Bagpipes in east yorkshire, as close to 200 swimmers continue their tradition of diving into the north sea at hornsea with money raised going to the local in shore rescue. Absolutely fantastic, the weather has been brilliant and the crowds have been fantastic. Its been brilliant, the best turnout weve had for a new years day swim. Further along the east coast, crowds gathered at whitley bay, dressed up and ready to go and despite the dip no longer having an official organiser. The time honoured tradition continued on the isle of man this morning. In penzance, it was the first new years day dip at thejubilee pool. Fabulous to see so many people down, getting cold, getting rid of the hangover and having a splash and some fun. Its really special, the start of the new year, everyone swimming and enjoying themselves, and lets hope it goes on like this in the pool because its a fabulous iconic pool. A chance to reboot, shake off the cobwebs and get the endorphins pumping. For many, a new years day dip
is a perfect start to the new decade. Im not sure the panda suit kept out the cold, are you . Now its time for a look at the weather with louise lear. Hello there. I hope its been a happy start to the new year. Its certainly been a quiet one right across the country. We keep quite a lot of cloud through the night tonight, the cloud thick enough for the odd spot or two of drizzle. Maybe some clearer skies and some mist across eastern scotland and here at temperatures low single figures. But elsewhere its a relatively mild start to thursday. But the winds will strengthen, the isobars squeezing together, these weather fronts pushing into the north west are going to bring in some rain for thursday. So, we start off cloudy, we start off wet across western scotland and northern ireland. The first weather front sinks its way into north west england and wales with some showers, longer spells of rain following on behind. And the winds strengthening, gusting and excessive 50 60 mph. Gusting in excess of 50 60 mph. Ahead of it, it will stay largely cloudy and dry and relatively mild across the country with temperatures between 10 12d. Those weather fronts will sweep south and east, clearing away, on friday into saturday looks largely fine and dry, albeit a little cooler. Hello, this is bbc news. Im the martine croxall. The headlines bushfires have killed at least eight people in south eastern australia since monday and destroyed more than 200 homes. The mother of the british teenager found guilty of lying about being raped in cyprus backs calls for tourists to boycott the country. Two men and a woman who all worked for British Airways have been killed after a lorry collides with a car in stanwell in surrey on new years eve. Now on bbc news,
tom burridge revisits the collapse of travel firm thomas cook and its far reaching effects on customers and staff. In review 2019 the thomas cook story. All chant what do we want . Answers when do we want them . Now its a travesty, its devastating. Our lives are ruined because of Thomas Cook Airlines uk. The captain turned around to me and said to me, its gone. I went into the flight deck and cried. When do we want them . Now it has not been possible to save one of the most loved brands in travel. After 178 years, it was all over. As i got to the airport, i started to cry, because i thought, im coming here in a uniform and ive got nowhere to go. You cant just leave brits stranded abroad. I want to go home bankruptcy, bitterness and rage. I think its been a National Scandal to let a company of that size and that heritage in history just fall like that. They took millions of british tourists abroad every year. The biggest brand offering winter or summer sunshine. Thomas cook was the uks oldest travel business. Also, the best known travel brand on the high street as well. So it had a huge amount of love and respect from its customers and its employees. It changed the way people travel. Two weeks in greece, late july. Lets see . And created a new concept the package holiday. Four people. Two weeks. Dontjust book it thomas cook it. Trips to places like spain became the new norm as tourism boomed. And as our travel addiction took off, thomas cook grew and grew. Exotic, enticing destinations were affordable for millions. But what the glitzy marketing didnt show was that thomas cook was in debt. We know weve been in the news a lot recently. The message injuly all will be fine. Keep booking with thomas cook, your holiday is in safe hands. They were wrong. We just want to bring some breaking news now on thomas cook. Weve just heard in the last few minutes that thomas cook has ceased trading. Thomas cook, one of the worlds biggest tour operators,
has collapsed after last ditch talks to save the business failed. Britains oldest travel group, thomas cook, collapses. The companys fleet of planes was grounded in the early hours of this morning, wrecking the Holiday Plans of so many people. As its planes landed back in britain one last time, they were seized and impounded at uk airports. That name, a giant of uk travel, was bankrupt. It had taken people on organised trips for a century and a half, but the age of the thomas cook holiday was done. People sort of suspected that it would never happen, and then it did. So it was a very sad day and the repercussions are just continuing to spin out now. Check in at uk airports normally bustling on a monday morning suddenly a sorry sight. People felt the impact of the companys collapse straight away. I was told to come here now to find out my flight has been cancelled, with three kids. My sons got adhd and autism, and his sister, and theyre sobbing their hearts out in the car. I got in touch with thomas cook yesterday and they said everything had gone through and nowt to worry about. Yesterday i got in touch with thomas cook to make sure everything was going ahead and they said under no circumstances the holiday would be cancelled. And that we would be put on another plane regardless as to whether thomas cook went into liquidation or not. Obviously, ive set off at 3am this morning, and we were given a duty of care number, and they said the holiday cant go ahead because there are no planes available. I was reporting at gatwick once the news broke. Look at this. Yesterday, check in here would have been very busy. But with the company
