Thomas Cook: What happened to the travel agency?

Thomas Cook planes have been impounded at Manchester Airport

British travel agency Thomas Cook has gone into administration and collapsed.

This means the company has stopped trading and over 22,000 jobs are at risk around the world, with nearly 9,000 here in the UK.

It happened because the company is in lots of debt - over £1.7 billion worth of it.

It has also been affected by the fact people no longer go to a travel agent in order to book their holidays - they book them online.

This has meant the high street agencies were costing the company more to stay open than they were making.

What's happening to people who are on holiday?

There are over 155,000 British tourists who are currently on their holidays with Thomas Cook.

They are being flown home in the biggest operation of its type during peacetime.

They are being advised to stay until their holidays were due to end and they shouldn't have to pay any extra money for their hotels or to get home.

There is also bad news for people who have booked their next holiday through Thomas Cook, as all booked holidays are now cancelled.

Some families may be able to get some money back for their holiday through a government scheme called Atol, or from their credit card or insurance companies.

But that protection only works for package deals - where a hotel and flights is included. It doesn't cover flight-only deals.