Meanwhile, the PA news agency estimated that taxpayers will have to stump up a further £60m to fund unpaid wages, holiday pay and redundancy costs for Thomas Cook’s 9,500 UK staff.
The company’s final collapse came after the government declined to provide £200m to make up a shortfall in funding to avoid it going bust.
However, elsewhere there was a rescue for Thomas Cook’s German airline Condor after a bridging loan was provided by the Berlin government.