London (AFP)

The situation was desperate for British tour operator Thomas Cook, who, barring a dramatic blow, would declare bankruptcy in the early hours of Monday after a failed marathon of talks with his creditors and Chinese shareholder Fosun.

The oldest independent tour operator in the world would end nearly two centuries of activities, which should lead to a huge repatriation operation of some 600,000 customers on vacation. Around 22,000 employees in the group are likely to lose their jobs immediately, 9,000 of them in the United Kingdom.

"The chances of survival are meager," sources close to the case said, while several British media claimed that the company was going bankrupt. The Guardian says the announcement will be made around 02:00 GMT.

According to Sky News, the tour operator should retain AlixParners and KPMG to manage its dissolution or restructuring.

A source close to the case had already warned Saturday that without agreement, the group would cease to exist immediately and that administrators would try to save "the parts of the group that can be" for the creditors find a little of their stake.

As for the shareholders, they risk losing everything: the title of the group has melted in recent months as the problems of Thomas Cook grew and were worth only a few pence.

The pioneer of tour operators, very heavily indebted, has seen its horizon darken in recent years because of fierce competition from low-cost travel websites and the reluctance of tourists worried about Brexit in particular. He had announced an abounding loss of 1.5 billion pounds for the first half, for a turnover of some 10 billion.

His fate was played out in a few days: creditors asked him last week to find 200 million pounds (227 million euros) of additional funding for an already accepted rescue plan of 900 million pounds and conducted by the Chinese Fosun, the first shareholder, to be validated.

According to some of the group's creditors, including RBS, Barclays and Lloyds among its financing banks, the tour operator would only survive for about a year longer without the additional funds.

The meetings chained each other over the weekend to try to find a private investor in hedge funds or investments, or to the government, to no avail.

The dark mine, the tour operator's boss, Peter Fankhauser, made no comment coming out of the meeting with creditors that was held in Latham & Watkins law firm in London. He then went to a board of directors that had to seal the spell of the tour operator.

The case has turned a happy turn, especially since the bank RBS was saved by the government at great expense after the 2008 financial crisis.

- Preventable crisis -

"It's a mess that could have been avoided, ministers must go ahead and take responsibility for helping passengers and employees," said Brian Strutton, secretary general of the British Airways pilots' union. Balpa, adding that the government had not drawn the conclusions of the bankruptcy of the company Monarch two years ago.

Requested by AFP, the Department of Transport and Thomas Cook, as well as several creditors of the tour operator whose bank RBS have refused any comment for the moment.

The bankruptcy that seemed imminent of one of the oldest tour operators in the world should create a shock wave in European tourism. The British authorities will immediately organize the repatriation of 150,000 British tourists. In total there are 600,000 vacationers left with pre-paid flights or trips from Thomas Cook currently spread around the world, making it the largest repatriation of civilians since the Second World War in the country.

"We do not know if we can steal, let alone get married as planned, our families, friends and we are devastated," she told AFP.

© 2019 AFP