Holidaymakers lost trips costing more than half a billion pounds when Thomas Cook collapsed, new figures show.
The Insolvency Service said £585 million was owed to customers for package holidays, flights and other services after the firm went bust in September.
Trade creditors such as hoteliers, airports and aircraft catering suppliers were owed £885 million.
READ MORE: Travel firm looks to hire former Thomas Cook staff
Total liabilities for Thomas Cook Group were around £9 billion, with the majority owed to other companies within the group, including some which have ceased operations.
The Insolvency Service said it is not known how much of the money will be paid back as a result of the liquidation.
Some 300,000 of the cancelled holidays are financially protected under the Atol scheme, although earlier this month the Civil Aviation Authority said around one in three of the first people to claim refunds were not paid within the 60-day target.
READ MORE: Thomas Cook collapses with 150,000 left stranded on holidays
The regulator insists it wants to issue refunds “as soon as possible” but said some cannot be paid until additional information is provided by claimants.
Many Thomas Cook customers have taken to social media to express their frustration over the time it is taking to get their money back.
Dale Edwards wrote on Twitter: “Day 67 still no refund. All information sent to Protect Claims.”
He added: “Really getting annoyed now.”
Another customer, Sarah Aves, wrote: “I have emailed 6 times. No reply, have not received my refund and have not been asked for additional information. Claim was submitted 7th October. What is going on!”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here