A woman walks past a closed Thomas Cook store in London, Britain, on Sept. 23, 2019. British travel giant Thomas Cook on Monday announced its collapse after failed rescue attempts, leaving about 21,000 jobs worldwide at risk. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)
Although the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of the United Kingdom (UK) has pledged to make every effort to bring tourists home following the collapse of British travel agency Thomas Cook, about 135,300 passengers were still stranded abroad on Tuesday.
According to the CAA, repatriation flights will only be operated over the next two weeks, i.e. until Oct. 6, 2019.
"After this date you will have to make your own travel arrangements. From a small number of locations, passengers will have to book their own return flights," said CAA.
According to a statement issued by the CAA on Tuesday, 64 flights brought over 14,700 passengers back to the UK on Monday, meaning that "over 95 percent of all those due to return yesterday were repatriated by the CAA."
On Tuesday, 74 flights were expected to bring back a further 16,800 tourists, it said.
"With 13 days remaining and approximately 135,300 passengers still to bring back to the UK, we are working around the clock ... to deliver the flying program," said the CAA.
CAA Chief Executive Richard Moriarty said: "Following the very sad news yesterday morning that Thomas Cook had stopped trading and its aircraft were grounded, we launched at the government's request our operation to return more than 150,000 people to the UK.
"A repatriation of this scale and nature is unprecedented and unfortunately there will be some inconvenience and disruption for customers," said Moriarty, adding that "We will do everything we can to minimise this as the operation continues."
British travel giant Thomas Cook announced Monday to collapse after rescue failure, leaving about 21,000 jobs worldwide at risk.
Founded in 1841, the well-known British travel giant has some 21,000 employees and operates in 16 countries.
