Travel companies: Thomas Cook has lost the duel against TUI

It is the nightmare of any vacationer: The package holiday was weeks or months previously booked with an organizer and paid. Nevertheless, the hotelier wants to see additional money on departure, holds the guest and wants to let him go only after he has drawn his credit card and paid an additional amount.

The story is not a robber gun. Tourists in a beach hotel in the Tunisian seaside resort Hammamet near Tunis happened just this past weekend. They had booked with the British travel group Thomas Cook, who had to file for bankruptcy on the night of Monday.

What is currently happening around the tour operator founded 178 years ago by a Baptist preacher is a drama - not just for the 600,000 tourists around the world, who now have to worry about whether, when and how they are coming home, but also for the company even.

Thomas Cook is also strongly represented in Germany - with suppliers such as Neckermann or Bucher, but also with the charter flight Condor. These companies are not bankrupt yet. That's why Condor, unlike its sister companies in the UK, flies for the time being.

What TUI did better

The decline of Thomas Cook was foreseeable. For many years, the company had been competing with the German TUI Group for leadership in the holiday business. Who has the better offers? Who dares the bolder acquisitions? Who has the more professional top staff?

Since this Monday, the duel can be considered as decided, probably for a long time - and in favor of the TUI Group from Hanover. His boss Fritz Joussen may seem a bit gnarly at times, but at TUI, the former Vodafone manager has done almost everything right as a newcomer. The Group has around 400 of its own hotels and a 50 percent stake in the Spanish RIU chain.

DPA

TUI-Fly-Flugzeug (archive picture): The better strategy

The competitor Thomas Cook was missing for such a thing the money, he had 2012 already scarcely missed the bankruptcy. The debt from the then made refinancing hard - and obstructed the necessary reorganization of the company.

The classic tour operator business - the combination of package holiday, flight, hotel and catering - was the mainstay of both companies for a long time. However, this business has been crumbling for years: vacationers are now putting their trips together on the Internet, and new providers such as Airbnb have taken a good deal of the business away.

Joussen and his TUI managers responded early to these trends by transforming their IT systems, developing their own brands and hotels, and banking on booming cruise business. In the case of Thomas Cook, all this happened only hesitantly - and this hesitation now takes its revenge.

While TUI has already explored what role the crypto-currency Bitcoin could play in a future business model, Thomas Cook preferred to buy travel agencies, which soon had to close due to a lack of customers.

Condor as a filet piece

As a whole, Thomas Cook is unlikely to survive, presumably the bankruptcy trustee in the UK will try to resell the items to the highest bidder. And especially the German subsidiary Condor should play an important role.

In contrast to the other airlines in the Group, the airline has a sizeable single-seat business - and, according to a senior manager, should again generate a sizeable profit in the current year.

But that alone will not be enough. Because many suppliers now demand advance payment and Condor wants to be prepared for future demand losses, the airline has applied to the federal government for a bridging loan of up to 200 million euros - but the permit will take time.

Condor boss Ralf Teckentrup needs the money, because he wants to prevent a sale necessarily - Condor, so the idea of ​​management, should remain independent in any case. In the past few months, insiders report, the managers have taken precautionary measures to keep as much money as possible.

The emergency they feared has now come. Now the fate of the company depends on the decision of the Federal Government.