London: The world’s oldest travel firm Thomas Cook collapsed this morning, stranding hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers around the globe and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.

The liquidation marks the end of one of Britain’s oldest companies that started life in 1841 running local rail excursions before it survived two World Wars to pioneer package holidays and mass tourism. The firm ran hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million people a year in 16 countries. It currently has 600,000 people abroad, forcing governments and insurance companies to coordinate a huge rescue operation.

Chief Executive Peter Fankhauser said it was a matter of profound regret that the company had gone out of business after it failed to secure a rescue package from its lenders in frantic talks that went through the weekend.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said Thomas Cook had ceased trading and the regulator and government had a fleet of planes ready to start bringing home the more than 150,000 British customers over the next two weeks.

Pictures posted on social media showed Thomas Cook planes being diverted away from the normal airport stands. Some were left deserted once passengers and staff had departed. Employees posted pictures of themselves walking from their last flights. “Love my job so much, don’t want it to end,” Kia Dawn Hayward, a member of the company’s cabin crew tweeted.