Since the airline is only operating IT for Thomas Cook, how is it keeping the company afloat?

Virgin. TCX are a thorn in their Manchester operations.

It operates long-haul scheduled services, flight-only sales on short-haul flights and charter flights for other clients too. There's a lot more to it than IT flights for Thomas Cook group. As for it keeping everything afloat, well i couldn't comment on that, but they've certainly not been doing bad.

As mentioned by others the airline(s) is/are profitable but not highly so. This means that their profit alone isn't enough for TC to pay its current debts and fund additional capital investment. The issue with selling the airline is that to be worth more to someone else it will either take efficiencies on the ops side or revenue enhancements. TC are currently stipulating a lot of future seat availability on specific routes and probably at specific prices. This significantly reduces the NPV of the airline to potential suitors. As for the purchase of new aircraft. This should be no problem for the airline itself, it would be the overall group's finances that would be the issue.

I believe only 55% of the airline capacity is now from the tour operator in the UK. And its even less in Germany with Condor. So whilst its still just over half of its UK capacity being filled by the tour operator, the airline is generating plenty of business themselves. Times have certainly changed between the airline and tour operator, they no longer solely rely on each other as they once did.

Lufthansa will only be interested in the Condor long haul slots rather than the aircraft themselves. If a sale of Condor does occur. I'd expect the 767's to be turned into Freighters.

I'd say we'd most likely see the same Thomas Cook / Condor brands and operation continuing as we do today? Obviously some efficiencies would be able to be made as well as the option for more interlining and connecting flight possibilities. Longhaul flights in Germany outside of the leisure ops would probably be suited under the Eurowings brand, retaining Condor once again primarily for the IT and leisure market.

Classic Pprune at work here, 'Strategic Review' gets translated by all the armchair experts into a 'sale'; 'they're making a loss' and all sorts of other made up nonsense presented as fact.
TCX is a profitable airline. Proves what I have thought for a while....that the majority of posters on Pprune don't know what they're talking about It's not about rumours any more - just guesswork, speculation and idle gossip

Well the name is well regarded by some Germans for somewhat dubious Germanic historical reasons - the airline product however is crap. Having recently flown long haul with them ex FRA on a 767 and having experienced TCX A330s - you would go for the latter every time

To be fair, the business pages of today's Times discusses Thomas Cook and references the sale of the airline in two seperate articles.

FFMAN...

Hardly & with this week the Thomas Cook CEO noting the airline division has "great" airport slots inc FRA/MUC/MAN & LGW that has more the appearance of a beauty parade.

He also stated they are considering all options when it comes to divestment of individual airline units but could not divulge any more.

So hardly speculation on here...Other worthies reporting the "news" includes The Daily Mail...Daily Star...Mirror... & Reuters.

Actual stats for Thomas Cook last year are elsewhere recorded as operating profit increased to £129m based on revenue of £3.5b & more than 20m pax carried in 2018.

My money is on Newmarket. They do lots of day trips to cities around Europe from many UK airports.

Not uncommon to see Thomas Cook or Jet2 operating charters to KRK during the winter season.

Krakow
 

Often in Feb and March day trips are older school children on awareness/history trips to the concentration camps and I have been told that these are often part-funded by Jewish charities.

Pete

Thomas Cook enlisting the help of Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley & Bank of America Merrill Lynch to explore the sale of its airline business according to Reuters.