collapsing overnight, its airlines effectively vanished. There was inevitable chaos, and youd think that on a story that big, that everyones seen the news, but people were still pitching up to the airports, hoping, probably, that they could somehow get on a flight, get on their holiday. Were gutted, disappointed. I mean, it meant a lot to us. Its our first holiday away together. Im still angry. We met stephan and zoe, who were supposed to fly to the canaries to scatter her dads ashes. With them on the trip, their young children. Theyre devastated, theyve cried, you know, theyre not themselves, theyre quiet. Theyd been looking forward to this for months and months. We didntjust decide to go, weve planned this. We had to get paperwork for the ashes. Weve had to do everything. Martin and gemma had been planning their wedding on a greek island, but theyd booked it all with thomas cook. Itjust broke my heart. Ijust couldnt believe it. I was gutted. I didnt want it to be true. It alljust seems for nothing now. We are a bit confused and empty. Dont really know what to do. All that planning and its sort of. All gone. But the big challenge for the authorities was at airports abroad. When the company folded, there were 150,000 people already on thomas cook holidays in places like majorca. Now, it was down to the uk government to get every single one of them home. We knew the scale of what we had to undertake. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Theres never been a peacetime repatriation thats been as big. So, yeah, we were pretty nervous and absolutely keyed up to do it. But, yeah, kind of biting our fingernails at the same time. The operation was codenamed
matterhorn. The Civil Aviation authority had been planning it for weeks. We really, really hoped there was going to be a commercial solution for thomas cook, because this really was not an operation we ever wanted to undertake. I mean, thomas cook its the worlds oldest travel company, its employees, its customers, you know, this was really sad. I think actually almost up to two days beforehand, we thought there was the possibility of a commercial solution but, of course, you have to prepare for scenarios that are very different. But even before the operation to bring people home had begun, hotels were, for a while, refusing to let customers leave, as my colleague gavin lee witnessed first hand in majorca. Well, this is the main thomas cook run hotel in palma, and were being told by staff that everythings 0k, but the management wont speak to us. And if you look, theyve got security here for the first time. Theyre quite nervous. This is one of a number of hotels that we understand are waiting still to be paid in arrears from thomas cook, and meantime, they are still having to look after the customers too. Reception dont know whats happening. Theyjust said, yes, the hotel is open at the moment. We just feel like at any moment, like, were vulnerable and we could just be asked to leave. Thomas cook customers had paid for their holidays, but many hotels, which were owed money by the company, were initially unaware that theyd be refunded by the uks atol travel insurance scheme, and some were demanding people pay for a second time. We went out for dinner last night and came back to the hotel and we couldnt get into our room. So we had to go downstairs to the lobby and the lady said you basically, give us 340 euro and you can get back into your room. So that is what we had to do. It was up to the uks Civil Aviation authority to reassure hotels
that they would be paid. We spoke, in the first three days, we spoke to 3,500 hotels, which individually and some of them were, reasonably, quite cross. There was a hotel in mexico that was owed over a million dollars. So they werent happy. But we did manage to reassure them that the atol protected customers would be paid for, and that also calmed things down and allowed people to continue their holidays. To understand the scale of the companys demise, it helps to consider its rise, which began yes right back in the 1800s. One of its shops can even be spotted on the corner of st marks square in venice in 1898. The firm then enjoyed a century of growth and success a winner in the modern age. But in 2007, it merged with mytravel to create a much bigger group. Thats when its debt grew. Other factors like competition from Online Travel agents, or 0tas, then pushed it over the edge. Various factors. Importa ntly, competition for thomas cook had increased massively in the last decade, so new players likejet2 holidays, the 0tas as well, theyve become really, really significant, taking millions of customers now away from the big tour operators. It had been a challenging market, with brexit uncertainty and a weak pound, but, ultimately, thomas cooks problems came back to this huge debt that it had been saddled with from a previous business merger, which meant that the business was not able really to be truly profitable because it had to put so much of its profits back into servicing the interest on the debt. In the wake of thomas cooks downfall,
the immediate priority was to get the tens of thousands of tourists back to britain. Hi the manchester flights full, right . Yeah. The compa nys staff, whod lost theirjobs, helped out. 0ur rep was really good. He came to the hotel two or three times today, didnt he, to make sure that we could get home and make sure that we knew what was going on and everything. But with confusion inevitable, that first day at airports like palma, in majorca, was the hardest. To watch the operation matterhorn repatriation effort at first was chaotic. It did not go well at all. There were hundreds upon hundreds of thomas cook passengers coming to the airport. Many of them anxious, they took cabs they did not trust whether or not the coaches would turn up. They were told by thomas cook staff and also the Civil Aviation authority to stay in one corner of the departures lounge, and that built up and built up. There were some people there 18, 19 hours, sitting down, lying on the floor, some crying as well,
