British tour company Thomas Cook collapsed early Monday after failing to secure emergency funding, leaving tens of thousands of vacationers stranded abroad.

英国旅游公司Thomas Cook未能获得应急资金,于周一早上破产了,导致成千上万的度假者被困国外。

The British government said the return of the 178-year-old firm’s 150,000 British customers now in vacation spots across the globe would be the largest repatriation in its peacetime history. The process began Monday and officials warned that delays are inevitable.

英国政府称这家公司有178年历史,送这15万正在全球度假的英国客户回国,将会成为和平时期最大规模的遣返行动。遣返活动于周一开始,官方警告说拖延是不可避免的。

图片来源:图虫创意

The Civil Aviation Authority said Thomas Cook has ceased trading, its four airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the UK, will lose their jobs. The company several months ago had blamed a slowdown in bookings because of Brexit uncertainty for contributing to its crushing debt burden.

民航局说Thomas Cook已停止交易,该公司的四家航空公司将停飞,包括英国的9,000人在内的16个国家的21,000名员工将失业。几个月前该公司将沉重的债务负担归咎于脱欧不确定性而导致的预订量减少。

The company had said Friday it was seeking 200 million pounds ($US 248,744,000) to avoid going bust and was in weekend talks with shareholders and creditors to stave off failure. The firm, whose airliners were a familiar sight in many parts of the world, also operated around 600 UK travel stores.

该公司周五称正寻求2亿英镑(合248,744,000美元)的投资以避免破产,周末与股东和债权人进行谈判以尽量拖延破产。该公司的客机在世界很多地方都很常见,在英国约有600家旅行社。

The company’s chief executive, Peter Fankhauser, said in a statement read outside the company’s offices Monday morning that he deeply regrets the shutdown.

该公司的总裁Peter Fankhauser于周一早上在公司办公室外读的声明中说他对倒闭深感遗憾。

“Despite huge efforts over a number of months and further intense negotiations in recent days we have not been able to secure a deal to save our business,” he said. “I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption.”

他说:“尽管几个月来我们做出了巨大努力,最近几天进行了进一步紧张的谈判,但还是没有达成协议挽救我们的公司。我知道这个后果对很多人来说是沉重的打击,给他们带来很多焦虑、压力和混乱。”

Britain’s CAA said it had arranged an aircraft fleet for the complex British repatriation effort, which is expected to last two weeks.

英国民航局称已为英国复杂的遣返工作安排了一队飞机,预计行动将持续两周。

 

翻译:菲菲