Johnson rejects Thomas Cook request for bailout

Johnson: It is a very difficult situation and obviously our thoughts are very much with the customers of Thomas Cook, the holiday makers who may now face difficulties getting home we will do our level best to get them home. — Reuters

LONDON: The world’s oldest travel firm Thomas Cook has collapsed, stranding hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers around the globe and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to get stranded British travellers home and revealed that the government had rejected a request from Thomas Cook for a bailout of about £150mil (US$187.1mil) because doing so would have set up a “moral hazard”.