TUI Group to unify its five airlines

TUI Group is determined to take all possible measures to reduce costs as much as possible and the latest announced is the unification of its five airlines: TUI Airways (United Kingdom), TUI Fly (Germany), TUI Fly Belgium (Belgium), TUI Fly Netherlands (Netherlands) and TUI Fly Nordic (Scandinavia).

According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, in the future, the airlines will be managed by a joint management team. Although until now some flight operations were carried out in a coordinated manner between some of the group’s airlines (e.g. in Belgium and The Netherlands), each of them worked largely individually with their corresponding directors.

“In the course of the restructuring, we have adjusted the size of our fleet and will group the flight operations. We are well prepared for the time after the pandemic”, explained Marco Ciomperlik, Head of Airlines for the tourism giant.

Oliver Lackmann, currently general manager of TUI Fly, will lead the new unified board. He has already suggested that the air operator certificates (AOC) of each of the companies as well as the brands, which are already well recognised in their respective countries, will be preserved.

For example, there will only be one traffic control centre – in London-Luton (UK) – for the 140 aircraft that make up the group’s total fleet. Likewise, aircraft can also be assigned based on where they are most needed. These changes will not only cut costs but will reduce delays.

This restructuring has consequences in Belgium because the Zaventem operational control centre will move to Luton in England. There will be no firm dismissals, according to a spokesperson for TUI Belgium. Some of the 30 workers involved will move to Luton, whereas an internal solution will be found for the other ones.