[ad_1]
As we say goodbye to the world’s oldest tour operator, here are the most important years in Thomas Cook’s illustrious history.
1841: Rail revolution
Thomas Cook single-handedly industrialises railway tourism – chartering a train to take 500 passengers about 10 miles from Leicester to the neighbouring town of Loughborough on Monday 5 July.
The fare for the round-trip is one shilling and sixpence (7.5p). A spiritual and abstinent man, Cook organised the trip to attend a Temperance meeting. But for many of the participants, the attraction was the opportunity to travel by train for the first time.
1855: Cook goes international
The international exposition in Paris, set in the dramatic surroundings of Baron Haussmann’s newly redrawn city, provided the perfect target for Thomas Cook’s first international expedition. The steadily rising incomes and increased aspirations of the middle classes brought about by the industrial revolution convinced Cook that there would be a market for trips from London to Paris.
1/21 Antalya, Turkey
British passengers with Thomas Cook wait in long queue at Antalya airport in Turkey
AP
2/21 Mallorca, Spain
Reuters
3/21 Peterborough headquarters
People carry bags and boxes outside the Peterborough headquarters. A total of 22,000 jobs – including 9,000 in UK – to be lost following administration
PA
4/21 Mallorca
More than 150,000 British holidaymakers need to be brought home, with the government and CAA hiring dozens of charter planes to fly customers home free of charge
AFP/Getty
5/21 Manchester Airport
The group failed to reach a last-ditch rescue deal, triggering the UK’s biggest repatriation since World War II to bring back stranded passengers
Reuters
6/21 Mallorca
Passengers talk to Civil Aviation Authority employees at Mallorca Airport after Thomas Cook declared bankruptcy
Reuters
7/21 Mallorca, Spain
The 178-year-old operator had been desperately seeking £200 million from private investors to save it from collapse
AFP/Getty
8/21 London
Pedestrians walk past a closed branch of a Thomas Cook
AFP/Getty
9/21 Mallorca, Spain
AFP/Getty
10/21 Mallorca, Spain
A British Government official talks to passengers
AFP/Getty
11/21 Peterborough headquarters
A woman carries a box through the carpark
PA
12/21 Crete, Greece
People line up in front of a Thomas Cook counter at the Heraklion airport
Reuters
13/21 Manchester Airport
A British Government official assists passengers
Reuters
14/21 Mallorca, Spain
AFP/Getty
15/21 Crete, Greece
Reuters
16/21 Mallorca, Spain
Passengers sit on the floor
EPA
17/21 Tunis, Tunisia
Tourists, flying with Thomas Cook, queue at the Enfidha International airport
AFP/Getty
18/21 Peterborough headquarters
A man sits outside
PA
19/21 Split, Croatia
Passengers wait inside Split airport
AFP/Getty
20/21 Mallorca, Spain
Thomas Cook staff speak with British passengers
AP
21/21 Mallorca, Spain
Reuters
1/21 Antalya, Turkey
British passengers with Thomas Cook wait in long queue at Antalya airport in Turkey
AP
2/21 Mallorca, Spain
Reuters
3/21 Peterborough headquarters
People carry bags and boxes outside the Peterborough headquarters. A total of 22,000 jobs – including 9,000 in UK – to be lost following administration
PA
4/21 Mallorca
More than 150,000 British holidaymakers need to be brought home, with the government and CAA hiring dozens of charter planes to fly customers home free of charge
AFP/Getty
5/21 Manchester Airport
The group failed to reach a last-ditch rescue deal, triggering the UK’s biggest repatriation since World War II to bring back stranded passengers
Reuters
6/21 Mallorca
Passengers talk to Civil Aviation Authority employees at Mallorca Airport after Thomas Cook declared bankruptcy
Reuters
7/21 Mallorca, Spain
The 178-year-old operator had been desperately seeking £200 million from private investors to save it from collapse
AFP/Getty
8/21 London
Pedestrians walk past a closed branch of a Thomas Cook
AFP/Getty
9/21 Mallorca, Spain
AFP/Getty
10/21 Mallorca, Spain
A British Government official talks to passengers
AFP/Getty
11/21 Peterborough headquarters
A woman carries a box through the carpark
PA
12/21 Crete, Greece
People line up in front of a Thomas Cook counter at the Heraklion airport
Reuters
13/21 Manchester Airport
A British Government official assists passengers
Reuters
14/21 Mallorca, Spain
AFP/Getty
15/21 Crete, Greece
Reuters
16/21 Mallorca, Spain
Passengers sit on the floor
EPA
17/21 Tunis, Tunisia
Tourists, flying with Thomas Cook, queue at the Enfidha International airport
AFP/Getty
18/21 Peterborough headquarters
A man sits outside
PA
19/21 Split, Croatia
Passengers wait inside Split airport
AFP/Getty
20/21 Mallorca, Spain
Thomas Cook staff speak with British passengers
AP
21/21 Mallorca, Spain
Reuters
He offered a complete holiday “package” (comprising travel and accommodation, as well as meals) for the first time.
1865: A travel agent is born
Thomas Cook opens a travel agency in Fleet Street, central London. It coincides with the opening of the London Underground, the world’s first subterranean railway.
1874: Cheque it out
“Cook’s Circular Note,” the prototype of the traveller’s cheque, is launched – providing a safe and easy way to carry funds abroad.
1892: Next generation
Thomas Cook dies in Leicester. The business is taken on by his son, John Mason Cook – whose initials are later used for a rebrand of the firm’s package holidays (an experiment which is swiftly and expensively reversed).
1928: Up for sale
The last two Cooks, Thomas’s grandsons Frank and Ernest, retire. They sell the business to the first of many outside owners, the railway sleeping car firm Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
1948: Nationalisation
During the nationalisation of the UK’s railways, Thomas Cook somewhat bizarrely also becomes state-owned. Two years later, the first, embryonic mass-market package holidays by air are sold by a young man called Vladimir Raitz – comprising flights from Gatwick to Corsica, a tent on a beach and non-rationed meals.
1972: Staying the course
Thomas Cook reverts to the private sector, with the Midland Bank, hoteliers Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association buying the firm. Two years, the economic gloom of the “Three-day Week” precipitated by a miners’ strike, amplified by the Middle East oil crisis, finished off many travel companies. But not Thomas Cook.
1992: New owners
A German consortium, comprising Westdeutsche Landesbank and the LTU Group, acquire the Thomas Cook Group.
2019: It’s all over
The Thomas Cook Group, by now an Anglo-German firm, ceases trading at 2am on Monday, 23 September
[ad_2]
Source link
