英國老牌旅遊公司倒閉,政府被迫接15萬滯留遊客回國

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

英國旅遊公司Thomas Cook未能獲得應急資金，於週一早上破產了，導致成千上萬的度假者被困國外。

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.

英國政府稱這家公司有178年曆史，送這15萬正在全球度假的英國客戶回國，將會成爲和平時期最大規模的遣返行動。遣返活動於週一開始，官方警告說拖延是不可避免的。

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.

民航局說Thomas Cook已停止交易，該公司的四家航空公司將停飛，包括英國的9,000人在內的16個國家的21,000名員工將失業。幾個月前該公司將沉重的債務負擔歸咎於脫歐不確定性而導致的預訂量減少。

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.

該公司週五稱正尋求2億英鎊(合248,744,000美元)的投資以避免破產，週末與股東和債權人進行談判以儘量拖延破產。該公司的客機在世界很多地方都很常見，在英國約有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.

該公司的總裁Peter Fankhauser於週一早上在公司辦公室外讀的聲明中說他對倒閉深感遺憾。

"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."

他說：“儘管幾個月來我們做出了巨大努力，最近幾天進行了進一步緊張的談判，但還是沒有達成協議挽救我們的公司。我知道這個後果對很多人來說是沉重的打擊，給他們帶來很多焦慮、壓力和混亂。”

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

英國民航局稱已爲英國複雜的遣返工作安排了一隊飛機，預計行動將持續兩週。