Peter Fankhauser | |
|---|---|
 Fankhauser in 2018 | |
| Born | November 1960 (age 62) |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Education | University of St. Gallen |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Title | Former CEO, Thomas Cook Group |
| Term | November 2014 – September 2019 |
| Predecessor | Harriet Green |
| Successor | None, compulsory liquidation |
| Children | 4 |
Peter Fankhauser (born 1960) is a Swiss businessman, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Thomas Cook Group from 2014 until its collapse in 2019.
Born in November 1960, [1] Fankhauser has a doctorate from the University of St. Gallen [2] in political science. [3]
He was responsible for managing the European division of the tourism company Kuoni and worked for the leisure airline LTU in Germany. [4]
Fankhauser joined Thomas Cook Group in 2001. He led the German business of Thomas Cook, expanded and made it the most profitable tour operator in Germany. [5] He was promoted to chief operating officer in November 2013. [4] In November 2014, it was announced that Harriet Green was to leave Thomas Cook Group with immediate effect, and that Fankhauser would take over as CEO. [6]
Fankhauser received £8.3 million worth of pay since becoming CEO, including a £2.9 million bonus in 2015. During that year, he faced criticism of how Thomas Cook handled the deaths of two children whilst on holiday in Corfu. He admitted that Thomas Cook "failed to show compassion" following calls to boycott the company over its behaviour. [7] He took changed the direction and focus of Thomas Cook on prioritising customer seevice, transformed it into a customer centric business. [8] [9] He was reinventing Thomas Cook by launching new Hotel concepts like Casa Cook [10] and Cooks Club and expanded into China the fastest growing travel market in the world. [11]
Thomas Cook was subject to widespread speculation about its financial position throughout 2019. By September the company had secured £900 million in funding as part of a debt-for-equity swap, including a £450 million investment from Chinese travel group Fosun International. [12] Despite this, a late demand emerged from funders of the Group including Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Halifax, [12] who insisted that the Group be sufficiently recapitalised to ensure operations were protected through to January, when bookings are traditionally quieter and liquidity would be challenging. [12] [13] This demand meant the group needed an extra £200 million guarantee to keep the company operational. [12] These efforts did not succeed, with the UK Government Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps stating that they would not step in to provide a state guarantiee of £200 million, instead stating it would only support the Civil Aviation Authority response to any bankruptcy, which he said was "on track so far" and "running smoothly". [14] Media reports indicated that a group including the Turkish government and a group of Spanish hoteliers backed by Spanish ministers had offered financial support in order to assist their domestic industries, but that the rescue had failed because "the British government said it was not prepared to provide any financial guarantees to underpin the funding package." [15]
In the morning of 23 September the company declared bankruptcy and entered compulsory liquidation, which took effect at all Thomas Cook Group UK companies. [16] Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia temporarily ceased operations, [17] while other sister companies suspended or continued operations, depending on their corporate relationship. The liquidation left 150,000 British tourists in need of repatriation, [15] the largest such case in British history, ahead of the 2017 collapse of Monarch Airlines. Fankhauser apologised to colleagues and customers for the "deeply sad day", [18] but blamed banks for its collapse stating that "an additional facility requested in the last few days of negotiations presented a challenge that ultimately proved insurmountable." [19] [20] Hedge funds have also been noted as major beneficiaries of the events, with "Thomas Cook the most shorted company on the London Stock Exchange" prior to the collapse. [21]
On 15 October 2019 Fankhauser was questioned by a cross-party committee of MPs over the collapse of Thomas Cook. Committee chair Rachel Reeves, who asked Fankhauser if he would hand the bonus back, told him that his apologies rang "rather hollow". [22] On 12 January 2022 Sky reported that the Group's executives have been cleared by the Insolvency Service after a two-year probe. The Service had decided to take no further action against former directors of Thomas Cook.
Fankhauser is now a professor at the University of St. Gallen and a managing partner in a consultancy company specialised in transformation. [23] [24]
MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various tour operators around the world. On 19 June 2007, the group merged with Thomas Cook AG to form the Thomas Cook Group plc.
Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It served leisure destinations worldwide from its main bases at Manchester Airport and Gatwick Airport on a scheduled and charter basis. It also operated services from eight other bases around the United Kingdom. Thomas Cook Group and all UK entities including Thomas Cook Airlines entered compulsory liquidation on 23 September 2019.
Omni Air International, LLC. is a United States charter airline headquartered in Hangar 19 on the grounds of Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. It specializes in passenger charter flights, and Aircraft Crew Maintenance Insurance (ACMI) wet leasing. Omni is an FAA Part 121 certificated airline with IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registration.
TUI Group is a German leisure, travel and tourism company. TUI is an acronym for Touristik Union International. TUI AG was known as Preussag AG until 1997 when the company changed its activities from mining to tourism. It is headquartered in Hanover, Germany.
Josef Meinrad Ackermann is a Swiss banker, former Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, and former chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank. He has also been a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.
Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL) is a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) scheme to give financial protection to people who have purchased package holidays and flights from a member tour operator.
Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — and MyTravel Group until 23 September 2019, when it went into compulsory liquidation. The group operated as a tour operator and airline, and also operated travel agencies in Europe. At the time of the group's collapse, approximately 21,000 worldwide employees were left without jobs and 600,000 customers were left abroad, triggering the UK's largest peacetime repatriation.
Flying Colours was a UK charter airline that operated for 4 years between 1996 and 2000.
Dame Carolyn Julia McCall is a British businesswoman of Scottish and Irish descent. She has been the chief executive of ITV since 2018. She previously served as the chief executive of easyJet from 2010 to 2017.
Strategic Airlines Pty Ltd, trading as Air Australia Airways was an Australian airline flying domestic and international scheduled passenger flights. Strategic Aviation, a sister company, flew air charter flights using the Air Australia fleet or other leased aircraft. Both companies had their head office in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane.
Harriet Green is a British businesswoman, who was chairman and CEO of IBM Asia Pacific, and previously led three IBM business divisions: the Internet of things, customer engagement and education businesses.
Surf Air is a Los Angeles-based aviation marketplace that offers members access to private charter flights for a fixed monthly fee.
Christianne and Robert Shepherd were an English sister and brother from Horbury, West Yorkshire who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while on holiday in Corfu in October 2006. At the time of their deaths, Christi was seven years old and Bobby was six.
József János Váradi is a Hungarian businessman, who co-founded Wizz Air and has served as its chief executive officer (CEO) since 2003.
Álex Cruz de Llano is a Spanish businessman, former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of British Airways and former CEO of Vueling.
Richard John Howson is a British businessman, and the former chief executive (CEO) of Carillion, a British multinational facilities management and construction services company that went into liquidation in January 2018. Howson's "misguided self-assurance" was said to have contributed to the company's collapse.
Johan Peter Lundgren is a Swedish businessman, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British airline easyJet since December 2017.
Thomas Cook Group Airlines Limited was an airline holding company of the defunct British Thomas Cook Group. The airlines operated as a single operating segment of the Thomas Cook Group to allow aircraft to be used when and where they were needed. There were five members of the airline division at the time of the airline's closing, consisting of Condor, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, and Thomas Cook Aviation. The airline operated with a total of 105 aircraft based in the United Kingdom, Denmark and Germany.
Sunclass Airlines A/S is a Danish charter airline that operates charter services from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The company is affiliated with Ving Group, a Nordic tour operator. It and Ving Group were a part of Thomas Cook Group until 23 December 2019 when Norwegian investor Petter Stordalen and Strawberry Group rebranded the company as Sunclass Airlines.
Thomas Cook Tourism (UK) Company Limited, known as Thomas Cook UK, is an Anglo-Chinese package holiday provider which offers 'Flight + Hotel' packages and Hotel only bookings. The company was launched in 2019, when Chinese firm Fosun International purchased the brand from the insolvent Thomas Cook Group, and began trading in September 2020.
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