Thomas Cook is back and jumping head first into travel industry hell

Will the brand be a hit with consumers after the previous company to bear its name was responsible for Britain’s largest peacetime repatriation effort, asks James Moore

Grounded no longer: Thomas Cook is back as a digital-only brand (Getty)

Atol and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) staff could be forgiven for seeking out a dark room in which to hide. 

The return of Thomas Cook has been announced. That’s right. The brand at the centre of the travel sector’s biggest, and messiest, collapse, and their most painful headache has been resurrected as a new company.

The demise of the ‘old’ Thomas Cook left them, along with the Department of Transport, coping with the largest peacetime repatriation Britain has yet seen while also having to handle refunds for those who had yet to travel with the firm. It was a cluster – you know what – of epic proportions.