Thomas cook for sale?
 

Rumour or news?

Heard on the grape vine that Thomas cook is up for sale? Anyone know more?

BB :confused:

These rumours have been circling about within the company for months, as is a managment buy out of TC UK. But it is always denied if asked about. I doubt TUI will be able to buy TC outright as this would have to be refered to the EC and i doubt they would allow it. I recall that there was talk of us merging with the Kuoni group, but i cant see that happening.

If this happens, there will be another bunch of pilots shafted, either by the new management or by their own Balpa colleagues. Either way you're in the horsemanure. It just never ends.

another morsel for the Avion group to snip up:E

rumour that i heard was that First Choice were looking to buy Thomas Cook.

Whilst I have heard of this rumour it seems to exist within TC itself, it's not something that is being talked of in our crew rooms.

FC makes it profits equally from main stream and specialist companies. More and more preference is being given to acquiring the smaller niche market operators. I can't see what FC would hope to gain by trying to increase market share in the main stream sector which traditionally performs financially badly in comparison to the niche markets.

Allied to that is the fact that if MyTravel were turned down in their application to take us over, then I doubt that FC would get permission to take TC over. It seems that four players in the holiday market is the preferred number by the government.

Still, I suppose it depends on the mood of the day, and with MYT now turning the corner financially it could be possible, who knows.

BB

Yes TC is for sale, not right now, but within the next few month. They have a new CEO who will prepare TC for the sale.
Lufthansa and Karstadt want to sell their part as soon as an investor is found.

Thomas Cook for sale!!
 

Heard from one of our Training Captains, whose fingers appear to be in many pies, that the Thomas Cook Human Resources Dept had been told to investigate the machinations of a possible Pilot Seniority merger with First Choice's... mmm

Replace those old knackered 757s with some exotica, namely those 787s.

Personally cant see anything with First Choice, as TC and FC do not have a good relationship now, and have not had for quite a few years now.

It might be interesting to see how the pilots who left Air 2 to start up JMC, stand when their seniority is compared to those they left behind on the FC list.

First Choice won't buy us. It doesn't fit their model of work.

TUI won't buy us, because irrespective of what TUI employees may think, you are losing lots of money right now and have none to invest.

I think we will have a management buy out of the UK businesses and that will make us much more capable of making any decisions for ourselves.....

There are many more options than one of our competitors buying us, believe me.