TUI Travel PLC was a British leisure travel group headquartered in

Crawley Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a populat ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. The company was formed on 3 September 2007 by the merger of First Choice Holidays PLC and the Tourism Division of

TUI AG TUI AG ( trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known ...

, which owned 56.4% of it. The company operated in 180 countries and claimed 30 million customers."TUI and First Choice plan to merge amid competition in European travel"
The New York Times (19 March 2007) The company was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, and was a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

. TUI Travel merged with its German parent in 2014 to form the TUI Group.

History

TUI AG

The company was founded in 1923 in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of ...

as ''Preußische Bergwerks und Hütten-Aktiengesellschaft'' operating in the industrial sector. In 1959 it listed on the

Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (, former German name: , ''FWB'') is the world's 3rd oldest and 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Located in Frankfurt, ...

and in 1964 was renamed ''Preussag''. In 2000 it acquired

Thomson Travel Thomson Travel Group plc was a business formed by the Thomson Corporation of Canada, when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998. It was acquired by Preussag AG, an industrial and transport conglomerate, in 2000. The group continu ...

and in 2002 bought Hapag Lloyd, which itself owned the travel firm TUI (formerly ''Touristik Union International''), and renamed itself TUI AG. In June 2014 TUI AG and TUI Travel announced the two companies would be merged.

First Choice

The company was founded in 1973 as ''Owners Abroad'' operating as a

travel agent A travel agency is a private Retailing, retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related Service (economics), services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel supply chain, suppliers to offer different kin ...

. It first listed on the

in 1982. In 1987 it launched

Air 2000 First Choice Airways Limited (originally Air 2000 Limited) was a British charter airline of European tour operator TUI Travel plc, based in Crawley, England until its merger with Thomsonfly to form Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways) in 2008. It ...

and in 1990 acquired Redwing.

Merger

In March 2007, the merger of the travel division of TUI AG with First Choice was announced. The European Commission approved the merger on 4 June 2007, on the condition that the merged company sell Budget Travel in Ireland. The merged company, TUI Travel PLC, began operations in September 2007. TUI and First Choice's in-house airlines,

Thomsonfly Thomsonfly Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline. Thomsonfly was the first stage of TUI AG's plans to expand its business within TUI UK prior to September 2007. After TUI UK merged with First Choice Holidays in September 2007, it ...

and

First Choice Airways First Choice Airways Limited (originally Air 2000 Limited) was a British charter airline of European tour operator TUI Travel plc, based in Crawley, England until its merger with Thomsonfly to form Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways) in 2008. It ...

, were brought together under the former's

Air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial air transport purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and s ...

in May 2008, and the merged airline was rebranded as

Thomson Airways Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson ...

in November 2008. In October 2011 it was announced that under a two-year rebranding programme, the store estate would be rebranded as "Thomson featuring First Choice" to create a single travel agency brand; the First Choice branding and uniform will be phased out, and the First Choice name will be used for

all-inclusive An all-inclusive resort is a holiday resort that generally includes, in the price of booking a stay, lodging, unlimited food and drinks, entertainment, and other recreational activities. They are often located in warmer regions of the world, parti ...

package holidays sold by the combined network. The company confirmed in January 2013 that it had received a proposal from its parent to merge. In May 2013, the chief executive of TUI AG ruled out a merger with TUI Travel. In an about-face in June 2014 the two companies announced they had agreed terms on a merger. The merger was completed and TUI Travel was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange on 17 December 2014.

Selloffvacations.com

The online travel retailer was sold along with Signature Vacations to Sunwing Travel Group in 2009.

Operations

The Company was organised into three sectors: * Mainstream ** Central Europe ** Northern Europe ** Western Europe * Specialist and Activity

Airlines

In 2005 the names and liveries of the group airlines were changed to reflect the name of the group. The airlines were rebranded with the name best known in their local market or the name of the principal tour operator, Jet4you and

Britannia Airways Britannia Airways Limited was a charter airline based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1961 as Euravia (London) Limited and became the world's largest holiday airline. Britannia's main bases were at London Gatwick, London Stansted, Lo ...

names were changed. Jet4you acquired the suffix "-fly" whereas Britannia Airways had a complete name change, to reflect the tour operator that it was flying for therefore Britannia Airways became

. Following the merger of

and Thomsonfly, the new combined airline became

. Both airlines had their aircraft repainted in the light blue TUI colours with a red TUI logo on the tail. However, Corsairfly has been renamed Corsair International and has a new livery.

Airlines before merger

Former airlines

References

External links

Corporate website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tui Travel TUI Group Travel and holiday companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 2007 British companies disestablished in 2014 Hospitality companies established in 2007 Hospitality companies disestablished in 2014 Holding companies established in 2007 Holding companies disestablished in 2014 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies based in Crawley Airline holding companies Holding companies of the United Kingdom 2007 establishments in England 2014 disestablishments in England