Prime Minister Boris Johnson and unions questioned the part played by Thomas Cook’s richly rewarded bosses in the company’s demise on Tuesday, and asked why the state had to foot the bill for bringing tens of thousands of tourists home.
Some 16,500 holiday makers were flying back to Britain on the second day of the biggest ever peacetime repatriation, the Civil Aviation Authority said.
Running hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million people a year, Thomas Cook had around 600,000 people abroad when it collapsed in the early hours of Monday morning.
It will need the help of governments and insurers to bring them back from places as far afield as Cancun, Cuba and Cyprus.
