The breaking news on the markets today is the collapse of Thomas Cook, one of the United Kingdom’s oldest and biggest travel agencies. In operation since the 1840s, Thomas Cook was the leading company offering travel bundles - flights, hotels, and excursions, to clients in the UK.
However, it became known that over the last decade, the company had accumulated a huge debt. The problematic political landscape in Turkey, as well as the abnormally hot weather experienced all throughout Europe this summer discouraged British tourists from traveling as much as they used to, which additionally put Thomas Cook’s finances under extreme pressure. The company had reportedly asked the UK government for a bailout, but Boris Johnson refused.
As of now, Thomas Cook has seized all of their operations, and more than half a million British tourists are stuck abroad. The UK government is trying to coordinate a rescue, but it might take over a week to get all of the tourists back home.
The European stock markets today are quite active. On the one hand, Stoxx 600 is marking losses due to disappointing data from the eurozone. However, in light of Thomas Cook’s announcement, the stock of airlines such as EasyJet and RyanAir immediately started gaining in value.