working out how they could get home. By day two, it was completely different. Big airlines had come in to help and it was really smooth from there. The Civil Aviation authority had experience to draw on when Monarch Airlines collapsed two years ago. Then, it had to repatriate more than 100,000 people. But 0peration matterhorn, which cost the uk government £40 million, was significantly bigger. At the beginning of week two, i was allowed on board an airbus a380 tasked with bringing hundreds of people home. This airbus a380 is about to head to sunny majorca to bring around 400 thomas cook customers back here to rainy manchester. This plane, the largest in a fleet of aircraft assembled by the Civil Aviation authority
to bring tens of thousands of people home. This shows you just how different running a Repatriation Mission is to operating a commercial airline. The aircraft leave uk airports empty. But once in majorca, the authorities get as many holidaymakers as possible on board. Before the company went bust, there were seven thomas cook flights scheduled to leave palma today for uk airports. With this giant aircraft, those seven flights become one into manchester. Its been absolutely fabulous. The holiday has been fabulous. The information was fabulous. We have to get to manchester we live in brighton, so weve got to get a coach down. So what . People have lost theirjobs. Its all been fabulous. It was worrying, but then things have gone quite smooth. After a while, initially, yes, it was worrying. Very lucky. Very lucky, considering all of the staff who have lost theirjobs and people who have lost their holidays. We managed to finish ours, so you cant say any more than that, really. Then, the flight back and the paper cups a reminder about who was supposed to fly them home. But some did travel in style for the first time. Never thought i would see the day that we would be sat in business class, i think its ace we couldnt believe it when we came up the steps. Were in business class, arent we . Brilliant, weve never flown like this before never the Civil Aviation authority had to operate a complicated flight schedule over two weeks. Overall, it was a job well done. The planning had paid off, some problems werejust
hard to foresee. Silly things, in a way, would go wrong. For example, there were fourairports in cuba. Because we only had one big plane, we thought it would be sensible to amalgamate everyone to one airport, great idea, but there wasnt enough fuel in cuba to bus all those people to one airport. So forget that plan it was things like that that went wrong all the time. I was very, very glad when the last plane landed it was, for many, notjust a job, but a dreamy lifestyle. Travel, sunshine, and working for a powerful brand. But in a flash, it was all gone. 9,000 people in the uk had lost theirjobs. Is it here we sign for the redundancy courses . They came together soon after at manchester airport. As i got to the airport, i started to cry because i thought ive come here in a uniform, but ive got nowhere to go. My colleague Simon Browning was there. People who ive spoken to, nobody expected it to happen. It was like the death, a death in theirfamily. They had always worked together and known the structure and suddenly, it vanished. My name is betty knight. I was cabin crew for Thomas Cook Airlines for 12 years. Our management seem to have disappeared into the sunset with millions and millions of pounds. While all of our lovely passengers
and customers have been helped by the caa who have done an incredible job and they have been assisted, our cabin crew, members of our cabin team, have been stuck without even a word or a phone call, in really dire circumstances. What do we want . Answers when do we want them . Now what do we want . Answers when do we want them . Now within days, thomas cook staff had travelled from different parts of the country to westminster. We wa nt a nswers we want it now the impact of what had happened was still sinking in. We just cannot understand what has gone wrong. Weve not been paid, a lot of us have children and mortgages, people have gone to food banks. Its unbelievable we are in this situation. We have just been pushed out. I wont get anotherjob, im too old to be employed now. Its a travesty. 0ur lives are ruined because of Thomas Cook Airlines uk. But top of their minds were questions about how the business went under. Why did this company not go into administration but they went into liquidation overnight, in two hours. Why . Its not on, we need answers and we need them now. All of the big ceos and their big bonuses, we understand they need to have bonuses but they must have known what was going on. Theyve been creaming off money. Peter fankhauser has a lot to answer for. Peter fankhauser was in charge when thomas cook went bust. This is a statement i hoped i would would never have to make. It is deeply distressing to me that it has not been possible to save one of the most loved brands in travel. Thank you. He was paid more than £8 million in the last five years. Weeks later, he was grilled by mps. Do you think that bonus
should be paid back . I can say i worked tirelessly for the success of this company and im deeply sorry i was not able to secure the deal. This man also faced questions. Can we just ask, do you feel responsible for the failure of the company . Manny Fontenla Novoa was in charge during the period when the debt really grew. He insisted he was not to blame for the demise of the company. When we heard the news on the morning of the 23rd, i was still awake. I was watching it unfold. I was heartbroken, devastated. For about two weeks after that, i couldnt even get dressed. I couldnt face the world. Got a bit anxious. Suffered from anxiety
