How secret plans saved customers of Thomas Cook from being stranded

Civil servants spent millions creating a pop-up airline ready to fly back Brits abroadIn what turned out to be the last week of Thomas Cook’s 178-year history, while banks and creditors were still attempting to thrash out a rescue deal, civil servants were placing a multimillion-pound bet of their own. And their money was on the airline collapsing.For the second time in the space of two years, the Civil Aviation Authority was secretly putting together its own pop-up airline, and this was e