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Hundreds of thousands of British holidaymakers were today anxiously waiting to hear if their trips will go ahead as struggling Thomas Cook revealed it needs to raise another £200 million to avoid collapse.

About 600,000 customers, including 160,000 Britons, are abroad with the operator, and many more are booked to fly out to resorts in the coming weeks.

Shares in the 178-year-old company today slumped 25 per cent — down 1.14p to 3.33p — after it issued a stock exchange statement confirming it is in crunch talks with its largest shareholder, the Chinese-owned Fosun Tourism Group, as well as banks and bond holders about a £1.1 billion rescue to see it through the winter season.

It had already agreed a £900 million restructuring package but banks have demanded an extra £200 million cushion for the quieter winter months before they will sign off the package.

Chantelle Wenham-Spencer, 30, from Kent, who was going to Santa Ponsa in Majorca, said: “I’ve paid over £2,000, and we fly next Sunday so we may not even go. I’m a single mum and booked this last year, so it’s not as though we go on a lot of holidays anyway.

“We’ve been looking forward to this for over a year. Everything is all ready to go. I’ve even booked a hotel for the night before in case of motorway closures.”

Chris Hancock, 52, from Birmingham, said: “If they go bust I don’t know how I will get to Malta to board my cruise, it’s my first holiday in 15 years too. I was really looking forward to it.”

If Thomas Cook, which employs 20,000 people, does fail, the Government will be saddled with a bill for the biggest ever peacetime repatriation of Britons abroad. In 2017 about 110,000 holidaymakers were brought home when Monarch Airlines collapsed.

Brian Strutton, general secretary of the pilots’ union Balpa, said: “It is appalling that banks that owe their very existence to handouts from the British taxpayer show no allegiance to a great British company, Thomas Cook, when it needs help. This puts 9,000 good quality UK jobs needlessly at risk and puts an iconic British brand in jeopardy.”

Thomas Cook organised its first trip in 1841, taking about 500 supporters of the temperance movement by train from Leicester to Loughborough.