and depression actually as well. It took me a good three or four weeks to be able to go back out there and start applying forjobs. When that came to an end for me and i realised i was no longer involved in that industry, it was such a shock. The benefits, emotionally and psychologically, to fly are great. When that ends as suddenly as it did, it is a huge loss. People who werent earning huge salaries at thomas cook are facing a new reality this christmas. Im now near retirement. It is not likely i will get anotherjob. Its just. Why did it finish in that way . Thats not how i wanted to finish my career. Its a big feeling of loss. One of our friends, she ended up with her partner using her redundancy to live in a hotel, in a b8b and she was declared homeless. She has been on the waiting list. Another friend was put out of her accommodation very quickly. She is having to be supported. It happened so quickly, overnight. What do you think the overall impact has been on you, in the three months since . Simon has discovered many people still out of work have struggled to get Financial Support from the state. I think the system has failed me. It isntjust me. Loads of ex colleagues going through the same situation and the system has failed us. We paid tax and National Insurance all our working lives to be given nothing. It makes me angry and frustrated with the system. Ive paid my tax. We put all of these claims to the department for work and pensions, they have said they are sorry and are urging all former thomas cook staff to keep in touch with theirjob centres so they can urgently try and fix these claims. Thomas cook staff are also perplexed by the fact that the companys german airline, condor, was kept afloat and is still operating today. The government was forced to defend its decision not to save thomas cooks uk airline. Whilst i hear people saying, why didnt you just put the money in, the answer is, all you would have to do is open their books and realise, if you have £1. 7 billion of debt, if you lost £1. 5 billion in six months alone, if you issued another profit warning, this is entirely different from the condor situation which was a fundamentally profitable airline. But a positive turnaround for some
staff, who went back to work. Hays travel announced it was saving around 500 thomas cook stores. Im sat with all of my team now, they would all be happy to come back to the branch. Nicola and her colleagues, who thought they had lost theirjobs, were with the bbcs Colletta Smith when they got a call to say that they were now not unemployed. They are opening and we just have to contact them. Clapping it wasjust incredible, for me one of the most amazing moments as a journalist to be in the room at that moment when someones life is turned around in seconds. They thought they would be made redundant. They were already looking for other jobs, looking for other work but then to be told they got theirjobs back was incredible. They were in tears, hugging each other. We were joining in. You couldnt not,
in a room like that. It was so exciting and emotional. Just incredible to be there. As travel evolved over the decades, thomas cook navigated huge change and reaped the rewards. But, in 2019, that romanticjourney came to an abrupt end. Thomas cook employees and thomas cook customers, whether they had their holiday or were waiting for the insurance to pay out, and our staff and all the people who help, it was Something Like 1 Million People affected. Its an enormous number and on top of that, youve got all of those hotels abroad and in some areas, these hotels were really relying on thomas cook passengers to revitalise the economy. Certainly the biggest story ive ever covered in 13. 5 years of travel trade journalism. Something we will continue to write about for years,
if not decades, i am sure. I think it has been a National Scandal to let a company of that size and with that heritage and historyjust fall like that. Life has moved on, and i dont think you ever actually know or get the answers to questions that the crew and people who work for thomas cook would seek. The oldest brand in British Travel is gone. And those who were the heart and soul of the company will be picking up the pieces well into the new year. We want answers, we want them now what do we want . Answers when do we want them . Now
hello there. I hope its been a happy start to the new year. Its certainly been a quiet one right across the country. We keep quite a lot of cloud through the night tonight, the cloud thick enough for the odd spot or two of drizzle. Maybe some clearer skies and some mist across eastern scotland and here temperatures low single figures. But elsewhere its a relatively mild start to thursday. But the winds will strengthen, the isobars squeezing together, these weather fronts pushing into the north west are going to bring in some rain for thursday. So, we start off cloudy, we start off wet across western scotland and northern ireland. The first weather front sinks its way into north west england and north wales with some showers, longer spells of rain following on behind. And the winds strengthening, gusting in excess of 50 60 mph. Ahead of it, it will stay largely cloudy and dry and relatively mild across the country with temperatures between 10 12d. Those weather fronts will sweep south and east, clearing away,
and friday into saturday looks largely fine and dry, albeit a little cooler. This is bbc world news today. Our top stories israels prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, says hell seek parliamentary immunity from prosecution for alleged bribery and fraud. Bushfires kill at least eight people in south eastern australia this week and destroy more than 200 homes. You just go, that was the bedroom and that was where my antiques were from family history. And all my baby memories from my kids. Just everything. Supporters of an iranian backed militia in iraq have pulled back from the us embassy in baghdad, after a second day of violent protest. And pope francis apologises for slapping a womans hand
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