The boss of Douglas’s branch of Freedom Travel believes customers’ money will be protected following the collapse of the Thomas Cook Group.

Jan Wozniak told the Courier how he had frantically tried to find out more information but is still unable to access the company’s computer system.

He insisted Freedom Travel is a ’victim of events’ but is ’not out of business’ - and he is focusing his energy on those whose holidays have been affected.

Following the collapse of Thomas Cook, Thomas Cook’s Douglas shop shut.

And Freedom Travel in Douglas has been closed too. Customers told yesterday’s Manx Independent that they had not heard what was happening to their holidays.

Mr Wozniak told the Courier: ’We were informed on Monday and our systems were switched off on Monday. Once the systems were switched off we were unable to access any data whatsoever.

’I was away and I travelled back to the island and got back on Tuesday evening.’

He added that as soon as he became aware of the demise of Thomas Cook, he went back to his hotel room and tried to find out what was happening which included ringing staff in the island.

’I tried everything. I tried to get sense from anything, there was a big ABTA conference call which was supposed to give the managed services some direction from Freedom Travel Group and there was nothing coming through,’ Mr Wozniak said.

’There was 280 people on the conference call and it had to be postponed and try later. I was frantically trying to ring up everyone and do everything I could do to get to the bottom of this, all we were told was that everything had been frozen for 48 hours.’

At the time of going to press, Mr Wozniak said he wanted to inform as many of his customers as he can about the situation, but administrators KPMG had still not released the computer system to allow him to access the data it holds.

With him out of the country and the server shut down, Mr Wozniak said he resorted to using Facebook to contact people for more information.

He added: ’It was chaotic. My staff didn’t know what was happening and what to tell people. We were told it would be 48 hours close down and then a notice would come through. A notice didn’t come through.

’All that came through on Wednesday was CAA and ABTA, so we then had to try to put something together to our clients. It is not a nice thing to be involved in and we couldn’t say anything. Nothing was deliberate, we just couldn’t say anything.’

Mr Wozniak said that he was saddened by the abuse directed at his staff but wanted to assure customers their money should be protected.

He added: ’All we know is, is that the money is with Freedom and we believe everything is protected and it should be protected because the bonds were set up with the Freedom Travel Group.’

Mr Wozniak insisted that his company’s direct flights from the island have not been axed but ’suspended’.

He said: ’I know I have a responsibility to the people of the Isle of Man and responsibility to people booked to go on our direct flights.

’The flights are Freedom Travel but it is a product which was devised for the Isle of Man so it put us in a very bad situation.

’The holidays that are booked through other suppliers are being worked on now. But it was only until late yesterday (Wednesday) that we decided to suspend taking people out this week because we didn’t know whether we can get the funds out of Freedom Group.’

Mr Wozniak said he did not want to put his customers in the same situation that some others have been in where hotels have been demanding money and refusing to let guests stay for the duration of their holiday or even leave if they didn’t pay up.

He added: ’We have an office in Majorca and they’ve done a great job. Our clients won’t be paying for anything to leave because it is all paid for. They will get back to the airport and they will get back to the island.

’However, we were worried what would happen if we sent new clients out there and what would happen if the funds were not released soon. Everything we’ve done has been with the consideration of care for our clients.’

He hopes to be able to continue the flights when the money is released from the Freedom Group and his computer servers are opened again.

Mr Wozniak said that while his company has been through dark times this week, he believes ’there is light at the end of the tunnel’ for Freedom Travel and it is ’not out of business’.

He added: ’Nothing has been deliberate. We have been a victim of events and we are still in the dark but everybody within the group is trying their best.’