Originally Posted by
Albert Hall
If that’s what you genuinely believe then I’m afraid you’re sadly deluded. I wish no-one ill and have the utmost sympathy with those at TC for whom life and work must have a lot of added stress through this situation. But the Government is not going to step in. It does not need a tour operator for national interest reasons in the way that it might need a shipyard or a steel manufacturer. It would also provoke the most almighty cries of foul and protracted legal cases from TUI, Jet2, easyJet and others. It will not happen.
To further add to
Albert Hall 's well made points there
Doc Q , even if the Government wanted to (and they don't), European Union state aid rules won't allow it. In an effort to stop the usual "yeh, buts" that I normally get when discussing businesses going bust and European state aid rules, the biggest question is - what about the banks?
State aid rules state explicitly: "A government can own a company under state aid rules but it is not allowed to keep it going if it would otherwise fail." In other words, the Government can't just go around buying up bankrupt businesses in the national interest. Thomas Cook has been in trouble for some time, some say possibly as far back as the MyTravel tie-up.
The banks were bailed out because the business models were proven solid (the banks were expected to rapidly return to profitability - and did), but had become under substantial strain due to market volatility. The same banks are back to returning billions in profit for shareholders today with little in the way of change regarding how banks operate, other than the rules surrounding protecting retail banking from investment banking.
Thomas Cook is not in trouble because of external forces. It is about to become the victim of poor business management.