TUI to buy 19.9% Air Berlin stake
THOMSON Holidays owner TUI Travel, Europe’s biggest travel company, is to take a 19.9 per cent stake in German airline Air Berlin.
The package tour operator is to pay E28.5million (£26.5million) as part of a cross-shareholding deal. Air Berlin will get the same stake in TUI’s German carrier TUIfly, expanding its routes in Stuttgart and Italy.
TUI chief Peter Long said the agreement “optimises its tour operator programme in Germany and minimises the disruption to colleagues within TUIfly”.
The deal aims to reduce TUI’s running costs and lower the number of flights to European destinations.