Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.

If you have been following the news, you will likely already know that Thomas Cook is in extremely serious trouble and that a collapse may well be imminent.

Discussions between the company, shareholders and its lenders have been going on all day, but there hasn’t been any sort of official statement indicating progress.

An announcement, one way or the other, will have to be made before the markets open in the morning.

Despite the fact that (as of 22:00 on 22nd September) you can still book flights and holidays on the Thomas Cook website, the ‘mood music’ isn’t good.

We don’t have any inside information, but there are a number of reasons to believe that the end could now be just hours away.

• The lack of a positive statement this evening. If there was good news, you would assume the company would want everybody to know as soon as possible.
• Reports from the BBC that the Civil Aviation Authority is already positioning aircraft to pick up passengers who would otherwise be stranded.
• It is standard practice in these sort of situations for administrators to be appointed overnight. Expect news sometime between midnight and 5am.

Bottom line

If you are currently on holiday with Thomas Cook, or have a future booking, be prepared for significant ‘turbulence’ over the next few days.

Package holidays are protected through ATOL, so those customers should (ultimately) avoid any financial loss.

If you just booked a flight though, the situation is potentially more serious. When Monarch collapsed, the Government stepped in and paid for the required repatriation flights – but that was a decision, not a legal obligation.

Our advice is to look up what your potential alternative flight options are right now, and make sure you have the phone numbers of your travel insurer (and your credit card company if you paid using a credit card) handy.