The deaths of Susan and John Cooper in a hotel room in Egypt last month remain unexplained, with Thomas Cook group chief executive Peter Fankhauser reporting yesterday that “many questions are still not answered”.
An investigation by the Egyptian authorities is due to report today that the neighbouring room at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel had been fumigated the day before their deaths.
Fankhauser told a World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Europe Leaders’ Forum in Lisbon: “Susan was a colleague who worked for 16 years at Thomas Cook.”
The Thomas Cook chief had been due to address the forum on the subject of ‘Winning the customer of tomorrow’, but he told industry leaders he could not do so “without addressing the two customers, Susan and John Cooper, who died in unexplained circumstances in Egypt”.
“This has dominated my thoughts and actions for the last three weeks. My only focus is to ensure the business does the right thing,” he said.
“Many questions are still not answered, but we had to be decisive, to be transparent and we had to take care.”
Fankhauser added: “Because we didn’t know what happened, we withdrew all our customers from the hotel.
“There will be some who say we overreacted, but as a chief executive who faced a major reputational crisis in his first six months, I was determined to show we have changed as a company.”
Fankhauser had to deal in 2015 with the inquest into the deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning of children Bobby and Christi Shepherd on a Thomas Cook holiday in Corfu some years earlier.
He said: “The reaction from the industry and from some of the media shows they realise Thomas Cook has changed, but ultimately it is up to the Cooper family to judge.”
Fankhauser told the forum: “To do things right consistently is a simple truth whether in a crisis or in normal circumstances.
“At any time of the year we have 500,000 customers somewhere in the world who we have to take care of. That is a big ask, but that is what we have to do.”
Asked about Thomas Cook’s relations with the Egyptian government following the tragedy, he said: “We have a very good relationship with the government.
“I got a meeting with the prime minister at 10:30 at night. They took this seriously. They listened – the UK government as well.”
Asked what advice he would give other companies in a crisis, Fankhauser said: “From the beginning, be transparent. Stay with the facts. Don’t go into speculation. Say what you know and what you don’t know.”
He added: “As a chief executive, you can dance on the floor, but you need a great team. We learned hard lessons that we had to put customers at the heart of Thomas Cook.”
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