The collapse of a travel giant has left Manx holidaymakers scrabbling for answers and staff unpaid.

Thomas Cook folded early yesterday (Monday) following a long period of turbulence and speculation about its future.

This has left Manx holidaymakers unsure about when they will get home and others trying to reclaim the money they’d spent on their holidays.

Douglas resident Rachel McIver, who is on holiday with a friend in Turkey, told the Examiner said the situation had left the two of them ’very worried’.

While the Civic Aviation Authority says it will ensure the repatriation of some 150,000 British tourists, flights may not be going to the original airport and some times and dates have changed.

Rachel added: ’I found out when I woke up this morning and family members had sent me links to the online discussions regarding the collapse.

’We were told our transfers to the airport have been cancelled but we’ve yet been updated saying they are on, but whether they will be here or not is a different story. Otherwise we have to pay for a taxi to Dalaman airport.

’The flight back to London Gatwick the night before mine has been diverted to Birmingham. If this happens to us we’ll miss our flight home to the island.

’We can’t fly back to the island with EasyJet as they don’t fly to the island from Birmingham. So we’re pretty stuck in this situation really.’

She said that besides their now unemployed holiday rep, who is trying to help guests, information is scarce.

Another resident who is having trouble is James Cherry. He had booked with the airline to go see England play cricket in South Africa next year.

difficulties

He said: ’Friday was the first I heard that Thomas Cook was in some difficulties. Then this morning woke up to the news that they had gone into liquidation.

’We’ve had no contact from Thomas Cook regarding the booking. After looking into the situation and the advice of [finance expert] Martin Lewis’s website I went to my bank to do a charge back for the cost of the flights.’

However, James and his friend will in the meantime have to book new flights, with prices reaching the high hundreds.

While the events of this weekend have been bad enough for travellers, staff at Thomas Cook told the Examiner they went home on Friday with assurances from the company that it would survive its financial problems and that media speculation was over-hyping the issues, only to wake up on Monday to find out it had collapsed.

One former member of staff confirmed they had been told by the administrators handling the shutdown that they wouldn’t be getting paid this month and unless they had worked for Thomas Cook for a minimum of two years, they wouldn’t be entitled to any redundancy payments.

It is understood that four staff have lost their jobs in the island, joining about 9,000 others across the British Isles.

The website for information for anyone affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook is https://thomascook.caa.co.uk/

â?¢In June Thomas Cook closed its currency exchange service in the Strand Street shop in the island.

As we reported then, the travel agent had been undergoing a turbulent time and had been put up for sale.