Course?
 

Has anyone actually started with Thomas Cook in recent weeks? I have been through the process but no course dates have even been mentioned?

I wouldn't be too surprised. Training dept. is maxxed out big time.

Agreed the public won’t base their travel choice on strike-unless it were safety-related which it wasn’t. But passengers DO choose to fly with a brand they recognise with an experienced U.K. regulated operation and pilots. Would they have chosen to fly with a small airline in a former-Soviet republic operating far from its regulator with a business model which hinges on high turnover of very low-paid pilots?

LoL, if the small ex-communist bloc airline was five quid cheaper, yeah, you can bet that the majority of TC's clientele would be off like a shot. Even if the planes were flown by well trained gibbons! It's a razor sharp cut throat market out there, and to be fair to TC's board, they know it well.

In which case why don’t they fly under their own branding so passengers can make an informed choice? I’ve nothing against Smartlynx as such, but holiday-makers are being conned that they are flying on a Thomas Cook aircraft

It is because your average holiday maker knows that an aeroplane flies from one point of the earth to another (see note 1). Above that he/she largely has little interest in the flight other than the cabin experience. Almost all TC ACMI aircraft are branded as TC, have TC in-flight product and TC Cabin Crew. They have bought a TC 'product' and they have received it. On the TC website, if a holiday/flight is being flown with a non MT flight number, it will say operated by xxx airlines. In fact they go further, in the bowels of the website there is even a page which describes who is operating the ACMI a/c. All the info is there, but few customers will go looking for it, but they will always look at the price.

Note 1. It is not uncommon for passengers not to actually know where on the planet they are actually bound for!

You are correct in your assessment of passenger apathy.

Passengers remain indifferent even when 100% of the pilots and flight attendants are outsourced and have no employment relationship the airline. Unions in the US are demanding this information be disclosed to passengers at ticket purchase. No US airline operates with 100% outsourced crews, ACMI replacements are seldom used.

That's good to hear, usual own goals. As much as I deplore the attempt to reduce t&c's within the group by inventing TCBals, I'd far rather fly on a jet that had at least some oversight and investment from the main airline group, than the aforesaid ACMI's, which I would not fly on by choice. TCBals will struggle in the current recruitment climate, but I suspect it is the shape of the group airline of the future.

If you look at US market, all regional operations are in fact outsourced to Skywest and alike, who operating hundreds(!) of aircraft on the contracts which are a mix of ACMI and charter nature. Skywest alone is 400+ aircraft, Europe is a far cry compared to that.

Word in the galley is that Indigo Partners are going to take us over. Whether they WOW us or not is another story.
The uncertainty is the worst part, and the company don't tell us anything! Not even reassuring us.

Far as i'm aware, the payments being withheld are bookings made via thomascook.com or other forms of package holiday.

Direct bookings for flights-only on thomascookairlines.com are not having payments withheld, thankfully.

Alot of the media reporting is borderline hysterical and not helpful. However the company need to be a bit more active in correcting this before it takes hold. Airline sale needs to happen sooner not later.

Latest gossip is, TC won't sell their airlines after all.
Apparently found other ways of controlling their dept.

Just gossip. Nothing more. The airlines will be sold.

I heard there was a conference yesterday. Any news?

Ten days to news, allegedly.

is there any inclination of what the news will be or positive/negative?

The airlines are wholly owned subsidiaries of Thomas Cook Group PLC. As such, they will all go if the PLC folds. They are assets owned by the PLC and would be used by administrators to pay back creditors.

I don't think that is likely though. Big changes will occur before the winter low season.

Takeover by Chinese, most probably.

From the "Motley Fool" (30th June2019)......

Over the 12 months to 31 March, Thomas Cook paid £122m in interest costs but only generated £30m of cash from operations. The firm’s latest balance sheet shows total liabilities of £6,371m and total assets of just £5,026m. This suggests that the firm may be insolvent. Without a refinancing deal, I don’t see how Thomas Cook can continue trading.

£ at its lowest since 2000, shrinking economy, less disposable income available.
I doubt things will improve when Boris moves into No.10.

Genuine best wishes to all crew.

I saw Thomas Cook Balearics is recruiting …. Different entity?

Nope, part of the same group.

It's not just Fosun - it's the banks and bond holders too (and despite losing a fortune investing in the equity, I think Fosun may find that the lenders have the whip hand, what with the equity being almost worthless).. and read the RNS carefully - Fosun will remain a minority holder of the airline side, and banks being risk averse, may well not want to take a punt on ops going forward. As for your statement that debt would be eliminated - not by a long chalk, I'm afraid - they are about 1.5b in a hole - this raises 750m and the statement that they need this to get through the winter is really not encouraging. With jet2 reporting excellent results yesterday, the failure of TCGs directors is all the more stark.

Sorry, but conspicuously, the RNS did NOT say the bond holders have agreed to this ("core" banks apparently are on board, and of course Fosun are, which makes this all look like very wishful thinking on Fosuns part). I see no indication that bond holders will accept any less than face value repayment, and given that they are one of the first in line to be paid through flogging assets in a liquidation, I'm afraid I give this Fosun plan less than a 50% chance of working. Fosun stand to lose their shirt, just like other shareholders, unless they pay off all debt and make an open offer to remaining shareholders (this being entirely possible, and also possible is that private discussions have brought bond holders on board with Fosuns plan, although if they have already, then I would have thought they would mention it). I also refer you to the statement "injection of £750 million of new money which would provide sufficient liquidity to trade over the Winter" - this is far from being just for investment purposes. But the really ominous thing is that they failed to get a sensible offer for the airline, despite claiming until now that there were multiple offers on the table.

Ok, full sentence The point remains, it is not, as jonty claims, a 750m "investment into the business" - predominantly it is just to keep the wheels turning over the winter (and the key word is "flexibility to invest" - which I read to mean, loan covenant headroom is improved, but that it would require more borrowing on top to do anything above just keeping the wolf from the door over the winter) It's the bond holders who account for the vast majority of the debt (about 1bn), so I really can't see why they'd trade it (and their rights to the assets) for some almost worthless equity - but id be happy to be proved wrong (usually am)! https://www.standard.co.uk/business/...box=1562950827
and FT - "Thomas Cook and Fosun will also need to convince the travel group’s bondholders. “The question is what Fosun will offer bondholders and the banks, and then what it will do with the business in future,” said one investor in the group’s bonds. “We also worry about the regulatory view from the three jurisdictions in UK, Germany and the Nordics, given the Chinese buyer,” they added". .https://www.ft.com/content/6f6d37d2-...c-ad1c6ab5efd1

Spent several wonderful years at TCX and constantly thinking about my former colleagues, but it's time to be honest about why it's not a viable choice for buyout. It's not just the current climate which abates other airline interest. It's more fundamental than that.

Being tied to the group to service holiday packages means the airline was never really free to seek out new ideas. Unfortunately, too late for that. Even if the group sells the airline and the airline becomes part of something new. What new thing is the airline ready to try in an already overcrowded market? It's a risky business with Jet2 making inroads on a daily basis.

The idea that the airline will continued to be used by the tour operator is also difficult to swallow. After any split, I can just see TC increasingly buying the vast majority of seats from the bin of the aviation industry (the Eastern European charter airline network) at probably half the cost.

There is nothing that I can see TCX or Condor can do to pivot their business right now.