Intro Aviation acquires majority shareholding in Corsair from TUI

TUI sells loss-making French airline subsidiary Corsair International to the German airline investor Intro Aviation. The deal has been planned for a long time. The German company pursues big goals with the long-haul airline.

Travel company TUI has found a buyer for its French airline Corsair. The German investment company Intro Aviation takes over, in a first step, a 53 percent stake in the company, said TUI. Under the agreement, TUI will initially keep a 27 percent stake in Corsair as part of the sale. The Corsair employees benefit trust fund retains 20 percent.

According to TUI CEO Fritz Joussen, Corsair does not fit within the Group, as it can hardly achieve synergies with the other TUI business units – not even with the other TUI holiday airlines. Corsair is a French long-haul airline that has been part of the TUI Group since the beginning of the millennium.

It has been known for some time that Intro Aviation wanted to take over the airline.

The airline currently operates seven jets, three Boeing 747s and two each A330-300s and A330-200s. In early December, French newspaper “La Tribune” reported that Intro would double its fleet after the purchase of the airline and in the future would like to fly exclusively with Airbus A330neo aircraft.

Corsair has been part of the world’s largest travel group TUI for years, but was never included in the TUI Aviation group airline group and still has its own brand image.