Thomas Cook

[Duff beer]

jumped the gun! MYT will be shedding a/c, Flight Deck, Cabin Crew, and so will TCX....according to the "new" management's information announced yesterday. I was guilty of optimism, rather wrapped up in the hope of keeping my own job. DOH!

Yep, come on Roy. Is this confirmed fact or speculation. I flew with management the other day and was told there are no plans whatsoever (at the mo) for fleet reductions.

[RoyHudd]

Clarification....sort of....

Of course nothing is fact until it happens. I am quoting recent internal spouting from the newly designated chief bean counter. Until a detailed Strategic Plan is developed, which will take a few weeks, I imagine no plans for redundancies will be announced. I am endeavouring to be realistic, not alarmist, and am led to understand that complacency in the pilot work force would nevertheless be inappropriate. It is conceivable that no flight deck jobs will be lost, despite the content of premature announcements of Mr. Jobsworth, or whatever his name is. Logic dictates otherwise.

Having lost my flying job 3 times in 10 years through absolutely no fault of my own, I have simply removed the rose-tinted glasses. Wishful thinking is not much use in this environment.

[Re-Heat]

Roy,

I repeat my post from T&E. Calm down.

Bit early to say that there will be flight crew layoffs - see the deal release:

KarstadtQuelle, the Germany based retail firm, has agreed to merge its subsidiary Thomas Cook AG, the European travel group, with MyTravel Group plc, Thomas Cook’s UK based counterpart.
STRUCTURE
The merger will be carried out via a scheme of arrangement. My Travel Directors intend unanimously to recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the Scheme.
TERMS
Following the Merger, KarstadtQuelle, which has agreed to acquire all of the shares in Thomas Cook which it does not already own, will hold 52% of the Enlarged Group, with existing MyTravel Shareholders holding 48%.
The implied offer price based on MyTravel’s GBp238 closing price on 09-Feb-07, last trading day prior to the deal announcement, and Thomas Cook's estimated equity value of approximately GBP1.06bn (EUR1.6bn), is GBp 224 per each My Travel share.
It values the entire issued share capital of MyTravel at GBP 1.04 bn (EUR1.55bn).
The implied offer represents a discount of approximately 5.8% to My Travel's GBp 238 closing price on 09-Feb-07, the last trading day prior to the firm announcement of the offer.
BREAK UP FEE
KarstadtQuelle has agreed to pay MyTravel a termination fee of GBP10 m if the Merger Agreement is terminated in the circumstances other than a material adverse change in the business, financial or trading position or prospects of the Thomas Cook Group.
POST DEAL DETAILS
MyTravel and KarstadtQuelle have established a new company, NewCo, which will effect the Merger by acquiring each of MyTravel and Thomas Cook (MyTravel by means of a scheme of arrangement). The Merger is to be effected pursuant to a Merger Agreement between MyTravel, KarstadtQuelle and NewCo. NewCo will be named Thomas Cook Group plc and listed and headquartered in London
It is expected that completion of the Merger will take place by Jun-07.
The proposed Board of the Enlarged Group will be drawn from the boards of MyTravel, Thomas Cook and KarstadtQuelle, supplemented by additional independent non-executive directors to be appointed by the Board as soon as practicable. The proposed Board will be chaired, as Non-Executive Chairman, by Thomas Middelhoff (currently CEO of KarstadtQuelle and Chairman of Thomas Cook), with Michael Beckett (currently chairman of MyTravel) being appointed as Non-Executive Deputy Chairman.
The boards of MyTravel and Thomas Cook believe that the annualised pre-tax cost benefits arising from a combination of the businesses will be at least GBP 75m per annum once the full benefits of the Merger are realised. It is expected that the full synergies will be realised within 24-30 months of Completion.
MyTravel and KarstadtQuelle anticipate that the Enlarged Group will be in a position to pay, post Completion, a dividend in respect of the year ending 31 October 2007.
CONDITIONS
The offer is conditional on:
My Travel EGM approval
Completion of the sale of Luthansa’s 50% stake in Thomas Cook by 30-Apr-07.
Court approval
EC approval

[Ranger1]

News Papers!

Well as far as I can tell it is a good move all round! Not sure how it will all play at the end of the day as far as job loses go.

I can't buy all the rubbish in the papers, several years ago according to them and a few pundits on here I would be working for someone else now! Well still here. According to the papers TCX was buying FC last week now it appears they did not even look at the books. MYT spent four or five weeks looking at the books and walked away. Now we are in a merger with TCX.

All I can say is the future is bright! Thank god we will get rid of that terrible name and color scheme!

I have no doubt FC will be fine and suspect another merger or take over will occur in the next year or so! Uncertain times for staff in TCX and MYT but it had to happen and is a far better option for both groups than buying part of FC.

As to this being a take over or merger I really dont think it matters but it is a merger as fars as I can see. TCX is not a listed company in the UK, both operations are being merged into the new company. The name is a good choice!

