Fiftyfour and westie, well done!
You win the award for the most wrong statement of the year.

MyTRAVEL has no debts whatsover, zilch, nada, nothing!
unlike may I add several other big tour operators.

and SKY9 you get the silver medal.

The MyTravel group did make a profit!

The North American arm made money, the Scandy arm make a shed loads of profit and the UK arm made a small loss (well on track to make the forecasted profit by 2007). Overall a net profit.

MyTravel went through the s**t a few years ago, it has come out of it incredibly strong. The airline and engineering side have done especially well. Look at the stats on OTP and you'll see MYT no1. MYT engineering makes a huge profit due to its third party servicing.
Certain other tour operators probably would have gone through the same hell (and may well still do) if they had reported to the FTSE.
Consolodation is the only option, and as MYT and FC seem to be the strongest financially............a merger makes strong business sense.

Here is what it says on the First Choice PLC website....

"Following recent press speculation regarding its Mainstream business, the Board of First Choice Holidays PLC confirms that it has been reviewing how it might continue to maximise the potential of this market leading tour operating business. It is considering a range of alternatives in this market and discussions with a number of parties are at a preliminary stage. However, there can be no certainty that any transaction will be forthcoming.


Further announcements will be made as appropriate."

So, should the First Choice workforce be concerned????

BB:hmm:

Na... surely the pink splodge and the red will clash?

I think you will find the new name is

MY-SKY-FIRST-TRAVEL-THOMAS-CHOICE-SERVICE-COOK

:rolleyes:

Again?
 

Hasn't this happened before though? Didnt MYT make a bid for Part/all of First Choice some years ago that was blocked my merging legislation (of some sort)? And didnt First Choice then try to buy MYT after that, and that particular deal fell through?

Seems its MYT's turn to 'have another go'. Wonder if anything will actually happen.......

I think some consolidation of the charter industry is inevitable.The German owned Companies are not answerable to the FTSE so as previously stated need not declare any difficulties and are not as transparent.I think this makes a deal between the two UK operators more likely.The previous deal was blocked by the EU but was later overturned.

I think it is only the tour operator that has been mentioned as being involved in talks,not the FCA airline.

Yes but the tour operators 'mainstream product' contains amongst other things, First Choice Airways. Presumably any major deal would involve the airline too.

Who knows?

I would presume nothing. I think the "mainstream product" as you put it refers to the mass market tour operators as opposed to the specialist and adventure holidays that FC have so successfully differentiated themselves in.I think this means synergies,cost savings and job losses somewhere.

I can assure you that any purchase of FC mainstream holidays would also include, or at least affect the airline. We are after all only a branch of mainstream holidays.

The only question that remains is whether the deal would include the 767 long haul operation. The European operation has been the weakest link in our profits for years. To bin that to MyTravel and leave them to play in the sun, sex and sangria market makes sense. It just remains to be seen if Peter Long will sell the long haul operation and free himself from marketing all inclusive packages together.

It would seem a dumb move if he does, as it is at present the market leader that is giving the other tour operators and a few scheduled carriers a pain in their bank balances.

Still, whatever happens one thing is for sure. If you're a junior pilot on the Airbus of either MYT or FCA you should seriously consider planning your leap to safety once the iceberg is in site!!

Good luck to all on both sides.

:uhoh: :sad:

Alberts Growbag - Thats the point I was trying to make.

Lets not forget though, that this deal has been attempted already twice and a recent FC merger with Kuoni (i think), has just fallen through. Not sure it will be as easy as all that.

However, from a business point of view, it does seem to make some commercial sense.

Doubt it will do me any good though. Who knows.

I am not surprised given the over capacity in the market but this is nothing new. What will happen to First Choice's 787 order??

787
 

A sale of these has been a rumour for some months now. Bloody well hope not though!! This will be an interesting one to watch:eek:

Well said Duff Beer - A post with a number of up-to-date facts about MYT as it is today...not dwelling on the dark days of three years ago.

I am sure both FC and MYT pilots are equally in the dark about the happenings at board level (apart from the usual company press releases that they probably get now and again). Its all speculation at the moment but I think all of us have heard the rumours about consolidation in the charter market over the last 12months, so I guess it's not that unexpected.

What about Thomas Cook who have been sniffing around?

Thomas Cook
 

Thomas Cook I believe were also sniffing around. That was last months rumour. Nothing has arisen from it....yet.

As far as both My ravel and First Choice press releases are concerned, there are a number of 'interested parties' that First Choice are talking to regarding all this merger/takeover/buyout stuff. Who knows whether it will actually happen though, and in what form it will/may happen. It could turn out to be positive news for some and unlucky for others.

I wonder if FCA would cease to exist under one of these plans and become MyTravel Airways - which in turn would be a pretty large European Holiday Airline. Or perhaps the other way round, since probably, FCA is doing better than MyTravel, atleast in the long haul department.

Perhaps also (lots and lots of speculation here) that all this FCA longhaul success was just an exercise to make the airline more appealing to any potential buyer, and with the B787 order round the corner, and delivery dates associated with them, just maybe all of that was designed with a future sale in mind......

Of course all of the above is totally speculative......what do i know??? With any luck its just rumour, and this speculation will go the same way as the Thomas Cook, Kuoni, and the other two previous (failed) MyTravel bids.

Seem to recall a strangely worded statement by First Choice about 2 years ago along the lines that their long term business objective was to 'align more closely with long haul leisure destinations rather than the vulnerable short haul inclusive tour market'.

So a merger (or exchange of business interests) with MyTravel may well be a move in that direction and maybe makes some sense. First Choice, with their new fleet of B787's specialising solely in long haul, whilst MyTravel concentrates on a vastly reduced-over-capacity short to medium haul charter market.

Just speculation though.

Why?
 

Alberts Growbag....no problem with your posting, but exactly why should "junior" Airbus pilots in MYT and FCA be worried? Please clarify. (Are you suggesting a decline in possible combined fleet?)

Duff beer,

You say I am wrong in my statement that My Travel have massive debts. The Mail yesterday quotes them as coming close to extinction with massive debts in 2003 of 1.2 billion and losses of 900 million. Where's this all gone then? Did Abramovic dip into his pocket?

Westie, they did a debt for equity swap. Most of the 900 million was write downs. The shareholders were all but wiped out and left with 4% of the new company. The value of shares may go down as well as up.......and all that. The new company is pretty much debt free and probably stronger than many of its competitors. It is now very lean and from where I see things, much more efficient.:ok:

No Westie, the banks did a debt for equity swap. i.e. the banks got 96% of the shares (and all the exisiting holders got 4% divided up between them....) and in return the banks wrote off the debt....gone, zip, zero. Pretty good going on the part of the MYT board and now could pay off for the banks to.

So the billions of debt is gone. Fact.

I'm ex MYT and remember the "dark days" well - it was not a pleasant couple of years. I think consolidation is inevitable but unfortunately "synergies and economies of scale" = redundancies. If it all comes together I wish all involved good luck.

A4