Thomas Cook chief ‘sorry’ but not sure about returning bonus

Peter Fankhauser, the former chief executive of the failed Thomas Cook travel agency recently informed a British parliamentary committee that he has not made any decisions regarding the return of his substantial cash bonus. 

'Deeply sorry' 

Peter Fankhauser informed the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday that he is extremely sorry for his firm’s collapse that occurred last month but also explained that he doesn’t bear the entire responsibility of his unsuccess, saying there were multiple parties who had to contribute to the deal which finally then did not succeed. 

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Peter explained that he fully understands the sentiment in the public and the sentiment of some of his colleagues. However, in his defense all he could say was that he worked tirelessly for the success of the company and is greatly sorry that he was not able to secure the deal. 

Asked whether he was sorry enough to return his bonus of more than 500,000 (US$632,000) pounds so it could be used for other purposes like severance pay, Fankhauser replied that he needs time to think about the situation and that he cannot help them immediately. He also mentioned that he worked "tirelessly" to try to save the 178-year-old travel agency. 

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No contact between company bosses and UK ministers after the collapse 

The firm had roughly 21,000 employees including 9,000 in the U.K. Mr. Fankhauser, who managed to get £8.4m due to his great fortunes after getting the top job in 2014, was urged to transfer his £750,000 bonus to help out struggling former employees. According to sources, there was no contact between company bosses and UK ministers in the six days before its collapse, despite ministers from five other governments raising their concerns with executives.   

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Following the committee hearing, former Thomas Cook workers who attended the hearing slammed the executives half-hearted excuses.  

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