British authorities continue to struggle with refunding customers affected by the collapse of charter giant Thomas Cook. After tens of thousands of travelers still haven't received any compensation, the British aviation authority is now forced to apologize, writes BBC.

Paul Smith, head of consumer affairs at the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, told the BBC that 50,000 people are still waiting for their money. The slow processing time has now prompted the authority to apologise, but Paul Smith claims it is "working tirelessly" to process the payments.

A total of 300,000 people have claimed refunds, of which 215,000 applications have been approved. The CAA initially said that travelers should receive their money back within 60 days, but so far only a third of payments have been made within that time frame.

The authority justifies the delays by, among other things, having had to carry out extra checks after several fraud attempts.

So far, the CAA has paid back 160 million pounds, equivalent to 2 billion kronor, to bankrupt travelers.

The long-standing charter company Thomas Cook went bankrupt on September 23 after being in business for 178 years. The travel giant failed to sort out the difficult financial situation the company had found itself in. Around 150,000 stranded British travelers had to be flown home by the authorities, which was described as the largest rescue operation since World War II.

Svenska Ving, which was owned by Thomas Cook at the time of the bankruptcy, was bought up earlier this fall by Petter Stordalen and Harald Mix's investment company Altor.

Source: di.se