Mubasher: UK tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed on Monday, stranding hundreds of thousands of vacationers worldwide, according to Reuters.

Thomas Cook went out of business after the debt-laden travel firm announced on Friday the failure of its last-ditch talks with shareholders and creditors, seeking to secure a rescue package GBP 200 million.

“I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years,” a statement by Thomas Cook’s CEO Peter Fankhauser was quoted by Reuters.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that all Thomas Cook’s flights are cancelled, while the company suspended trading, with more than 600,000 holidaymakers having booked through the company.

The CAA and government had a fleet of planes ready to start bringing home, over the upcoming two weeks, more than 150,000 UK customers now abroad who will have to be repatriated.

The UK regulator is also contacting hotels hosting Thomas Cook customers, informing them they will receive payments from the government, through an insurance scheme.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Thomas Cook submitted a request to the government for nearly GBP 150 million, but bailing the company out would have posed “a moral hazard in the case of future such commercial difficulties that companies face.”