Emergency talks are underway to prevent the collapse of travel agent, Thomas Cook.

The company must raise £200 million following a demand by lenders to secure new standby funding.

The business has a number of stores across Kent including; Ashford, Gillingham, Hythe, Maidstone, Canterbury, Folkestone, Whitstable, Herne Bay, Dartford, Sheerness, Gravesend, Ramsgate and Tunbridge Wells.

It's understood the firm's trying to sell off certain assets.

If it fails the group could go into administration - triggering an operation to fly home around 150,000 Brits currently on holiday.

One holiday maker said: "I woke up to the news about Thomas Cook, just my luck that this is the first time I have booked with them.

"I’m meant to be going to Fuerteventura next Saturday with my brother for 10 days, I’ll be devastated if I can’t go anymore.

"I am working 56 hours a week, I need this holiday, stressed isn’t the word."

The company owes around £1.6 billion.

Travel writer Simon Calder told Sky news: "It is a deeply alarming situation first of all for the 20,000 excellent Thomas Cook employees and for the hundreds of thousands of people with advanced bookings with the oldest brand in travel.

"Everything, we thought, was going well. There was a £900 million rescue bid led by a Chinese investor, Fosun.

"The banks were going to chip in as well, but there was a last minute problem last night.

"Basically the bankers said actually we think it is going to be a tough winter and therefore you are going to need an extra £200 million that you can call on."
This time of year is always difficult for holiday companies as they have bills, such as air traffic costs, to pay but money for advanced bookings are not coming in at the same rate.

"I need this holiday, stressed isn’t the word" - one anxious holidaymaker

Mr Calder warned that although there is a plan in place to get people home, flight times may vary and holiday makers could be forced to fly to a different airport than planned.

He added: "It's a real tough time to be any travel company and as people start to lose confidence, that is the real problem for Thomas Cook, because in those cases, as we have sadly seen before with smaller companies, these can become self fulfilling prophecies.

"If the company can't get through this, there is immediately a plan in place to get people back from various airports around Europe and generally people who are on holiday are actually in a very strong position.

"Pretty much everyone will get their money back in their event of a collapse."

For the latest business news, click here