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IAN KING: Well I am now joined by Peter Fankhauser, the Chief Executive of Thomas Cook, who joins me now from Central London.  Mr Fankhauser, this whole situation has been an absolute disgrace, why did the family have to wait nine years for an apology?

PETER FANKHAUSER: That is something which I regret deeply and there is principally no explanation and we should have done that honestly during the last nine years and I should have done that when I took over in November 2014, that was my biggest mistake that I was not trying to get into contact with the family. I did that today, I said yesterday I do want to do the right things, I did the right things and I am grateful that the family gave me the chance to meet them personally today.

IK: And how did the meeting go, have the family accepted your apology?

PETER FANKHAUSER: The meeting was very intense and I really just wanted to listen to them, what their story is and I wanted to hear it from them and it was for me heartbreaking.  I apologised, I apologised for what I did not right in the last days and I apologised what mistakes Thomas Cook in the last nine years did and I finally came with the family to an agreement that they can move on with their lives which they deserve.
IK: Now obviously you are making certain financial payments to them which they in turn are passing on to charity.  Are you able to disclose precisely how much money you have given the family?

PETER FANKHAUSER: We agreed that the family is informing about the outcome of the meeting because I want by all means avoid that I used that now as somehow a PR story for Thomas Cook.  I said I want to stop the talk about the family, I want to talk with the family.  This I achieved today and I am grateful for that.

IK: Now it has emerged separately this evening that a man who was convicted over the negligent manslaughter of these two children has ended up working back at a hotel that is used by Thomas Cook, how on earth has that been allowed to happen?

PETER FANKHAUSER: When I got that news yesterday evening I almost got sick and this is absolutely not acceptable.  I took immediate action, we were getting into contact with the management of the group, we were asking with immediate effect that this hotel director is going to be fired and that has been done yesterday night still.  We did as well, we sent our head of Risk and Audit immediately on a plane down to Crete to make a health and safety audit starting this morning and as a third action we were really investigating where are those three people from the hotel who were convicted in 2010, where are they working and we realised that also an electrician in Corfu is still working in this hotel in Corfu where the tragedy happened and we immediately stopped, we sent from Holland because the hotel has been totally refurbished, we sent from Holland still guests into this hotel.  We immediately stopped that because the hotel was giving not an acceptable explanation to us that they are not able legally to fire this employee and we are not accepting that.

IK: Are you in a position then, will you just cut off hotels in this position where they have been found to be doing things like this and how can customers be absolutely certain that their health and safety is being treated in a paramount manner by Thomas Cook?

PETER FANKHAUSER: My absolute focus and that from Thomas Cook is that we are at the forefront of health and safety and what I decided as well today is that we are engaging an independent expert who is a health and safety expert who makes a thorough investigation on our health and safety processes throughout and reporting directly to me to really get all the processes 100% right that we are on top of health and safety.

IK: Now you mentioned just now that not speaking to the family and not apologising to the family earlier had been your biggest mistake since you took over as Chief Executive, is that a resigning issue?

PETER FANKHAUSER: No, no, I do not resign because I did say that I am going to do the right things.  I did the right things today and I want to get it right so there is nothing on my agenda that has something to do with resigning.  I want to get Thomas Cook really great and I am committed to do this CEO job here at Thomas Cook the best I can.  

IK: Do you think you still have got the confidence of your shareholders though given that this has been handled so badly?

PETER FANKHAUSER: I am convinced that I have still got the confidence of the shareholders, I am totally convinced of that because I decided during the weekend that I am going to stop talking about the family, I wanted to talk with the family and by doing that I stemmed the pressure of the media who were expecting principally that I still do talk with them about the whole tragedy and I just wanted to stop, I wanted to deliver on my promise that I want to do it right and I did it right, I did the right thing and I got the chance from the family that I could meet them today.

IK: There has been an online boycott building over the last week or so, ever since the inquest in fact.  Have you seen much evidence of customers cancelling bookings yet or choosing to book with some of your competitors?

