Thomas Cook holidaymakers stranded in Havana flying home after British ambassador intervenes

Thomas Cook customers and employees in Havana said they were effectively “held hostage” until they paid extra for hotel bills
AFP/Getty Images

Stranded Thomas Cook holidaymakers and crew trapped in hotels in Cuba were flying home today after a dramatic intervention by the British ambassador.

Customers and employees said they were effectively “held hostage” until they paid extra for hotel bills after the collapse of the travel giant on Monday.

However, repatriation flights have been arranged after “our man in Havana” Dr Antony Stokes held crisis talks with the Cuban authorities.

He said hotels had now been told to allow Britons to depart without paying.

He tweeted: “Hotels in #Cuba now have authority/instruction to allow customers, and air crew, to depart without paying (on basis of Atol guarantee). Very grateful for patience of all affected in distressing circumstances.”

Deirdre Hutton, the chairwoman of the Civil Aviation Authority, told Radio 4’s Today programme that guests who had been trapped were flying home.

She said: “That has been sorted out by the ambassador overnight, and the Cuban flight is in the air on its way back, which is very good news. It’s also an example of how we’re working very closely with the Foreign Office.” The breakthrough came after desperate guests and their relatives petitioned the ambassador for help.

Pauline Brewsell, 57, and her husband Louis, 60, from Romford, were flying home on a charter flight today having been released from their Cuba hotel.

Their son Reece, 29, said they had been trapped in Playa Pesquero, Holguin, and prevented from leaving unless they paid £1,000. He told the Standard: “Luckily I was able to contact the ambassador on Twitter. They are in the air now on a charter flight. It’s a big relief.”

Thomas Cook owes hotels £338 million. Dame Deirdre said one hotel in Mexico was owed £2.5 million.

The CAA has arranged for 16,500 people to return home today. Repatriation efforts will continue until October 6 with more than 1,000 flights planned.

A family have said they “cannot thank British Airways enough” after it offered to fund a Walt Disney World trip that was cancelled after the collapse.

The Kitching family, from Hillingdon, were planning to visit Orlando in October to celebrate Connor, seven, receiving the all-clear from liver cancer. Although entitled to a refund, it would not have arrived in time for the family to still make the trip. BA stepped in after hearing about their plight on Twitter.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT