UK: First flight of stranded Thomas Cook customers lands in Manchester

C/U Flight notice board at Manchester airport *NO SOUND AT SOURCE*
W/S Manchester airport *NO SOUND AT SOURCE*
M/S Terminal 1 arrivals
SOT, Repatriated traveller: "We have just come back from JFK airport. We were at the boarding gate when we found out Thomas Cook had gone under, so we were in limbo mode for about a half hour or so, and then the British consulate turned up with our flights to get us home. So that took us about four hours. So we got about a good well long delay, you know. So it's been a bit of a nightmare but, you know. But it's all sorted, they're getting people home, so people don't have too much to worry about if you're already abroad, you know. So just let them do their thing. It might take a bit of time but you'll get home eventually."
M/S Terminal 1 sign *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Repatriated traveller: "Two minutes before we were due to get on the flight it was cancelled. We had a delay and then the British consulate brought us on."
W/S Terminal 1 exit *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Repatriated traveller: "It was clear that there was no flight going on and that Thomas Cook had gone bust, but very efficiently the British embassy came and they sorted it all out. Got a chartered new flight and thank God we all made it here safe and sound all well. Thank God."
M/S Travellers with luggage
W/S Terminal 1 exit
M/S Airport exit
SCRIPT
The first flight repatriating customers of Thomas Cook, the world's oldest travel company that collapsed overnight, landed in Manchester on Monday, after travellers' original return flight from New York City was cancelled at the last minute.
"We have just come back from JFK airport, we were at the boarding gate when we found out Thomas Cook had gone under, so we were in limbo mode for about a half hour or so," said one traveller outside the airport, adding that "the British consulate turned up with our flights to get us home, so that took us about four hours, so we got about a good well long delay."
Thomas Cook collapsed in the early hours of Monday morning after a last attempt to save the company failed on Sunday, leading to UK airports impounding aircraft as they landed.
Some 600,000 Thomas Cook customers were travelling when the company ceased operating, with the British government chartering 40 aircraft from various airlines in a rescue operation to repatriate the 150,000 British citizens who would otherwise have been left stranded, making it the largest peacetime repatriation in UK history.