"It turned out to be the last flight here"

Tuesday 24 September 2019

Travel plans have been cancelled and some islanders stranded abroad after Thomas Cook's sudden closure.

The travel giant announced its liquidation yesterday morning leaving more than 20,000 people without jobs and hundreds of thousands of holiday plans disrupted.

Sam Lilley flew out to Skiathos, Greece on Sunday, which turned out to be the last flight there.

"We’re heading for my partner’s sister’s wedding. Much of the rest of the wedding party was due to arrive on Wednesday but due to the liquidation everybody is having to rearrange flights to Athens if they’re available and then another flight to Skiathos. Some people are unable to travel due to the extra cost of booking more flights and transfers.

"Obviously, this has been very stressful for everyone, with the wedding in a few days. 

"We haven’t had any contact for our return of flights yet, but we’ve only just arrived so not worrying about that at the moment. We took out travel insurance with liquidation cover before we came because of the rumours, so any extra costs should be covered by that."

We are sorry to announce that Thomas Cook has ceased trading with immediate effect.

This account will not be monitored.

Please visit https://t.co/WWiKkzLYQJ for further advice and information.#ThomasCook pic.twitter.com/Nf1X3jn97x

— Thomas Cook (@ThomasCookUK) 23 September 2019

Debbie Duport was disappointed to lose out on her upcoming holiday plans. 

“We have booked a flight to go to Turkey for a week with some friends so our flights to Guernsey to England should be okay, but flights from Gatwick to Turkey [not],” she said. “It’s very disappointing but it was just for a little break. People who have booked a big  holiday or wedding must be devastated and the people lose their jobs - it is so sad for them.”

Aurigny and Blue Islands have both promised to waive fees for changing any existing flights which were made to tie in with a Thomas Cook booking.