UK travel firm First Choice said it will merge with the tourism division of German rival TUI, creating a firm with 27 million customers.
First Choice said the new company will be called TUI Travel. It will be headquartered in the UK and there are plans to list its shares in London.
TUI said it would make an announcement at 0900 GMT about its “planned merger with First Choice”.
The two companies believe the merger will save £100m a year.
TUI Travel will be 51% owned by TUI and 49% owned by the shareholders of First Choice.
TUI’s shares jumped by 9% in Frankfurt, while First Choice added 9% in London.
Different market
The move comes as travel companies try to cut costs and boost sales, at a time when many travellers are booking their own holidays and hunting deals online.
Last month, the UK’s MyTravel said it would combine with Germany’s Thomas Cook.
TUI employs about 8,000 staff in the UK and runs Thomson Holidays with nearly 730 travel shops nationwide.
It recently announced plans to cut a total of 3,600 jobs Europe-wide, with 2,600 going in the UK. The changes are part of a 250m-euro (£168m) cost-cutting programme.
TUI UK’s and Thomson Travel’s headquarters are in Luton. The group’s airline, Thomson Fly, is based in Coventry.
By: LBARULES - 27th March 2007 at 11:30
Astraeus are independent as well aren’t they?!
By: cloud_9 - 27th March 2007 at 11:02
Flyjet do exist they are now the UK’s only independant charter airline.
What about Titan Airways, aren’t they a UK based charter airline???
By: lukeylad - 26th March 2007 at 22:43
Flyjet no longer exist !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding FCA, if the takeover does happen im presumming the 787 order will stay, 757’s will stay as well 763’s, A320 and A321’s will most likely go and Thomsonfly will ditch their 733’s and 762’s and together more 738’s will arrive.
Sorry Tommy you are wrong there. Flyjet do exist they are now the UK’s only independant charter airline. Flyjet will be around for some time yet they have plenty of work to keep them going.
For example they have a 4 year contract with Excel out of NCL with one 757.
At the moment there other 757 is based in Copenhagen and the UAE doing long haul to Thailand. Coming back to MAN for the summer.
And they are also after cabincrew for the summer, for NCL and MAN i applied but didn’t make it to the One on one interviews.
By: tommyinyork - 26th March 2007 at 22:12
Flyjet no longer exist !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding FCA, if the takeover does happen im presumming the 787 order will stay, 757’s will stay as well 763’s, A320 and A321’s will most likely go and Thomsonfly will ditch their 733’s and 762’s and together more 738’s will arrive.
By: UK Commercials - 26th March 2007 at 00:22
Following these mergers
The My Travel Airways name will disappear and the fleet will be absorbed into the Thomas Cook fleet.
The First Choice Airways name will disappear and the fleet will be absorbed into the Tuifly fleet.
Monarch Airlines are part of the Cosmos Travel group. Cosmos aren’t merging with anyone at the moment and so the Monarch name will remain.
Excel Airways are owned by the Avion Group and it’s highly unlikely that they will merge with anyone.
That will really only leave Flyjet, Astraeus and European as independent charter companies in the UK.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Flyjet in the future. Silverjet are wanting to start up new routes from other European Airports to the US and following the new EU open skies policy they may opt to concentrate on that side of the market instead and rebrand their aircraft.
European? Who knows.
Good luck Astraeus!
By: astraeus471 - 24th March 2007 at 22:41
I really hope the blue stays. I truly dislike the yellow TUIfly livery, to bright and, well…yellow!
By: tommyinyork - 24th March 2007 at 19:24
thomson are battling to keep the blue.
By: cloud_9 - 24th March 2007 at 13:23
Can someone confirm for me (and possibly others?), are these mergers just the tour operators that are merging their package holiday side of things, or are the airline side of things included as well…as I am rather confused?
The reason I ask is because I know that sometimes in business, a company may buy-out or merge with other companies, but their operations are kept seperate from each other…?
