Thomas Cook, an iconic British global travel group, was making a last-ditch effort yesterday to save the company from collapse. Yet negotiations fell apart in the early hours of the morning, leaving more than 150,000 travelers stranded abroad and 9,000 workers out of a job.Currently, a huge repatriation effort is underway after the company ceased trading immediately, resulting in countless flights being canceled. The UK Civil Aviation Authority had announced at 2 am that the group would cease operations. Peter Fankhauser, the chief executive of Thomas Cook, said  the collapse was a "matter of profound regret" and he issued an apology to the company's "millions of customers, and thousands of employees".The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the government is launching a repatriation program over the course of the next couple of weeks, starting today and running until October 6, to bring Thomas Cook travelers back to the UK.