Britains oldest travel firm Thomas Cook on the verge of collapse next week

THOMAS COOK, Britain’s oldest travel firm is expected to collapse after 178 years of operation after mounting debts over the last year.

A £200million rescue package has been talked about but no agreement has been made.

The travel company is edging closer to collapse.

180,000 holidaymakers could no be stranded and are in panic as to how they could get home.

In desperation to keep the company afloat Credit card firms have been urged to release £50million they are holding as collateral against Thomas Cook bookings.

Market traders have been bailing out of the beleaguered company with the shares dropping to an all time low of 3.4 pence on Friday.

They had been trading as high as 139 pence in May 2018.

Hopes had been raised a full recovery was on the cards in August when the Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd injected £900 million to take 75% ownership of the tour business and 25% of the groups airline.

RBS have now demanded a further £200 million of funding today leaving the company in huge turbulence and sending traders on London Stock Exchange into a frenzy as share holders headed for the emergency exit.

It is widely expected to fall into administration next week.

It is understood this will leave up to 1 million disappointed holiday makers who have booked their dream vacation with Thomas Cook over the next year.

Those with future bookings will be offered a full refund under the ATOL guarantee scheme

A collapse next week would leave an estimated 180,000 people potentially stranded abroad, forcing the government to launch the biggest peacetime repatriation of British citizens at an estimated cost of £600 million.