And also, what will happen to the aircraft orders that each of the airlines have made with the respective manufacturers, will we see a reduction in the number of aircraft that are finally ordered/delivered?
And for those that were wondering what the TUIFly livery looks like…have a look at the following link: http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=TUIfly%3C%3ETUIfly+Nordic&countrysearch=&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=&range=&sort_order=views&page_limit=120&thumbnails=&calccount=1140999&truecount=false&engine_version=6.0
By: heslop01 - 23rd March 2007 at 19:05
No Tommy, I believe all of TUI’s airlines (including Thomsonfly + HapagLloyd) will all be rebranded (AGAIN!) under the one brand, TUIFLY. The livery is basically the same as the Thomsonfly livery is now, the blue however is replaced by YELLOW.
LGKR
Thank you, Like I said Tommy! :rolleyes:
By: LGKR - 23rd March 2007 at 18:55
No Tommy, I believe all of TUI’s airlines (including Thomsonfly + HapagLloyd) will all be rebranded (AGAIN!) under the one brand, TUIFLY. The livery is basically the same as the Thomsonfly livery is now, the blue however is replaced by YELLOW.
LGKR
By: tommyinyork - 22nd March 2007 at 23:21
actualy all the groups airlines are going to be different colours, some airline in Belguim is green.
By: heslop01 - 21st March 2007 at 17:19
im guessing we could see A320’s and A321’s in TUI Blue colours.
I would doubt that as next summer, ThomonFly becomes TUIFly
By: tommyinyork - 21st March 2007 at 09:13
im guessing we could see A320’s and A321’s in TUI Blue colours.
By: Manston Airport - 20th March 2007 at 14:45
You mean the welsh football teams bus haha
Right :rolleyes:
James
By: lukeylad - 20th March 2007 at 14:09
Dont Forget European;)
James
You mean the welsh football teams bus haha
By: Manston Airport - 20th March 2007 at 13:08
This will be interesting.
Am i right in thinking this now leaves Flyjet as the only Pure charter airline that is independant.
Dont Forget European;)
James
By: lukeylad - 20th March 2007 at 10:34
This will be interesting.
Am i right in thinking this now leaves Flyjet as the only Pure charter airline that is independant.
By: andrewm - 20th March 2007 at 10:32
It is true that Astraeus are not a tour operator , although Thomas cook use Astraeus for charter flights as well as a few over tour ops , with the merges this could affect them.
See where you are going with that but im not 100% sure.
Under the thinking that they do not operate loss making routes I imagine in the summer season there is little room for them to merge two routes without having to double aircraft size which may be difficult/costly to do in the short term depending on what they want and were they can get it. Of course they would love to run a FCA 767 instead of two A320s as this would bring their cost down but I cant see this happening on large scale in their first season.
I think Astraeus wont find it that hard this summer but next summer (2008) is when they will find it hard as the new merged companies (Both FCA and MYT merges) will have had time to work on their fleet in more detail and properly plan their capacity etc accordingly.
I think there will still be work for Astaeus and Titan in their markets through the independant tour operators or perhaps on more specialised one off routes for the likes of FCA or MYT merges.
By: caz66 - 19th March 2007 at 23:36
Excel maybe but Astraeus are not a Tour Operator themselves, more of a contactor for flights no??
Maybe Excel and Monarch could merge and we end up with “the big three”?
It is true that Astraeus are not a tour operator , although Thomas cook use Astraeus for charter flights as well as a few over tour ops , with the merges this could affect them.
By: andrewm - 19th March 2007 at 16:51
It dont surprise me after the merge of Thomas Cook and My travel.
It does leave very little competition. Im guessing excel and astraeus wont be happy to hear about this.
Excel maybe but Astraeus are not a Tour Operator themselves, more of a contactor for flights no??
Maybe Excel and Monarch could merge and we end up with “the big three”?
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March 19, 2007 at 8:47 am