When Thomas Cook Group Plc began dangerously hurtling toward collapse early last week, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ordered up a contingency plan: Operation Matterhorn. The effort aimed to safeguard the return of U.K. tourists should the company indeed go under. But the massive undertaking also betrayed the thinking that had taken root in the Brexit-hardened cabinet: that the company was already doomed, and that the state shouldn’t step in.
If senior management felt the same way about Thomas Cook’s prospects, at least they put on a brave face. Chief Executive Officer Peter Fankhauser had been due to address a major tourism congress in Cologne on Sept. 17, but the situation back in London was looking so dire that he dispatched the head of the tour operator’s German business to stand in for him.
