Continued from page 48


from Gatwick by mid-December and will launch from Cardiff next April after delaying opening a base there this summer. All 14 UK-based aircraft will


operate this winter and the carrier is in the midst of a campaign to recruit 40 pilots and 200 cabin crew in the UK. Geoffroy noted “there is a pool


of pilots available” following a spate of redundancies during the pandemic, and insists Wizz Air will have a full complement of flight crew by December. But recruiting cabin crew is


more of a challenge. She said: “There are one million vacancies in the UK. We’re competing against the entire job market [and] it’s difficult to convince people to apply to join an industry that has suffered so much.” However, despite Covid


restrictions, recruitment issues and Brexit, Wizz Air’s ambition to grow in the UK remains. Geoffroy insisted: “Leisure


travel is coming back [and] corporate travel will come back. It’s taking time because of the bureaucracy at the moment – it takes 30 minutes to fill out a form and you have to queue three times before you board. But business travellers want to meet. They want to travel.” The one impediment is the


availability of slots at Gatwick where expansion is constrained by the suspension of the normal ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ slot rules. Geoffroy said: “We would


like to grow at Gatwick, but we’re constrained. You can get access to certain slots, but there is no certainty you can retain them. “We need slots, but we also


need to be convinced we can build a sustainable operation around the slots we have.”


Tata Group to buy lossmaking Air India for $2.4bn


The Indian government has agreed the sale of flag-carrier Air India to the Mumbai-based multinational Tata Group in a $2.4 billion deal. The loss-making carrier will


change hands for $368 million, with Tata taking on $2 billion of Air India’s $8.2 billion debt. The government will hold the remaining debts.


The sale is due to be completed


by the end of the year following a lengthy privatisation process, with the previous attempt at a sale in 2018 failing to attract a bidder as the government sought to retain a 26% stake. Air India is reported to be losing


$2.6 million a day and to have cost the government more than $14 billion since 2009. Air India has a fleet of 141 aircraft


and 13,500 employees, who have been promised a year’s job security. The carrier was originally


established by Tata in the 1930s and


named Tata Airlines before being nationalised in 1953. It enjoyed a domestic monopoly until 1991 but today carries less than 12% of India’s domestic passenger traffic.


Tui aims to reduce debt with €1.1bn shares sale


Ian Taylor


Tui aims to raise almost €1.1 billion this month to pay down debt incurred during the Covid crisis by issuing shares to existing stakeholders. The group announced the share


issue last week offering 10 shares for every 21 held, meaning a write-down of about a third on the current value with the shares priced at a 35% discount. Tui’s largest shareholder, Unifirm


– the investment vehicle of Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov – has agreed to buy 32% of the shares, in line with its existing stake, and the remainder are underwritten by a syndicate of major banks. The proceeds will pay off the


€375 million Tui drew from the German state investment fund KfW, reducing the debt to zero, and the remaining €724.5 million will pay off almost half of a €1,486.5 million credit facility, leaving Tui with a debt of €762 million.


46 14 OCTOBER 2021 Fritz Joussen Chief executive Fritz Joussen said:


“The offering will enable us to take a significant step forward, increasing our ability to take advantage of the opportunities resulting from the easing of restrictions. It will provide a capital structure more appropriate for more normal operating conditions.” Announcing the share issue, Tui


reported group bookings for this summer had reached 5.2 million, with 2.6 million taking holidays in July and August – double the number in 2020. Joussen reported “strong


improving trends over recent weeks with bookings in Germany and the Netherlands well ahead of summer 2019 levels”. However, UK bookings remained “subdued” although UK winter bookings were trading “strongly” since the government eased restrictions last month. Tui reported it operated 42%


of capacity in July and 48% in August and revealed: “Peak summer bookings (July to October) are currently 49% of 2019 levels with an average selling price [ASP] up 2%.” That left overall summer


bookings down 63% on 2019, but with the ASP up 5% on two years ago. The group reported winter 2021-


22 bookings at “54% of 2018-19 levels and the ASP up 14%”. It also reported “a pipeline of


1.6 million bookings” for summer 2022, noting: “Overall, summer 2022 booking are up 54% and the ASP is up 15% versus summer 2019 [and] we believe summer 2022 volumes will recover close to summer 2019.”


travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Phil Gammon


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48