Madeira government concerned over Thomas Cook collapse

Madeira’s regional government has expressed concern over the collapse of tour operator Thomas Cook which regularly brought tourists to the island.

The Regional Secretary of Turismo da Madeira, Paula Cabaço, who is closely following the bankruptcy of the UK tour operator, said this week: “We are aware of the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook in the United Kingdom and although the operator does not have direct flights to the island, the problem is the sale of package holidays, including flight and stay”.
She did give assurances that flights were “covered by other airlines” and added that around 4,000 package holidays in Madeira had been sold on average by Thomas Cook.
“This is a situation that will have an immediate effect, but we hope to be able to overcome these issues since another tour operator will step in to fill the gap,” said Cabaço.
The situation is not the same for Thomas Cook in Germany that does operate flights to Madeira using the airline carrier Condor.
“We have not received official confirmation that Thomas Cook has gone bankrupt in Germany. Here the company arranges its own flights from Germany to Madeira,” she said.
Paula Cabaço explained that Condor has eight weekly flights to the island, of which seven are on Wednesdays and one on Saturday, with a total of 1,500 seats per week and 77,000 per year and which represents 25% of the entire German tourist market in Madeira.