[iain8867]

HI Ranger

How can you say that, the apron won't look the same without the Blue and Orange Birds

Fingers crossed for minimal job losses tho' TCX Manny (Who ever) said that the new group would possibly be looking at new oportunities in Moscow and the like, so fingers crossed even more that there will be no fleet reductions

Just funny that MYT were all out to get rid of the Boeing and now look lol

[Ranger1]

iain8867

I think things have moved on since we wanted an all Airbus fleet. We are going much further these days and the Baby Bus does not do that as well as the Boeing. However, the 757 is getting very long in the tooth though still a fine aeroplane. My guess is long term one of the new generation 737's or the 787. Sadly at the moment they are hard to come by so I guess if Airbus gets its finger out it could be the A350. Either way I have the 757/767 on my licence and love flying vintage aeroplanes so happy whatever we fly.

[Down Three Greens]

A bit more clarity about the Merger

The merger will create a travel company with an annual revenue of £8bn, hopefully saving both groups a total of £75m a year. The new company, Thomas Cook Group, will be headquartered in the UK, trading shares in London using My Travel's current listing.

Instead of a reverse takeover by MyTravel, a new company was created that will buy both MyTravel and Thomas Cook, the former through a scheme of arrangement.

KarstadtQuelle, the German chain that owns Thomas Cook, will own 52 per cent of the new company. MyTravel shareholders will own the rest.

A precondition to the deal is that KarstadtQuelle buys the Thomas Cook shares that it does not already own from Lufthansa. On that transaction, which is currently awaiting EU antitrust clearance, Hengeler Mueller is advising Karstadt-Quelle and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is acting for Lufthansa.

MyTravel turned to a Slaughter and May team led by corporate partner William Underhill, competition partner Malcolm Nicholson and finance partner Roland Turnill. It is being advised by Credit Suisse and UBS.

[Thomas_Cook_757-300]

Manny Fontenla-Novoa gave an interview today and most notable statement was this:

Fontenla-Novoa also revealed that the merged group's airline name might be neither Thomas Cook or MyTravel. “It’s not a foregone conclusion that it will be one or the other. In Germany, all our planes are called Condor which is just an airline brand, but they have Thomas Cook on the tailfin,” he said.

Thomas_Cook_757-300

[iain8867]

Airline name

Hey I have a great idea about the airline name

How about we keep MYT and then in the Orange Oval underneath MYT we have Part of the Thomas Cook group

Can you tell which name I want to keep

[BYALPHAINDIA]

I could see it becoming 'Condor UK' or maybe 'Thomas Cook Condor'

I don't think the MYT title will stay, I don't think everyone liked the re-branding of Airtours?

Regards.

[RoyHudd]

The Most Important Aspect of the Merger

Why this obsession with possible names for the company? Surely jobs, t & c's, base closures, etc are the significant issues? Maybe its a form of denial. Or humour?

Oh well, it's an open forum, so keep on blathering on about funny airline names then............

[iain8867]

RoyHudd

I agree T&C, redundancies et al are important, but what, at this moment can we do about them until the merger is finalised? I hope the union's are woking on it!

A bit of banter about airlines names is fun, relieves the stress over wondering what is going to happen!! Until we get more official information.

[cpt hamna sheeda]

Thomas Cook UK

Because there is a lack off training capacity at Condor/Germany i will get my line training (B757) with TC-UK and will be stationed at Gatwick untill October. Can anyone tell me some things about culture and rostering etc.?

Thanks in advance

Paul

[goldeneye]

Thomas Cook & Air Transat Code-share

I was just looking at arrivals for YYZ and noticed that TCX and TS flights from Glasgow arrived at the same time, So did a bit of research and this has been filed with the Canadian DOT Link

So looks like TS flight numbers are going to be on all TCX flights to Canada.
Does not look like its going the other way around with TCX on TS flights, But maybe im wrong.

[iain8867]

Code Share

MYT and TCX are now able to operate as scheduled services with both code sharing with TS now

[GW76]

The TCX YYZ services have always operated as "scheduled" services.

[Psr777]

Thomas Cook (and Mytravel) have operated to Canada for a number of years for an independant tour operator called Canadian Affair. The flights TCX flew were TCX scheduled flights.
Last year, Canadian Affair was bought by Air Transat.
Just seems like a natural progression, Air Transat don't have enough seats in their fleet, so have continued with TCX and MYT to provide capacity. Interesting that MYT were not mentioned in the Code share. . . .

[iain8867]

"Interesting that MYT were not mentioned in the Code share. . . . "

MYT were named in the code share, we have a list of the codes including the TCX flights too, could be that we are upfront and acknowledge that TCX operate flights the same as we do

[Psr777]

Eh!
Clicking the link above does not provide any information about a code share with MYT. Did a bit of searching and yes, found it!
Nothing malicious in my post, thought it was interesting as MYT have as large a programme for Canadian Affair as TCX. That's all.
Not sure what you mean about being up front about stuff

[iain8867]

Sorry no offence intended with my last post, we were given a list about which flights were code share and who was operating them, so had a full list of TS, TCX and MYT