After the collapse of Thomas Cook, the British Prime Minister asks why the bosses were paid millions

NEW YORK / LONDON (Reuters) – After the collapse of Thomas Cook, leaving tens of thousands of Britons dependent on the government to bring them home, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked if the bosses of the travel agency should have paid so much in advance.

Operating hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million people a year, Thomas Cook currently has about 600,000 people abroad and will need help from governments and airlines. Insurance to bring them back from Cancun, Cuba and Cyprus.

Speaking in New York, Johnson asked why the state should remain responsible for the actions of its well-paying administrators and said tour operators should have some sort of insurance against such debacles.

"I have questions about whether it's fair for directors, or anyone else on the board, to pay big bucks when companies can fall apart," Johnson said.

"There needs to be a system that allows tour operators to properly insure against this type of eventuality."

Thomas Cook was defeated by a $ 2.1 billion debt, accumulated by a series of unfortunate incidents, that hampered his reaction to fierce online rivals. He had to sell three million holidays a year just to cover interest payments.

Managing Director Peter Fankhauser found that his lenders were no longer willing to step in. Fankhauser earned 8.3 million pounds ($ 10.3 million), including £ 4.3 million in 2015.

The British government said it was not willing to "throw in huge sums" to guarantee the bailout of the company.

According to reports released on Monday, the Turkish government and a group of Spanish hoteliers were willing to support a £ 200 million bailout backed by a UK government guarantee.

Secretary of State for Business Andrea Leadsom, however, said the announced amount would not have allowed the operator to stay in place more than two weeks.

"There are all kinds of rumors going around, the fact is that 200 million pounds were even an underestimate of what Thomas Cook would have needed just for the very short term, for the week or the next two," he said. she told Sky News.

"Thomas Cook is trying to repay 1.7 billion pounds of debt, and wasting taxpayers' money would have been a waste of money to throw good sums after the bad ones. "

The disappearance of Thomas Cook, announced Monday morning, sounded the alarm in hotels where some customers were asked to pay their bills again by independent resort owners.

"I think the questions we need to ask ourselves now: how to prevent this thing from happening again in the future?" Johnson said.

"How can we ensure that tour operators take the proper precautions with their business models so that you do not end up in a situation where the taxpayer, the state, has to step in and take people home?"

Emergency flights brought 14,700 people to the UK Monday through 64 flights. About 135,300 more are expected to be repatriated in the next 13 days, the UK's aviation regulator said.

"We have to go through it," said Anthony Tents, a Thomas Cook customer from central England who is trying to return home from Mallorca to Spain. "We are going home, but some people have lost their jobs, it's terrible, is not it?"

Seventy-four flights were scheduled for Tuesday to bring back 16,500 people. More than 1000 flights are planned.

"Repatriation of this magnitude and nature is unprecedented and unfortunately there will be inconvenience and disruption for clients. We will do our utmost to minimize this as the operation continues, "said Richard Moriarty, chief executive officer of the British Civil Aviation Authority.

"We want people to continue enjoying their holidays, so we will bring them back to the UK the day they leave, or very soon afterwards."