The Official Receiver has announced creditors of the collapsed Thomas Cook empire will receive a total of £280 million.

The Thomas Cook Group went bust in September 2019 with a debt burden of around £1.6 billion.

Some money was clawed back from the sale of assets, including its Gatwick and Bristol airport slots, which were picked up by easyJet for £36 million.

Thomas Cook’s Birmingham, Manchester and Stansted slots were acquired by Jet2, but the sum was not disclosed.

Thomas Cook’s largest shareholder, Chinese conglomerate Fosun, bought the brand for £11m and relaunched it as an online-only travel agent.

Hays Travel is understood to have paid around £6m for Thomas Cook’s 555 shops.

Official Receiver David Chapman said: “I understand that a lot of people lost money following the collapse of Thomas Cook. My team has been working hard to finalise the liquidation, maximising funds which can now be distributed to creditors.”

He urged creditors to visit the Thomas Cook Claims site to check the position regarding their claim ‘as soon as possible’ so the receiver can ‘consider whether they should receive any part of the funds being distributed’.

The Thomas Cook group is made up of 57 different companies in liquidation, not all of which will make payments to creditors and the payments made will be at different rates for each company. 

The Official Receiver expects that eligible creditors will be paid before the end of September 2024.  

Those creditors who have not yet done so, should submit their claim through the site no later than 2 August 2024, added the Official Receiver.