PETER FANKHAUSER: That was absolutely not my focus during the last days.  We don’t see booking patterns day to day, we didn’t see an impact on bookings but this was not my focus during the last days, my focus was really that I can meet the family and that I can give them a new base to start from here and to move on from here.

IK: When you met the family, did they know that this man who had been convicted of negligent manslaughter was back working at a Thomas Cook hotel, did they know that?

PETER FANKHAUSER: I don’t know whether they did know it but I told them about this fact because I want to be as open with the family as I am and I am an open person and I wanted to tell them that, that I have here a problem and that I resolved it that way.

IK: That must have been an incredibly distressing moment for the family, how did they react to that news?

PETER FANKHAUSER: We agreed about the contents of these discussions we are not going to talk in public.

IK: Right but that must have been an absolutely dreadful moment for them, learning that a man who was convicted of the manslaughter of their children is back working at a hotel operated by Thomas Cook, that’s unbelievable.

PETER FANKHAUSER: This manager was employed in April, I really got almost sick that it was not us who detected that in the first instance. I am sure we would have detected that but we didn’t detect that within a reasonable six months period and this is exactly why I said we need now a third party expert, an expert who is totally independent on health and safety who can really make a thorough investigation who can tell me and the organisation where we still have to improve. But we have improved since 2006, we improved a lot.  We are not making the health and safety audits on our own, with our own colleagues, we have external specialists who are doing that, who are doing nothing else but health and safety audits.  

IK: But this guy has been back in the hotel for something like six months I think you just said, it’s astonishing that no one has picked that up, is anyone …

PETER FANKHAUSER: No, no, he started … he started in April, he started in April this year, that means it is about four to six weeks ago.  If I said months that was clearly a mistake in my language then.

IK: Okay but should not someone from your internal audit or risk department have picked up on that, surely someone’s head should roll for this shouldn’t it?

PETER FANKHAUSER: We immediately took action, we immediately sent the head of Health, Safety and Audit on spot and we immediately took then the right decisions to say okay, now we have really to see where those other two are and we have found one and we took as well their action.  

IK: Do you think the Thomas Cook brand is capable of withstanding this?  It’s been a torrid year for you in other respects, you were parachuted into the job at relatively short notice last November, can Thomas Cook withstand all of this, can it take much more of this?

PETER FANKHAUSER:  Thomas Cook is a wonderful company, Thomas Cook is an extremely strong brand, Thomas Cook has 22,000 really engaged employees and it has 22 million guests who are going on holidays with Thomas Cook in one year and the absolutely majority is really enjoying making a holiday with us and we are really caring about the customer with our 5000 to 6000 reps we have in the destinations during the summer season who are doing nothing else than caring about our customers.  We proved many, many times in the past when we had crisis that we do absolutely the right thing, that we care about our customers and if I may give you an example, in Tunisia the Arabian Spring broke out, we were the first tour operator who decided to evacuate all our guests out of Tunisia, we were the one who still had the time to really fly them out the same day and we were the one who had them all at home the earliest we could  and the fastest, so we are really caring about the customer and as well about health and safety.

IK: Okay, now these deaths occurred under your predecessor but one, Manny Fontenla-Novoa who appeared at the inquest.  Has the company explored any way of clawing back payments or bonuses made to Mr Fontenla-Novoa during his time in office?

PETER FANKHAUSER: No.  

IK: And I take it, it goes without saying I imagine that you won’t be accepting any bonus in respect of this year.  

PETER FANKHAUSER: Look, my salary here is not on discussion and this is a matter the board decides.

IK: Okay, Peter Fankhauser from Thomas Cook Group, we appreciate you joining us this evening, it was very good to speak to you and thank you for taking the time.  Well there you go, you heard from Peter Fankhauser there that he thinks the Thomas Cook brand is strong enough to withstand this but obviously it has been a sickening evening for the company, he’s had to speak to the parents of Bobby and Christi Shepherd and we’ve heard of course that a former manager who was implicit in the negligent manslaughter of those poor children has been found working back at Thomas Cook.  He’s been sacked, Mr Fankhauser has acted on that.  Thank you for joining us.