Travel chaos, jobs lost as tour company Thomas Cook collapses

Britain's Civil Aviation Authority confirmed Thomas Cook, a 178-year-old company that helped create the package tour industry, had ceased trading. It said the firm's four airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries -- including 9,000 in the U.K. -- will lose their jobs.

A stream of reports Monday morning gave some sense of the extent of the travel chaos: some 50,000 Thomas Cook travellers were stranded in Greece; up to 30,000 stuck in Spain's Canary Islands; 21,000 in Turkey and 15,000 in Cyprus alone. "The growing popularity of the pick-and-mix type of travel that allows consumers to book their holiday packages separately, as well as new kids on the block like Airbnb, has seen the travel industry change beyond all recognition in the past decade, as consumers book travel, accommodation, and car hire independently," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

CEO Peter Fankhauser said in a statement read outside the company's offices before dawn Monday that he deeply regrets the shutdown. She said while was satisfied with the information she received from British authorities, the Thomas Cook representative had not appeared at her group's hotel since the first rumours of financial difficulties emerged last week.

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