tom911

I recall an article a few months back that Lufthansa had expressed an interest in purchasing Condor. Will be interesting if the German government and LH work out something in that regards. Hard to find any articles mentioning Thomas Cook that expand on the Condor relationship, aside from the one you posted.

sfozrhfco

The parent company is in liquidation. The only way they survive is if the German government props them up now. It would be like the Alaska Airline group went bust and the article didn’t specifically mention Horizon. They could very well be gone by morning. Air Berlin was a waste of money and pumping money into Condor likely will be too.

notquiteaff

I know, you have been saying that for months.

Still, Condor is not done as of this evening (morning EU). They may be done soon, but that is all speculation. Since there are people (including me) with DE tickets watching the situation, I think we should aim to not spread false information. TC is done, Condor is operating. That is the current situation.

Air Berlin’s loan was repaid to the government (I pointed you to a recent story about it), so the “waste of money” claim seems dubious as well.

rustykettel

440,000 non-Brits on holiday that aren't part of the UK rescue effort. I wonder what the number of non-package stranded pax is and how much Condor would add to that.

shuckit

I'm scheduled on Condor FRA-YVR this Sunday and I bought a refundable backup ticket just in case.

wrp96

The article from BBC specifically mentioned that TC subsidiaries, like Condor, that are based outside the UK aren’t covered by the UK liquidation, but are still at risk and will have to find their own funding. So Condor is still operating but who knows for how long.

sfozrhfco

They estimate that 30% of Condor’s passengers are booked directly through other Thomas Cook agencies and affiliates. They will only allow those passengers who are on their return leg to board. Outbound passengers who booked through these channels had their tickets voided and won’t be allowed to travel as their hotel and other parts booked as a package were voided as well. Losing 30% of you passenger base and having “A Thomas Cook Company” prominently displayed on their website are two strikes against them already. They will also lose access to any joint marketing, IT, aircraft maintenance, and other shared services. Thus the deck is stacked against them at this point going into the winter season. They will need a very large loan to make up for all the money they will lose in the coming months.

Seattlenerd

According to a New York Times article about the Thomas Cook failure generally, Condor appears to have stopped flying:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/world/europe/thomas-cook-collapse.html

A key quote: " An estimated 600,000 people were believed to be stranded around the world, including around 140,000 Germans. Condor, an airline that is a subsidiary of Thomas Cook, said it was seeking financial help from the German government to keep its planes in the air."

The article goes on to say that Condor claims to have been profitable, and it hopes for a loan from the German government to fly back German travelers.

No mention of any cessation of Condor flights or booking on Alaska Airlines' own site this morning (even though the warnings about booking issues through its portal for two other airlines remains prominent).

Seattlenerd

Alaska Airlines' official response to a question posed on Twitter a few minutes ago about the failure of Thomas Cook and when/whether it plans to provide advice to passengers who have booked partner award and paid flights on Condor though AS:

Seattlenerd

Condor responded a few minutes ago on Twitter that it is still flying:

jiburi

This one is an oddity, but not surprising knowing DE has had other interested parties. If they did indeed have loan from German government and knowing there were interested parties of DE fire sale (LH included), keeping this asset intact would be ideal for all parties.

Am hoping Condor survive this.....

Jiburi

PS- I wish Chester would Germanize. :-P

kileysmom

Fingers crossed for the survival of Condor and hoping new management won't kill off the agreement with AS.

WillTravel4Food

Saw this today regarding ownership percentages of the various TC-owned airlines. This is a summary of fleet and ownership from Yahoo News. The good thing I took away from this is that TC owned 49.996% of Condor, which is probably due to a regulatory limitation on ownership for a German registered airline. We have this kind of limit in the U.S. I'm feeling a little more positive about Condor surviving the TC collapse. I'm not sure if that percentage is sufficient to consider them to be controlled by the TC Group, or not. I also wonder what the rules are for selling off the Condor shares owned by the TC Group. With that many shares, TC surely had a set number of seats on the Board of Directors. Who do those directors "report" to now that the TC Group BoD no longer exists? All very interesting. Either way, the Condor BoD had the authority to request the loan from the German government, so they must have some degree of autonomy. It will also be interesting to see how they dissolve the relationships with TC shared services (e.g., Admin, IT, HR, Aircraft Maintenance) and maintain their Air Operators Certificate (AOC).

But most important to this thread, who was the driving force behind establishing the AS partnership? I would surmise it was the Condor management team. They would realize greater value from the relationship than TC. The agreement expands the DE reach into US west coast markets, which the package holiday scheme run by TC didn't really need. So on the surface I would expect the AS/DE partnership to continue as long as DE can continue operations. Their viability as a stand-alone entity will depend on how messy it becomes disentangling their business model from the TC Group.

Often1

On tickets originating or terminating in the US, US law provides that the baggage allowance (not waivers for status, credit cards, and whatever else) of the marketing carrier of the first segment, applies to all segments of the ticket.

jiburi

Condor is still flying, and some part of the websites no longer shows "part of the Thomas Cook Travel". Not surprising.

I have used Mileage Plan miles to booking DE prior to Thomas Cook Bankrukptcy for Thanksgivings 2019. It will be interested to see how my booking will be honored if at all. No stress as AS is likely my insurance.

Jiburi