Travel

Thomas Cook update: 43,000 Britons still stranded overseas – will they be flown home?


Travel agent Thomas Cook went into a sudden administration last week leaving thousands of British holidaymakers stranded overseas. A repatriation effort named “Project Matterhorn” has been put in palace by the British government to bring English residents back home safely. While 106,000 tourists were brought home within the first week of the effort, there are still 43,000 waiting to be rescued. According to the CAA roughly 130 aircraft have been employed to servers part of the repatriation effort, and 1,000 journeys have been scheduled between Sept 23 and Oct 6 as part of the operation.

The news follows the announcement by Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps who promised that those on holiday could stay until their pre-planned return date, making sure no Britons had to cut short their time abroad.

In his speech to parliament Shapps said: “We put arrangements in place to bring back 150000 people across 50 different countries, this requires over 1000 flights by the CAA, chartered aircrafts over the next two week period.”

He went on to state that almost 30,000 of the 150,000 passengers had landed back on home turf within the first day of the operation.

However, the minister also pointed out some of the limitations that come along with such a huge repatriation effort.

He added: “We haven’t been able to bring everybody back to the airport they left because of the difference of the size and shape of the aircraft that are available.”

Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA, dubbed Project Matterhorn the “largest ever peacetime repatriation operation”.

He said: “We are pleased with the first week of Operation Matterhorn, but as we start the second week of our flying programme we remain firmly focussed on the enormity of the challenge we still have to deliver.

“We have returned over one hundred thousand people to the UK, but there are still over 43,000 people on holiday abroad due to return on or before 6 October.

“The scale and complexity of this operation will inevitably cause some inconvenience and disruption and I would like to thank holidaymakers for bearing with us.”

A further 53 flights are scheduled to fly today, predicted to bring home an additional 8,000 holidaymakers.

Project Matterhorn is set to plow ahead until October 6, at which point all those currently on vacations should be returned.

An additional 450,000 Thomas Cook customers were left at home faced with cancelled plans, which are due to be refunded.

The CAA has launched a new process for what is deemed its biggest ATOL refund programme ever.

Moriarty continued: “We are now also turning our attention to the challenge of refunding 360,000 ATOL protected future Thomas Cook holidays that have been cancelled.

“This will be three times larger than any refund programme we have managed before, and we are implementing new systems to enable us to process these refunds as quickly as possible.

“For around 100,000 bookings made by direct debit we hope to refund these within the next 14 days.

“Refunds of bookings made by other payment methods will take longer as we do not yet have all of the information we need from Thomas Cook.”

A new “simplified” claims process has been launched online for customers seeking their money back. The CAA have said they hope to have all refunds payed within 60 days of receiving a valid claims form.

However, people up and down the UK have reported experiencing cold calls from scam artists posing as the travel agent and asking for bank details in order to reissue owed money.

Experts have advised customers to be cautious about who they speak to. Adam French, Which? Consumer Rights Expert, added: “We’ve heard worrying stories of criminals trying to scam people affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook, so while the messages being sent by some banks might be well-meaning, this flawed approach will only be adding to the confusion customers are facing.

“Our advice is to ignore unsolicited calls and texts and avoid sharing your card or bank details. Anyone looking to claim back the cost of their flight through their debit or credit card provider should contact their bank directly themselves.”



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