After bankruptcy proceedings and downsizing: The battered holiday plane Condor is taken over by the Polish airline LOT. LOT outdid several financial investors in the bidding race.
The holiday airline Condor has a new owner: According to information from negotiation circles, the Polish company LOT has been awarded the contract.
Since the bankruptcy of its British parent company Thomas Cook, Condor has been going through a special insolvency procedure for companies with good prospects of continued existence. In addition to LOT, the final round of the bidding process included Apollo from the USA and Greybull from Great Britain.
The Polish airline LOT
LOT is in the Star Alliance with Lufthansa Group affiliated. The company saw a strong increase in passenger numbers in 2019 for the fourth time in a row. The airline carried more than ten million passengers in 2019, 1.3 million more than in the previous year. According to its own statements, the company is profitable – however, exact figures have not been given. LOT currently operates a fleet of 80 machines. The Condor comes with almost 60 jets.
The Polish company plans to double the number of passengers carried to 20 million a year by 2024, CEO Rafal Milczarski said earlier this week. In 2015, the airline had carried 4.4 million passengers with only 37 aircraft.
Condor and LOT should appear separately from each other
The airline Condor should continue to fly under its brand after the sale to the Polish airline. “The Condor brand remains as it is,” said Condor CEO Ralf Teckentrup. Both brands are strong and will appear separately, LO saidT CEO Rafal Milczarski. Teckentrup should remain at the top at Condor. Condor will “continue to be managed under its current management,” it said.
The German holiday airline Condor and its approximately 4,900 employees were only able to continue working after the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook at the end of September 2019 with the help of a state loan limited to six months for over 380 million euros. The federal government and the state of Hesse supported Condor because the company had run into difficulties through no fault of its own and had good prospects of continued existence.
The federal government should, however, get back its state aid for Condor. The investment by LOT will enable Condor to “fully repay the loan received from the state development bank KfW,” said the holiday airline. The loan will be repaid in April, Teckentrup said.
Insolvency proceedings and downsizing of Condor
The competitor of Lufthansa and TUI fly has mostly been in the black in recent years, but has a high investment requirement due to its relatively old aircraft fleet. Condor boss Ralf Teckentrup is therefore aiming for an operating return on sales of eight percent. In the past financial year, the airline generated a pre-tax profit of EUR 57 million on sales of EUR 1.7 billion. That corresponds to a return of 3.4 percent.
The company used the bankruptcy process to cut staff and renegotiate contracts to reduce costs. According to agreements with the unions UFO and Verdi, more than 300 jobs are to be cut – 150 in the cabin and 170 in the administration. No jobs will be cut for pilots, but they will have to make concessions on payment.
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