Planes are waiting to fly home 160,000 holidaymakers tonight as fears grew that Thomas Cook was hours from going bust.

The £600million airlift will start on Sunday if the world’s oldest travel firm collapses in to administration – closing 550 branches and costing 9,000 jobs.

Experts predicted an industry-wide “bloodbath” would follow.

But a Thomas Cook insider insisted: “We’re still in discussions with a range of private stakeholders.

"But the board must decide if there’s a reasonable prospect of avoiding administration. If there’s no money from the Government it’s unlikely.”

The Foreign Office alerted embassies to what may be the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history.

Some 600,000 customers are on holiday – 160,000 British.

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