If you need information on what to do, you can find Morning Wire’s guide here.
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Thomas Cook went under in the early hours of yesterday morning after attempts to drum up support for a rescue package did not bear fruit.
“We want people to continue to enjoy their holiday, so we will bring them back to the UK on their original departure day, or very soon thereafter,” Moriarty said.