According to French newspaper La Tribune Corsair International, the French holiday airline is up for sale, World’s largest leisure, travel and tourism company TUI group has assigned Rothschild investment bank to find a potential buyer. The airline was already for sale back in 2015.
Corsair employs 1,200 people and carries 1.2 million passengers per year with a fleet of seven aircraft: three Boeing 747 and four Airbus A330. Due to the low fuel prices the Boeing 747-400 -with a seat capacity of over 500 passengers- still remains extremely efficient on ASK, but the airline is facing fierce competition from new low-cost long-haul airlines French Blue and Norwegian.
Despite the competition, Corsair is still a strong brand in overseas territories with flights from Paris Orly to a variety of long-haul destinations across Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Recently easyJet added four new partner airlines to its ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ distribution service including Corsair.
A decision to renew the older Boeing 747-400 aircraft must be made in the next two years, as the jumbo’s are leaving the fleet by 2020-2021. TUI group doesn’t seem to commit in new and large investments into the French airline.
Source: TUI mandate la banque Rothschild pour vendre Corsair
© Philippe Noret (wikipedia)
