Condor Flugdienst

## What is Condor Flugdienst?

**Condor**, legally incorporated as *Condor Flugdienst (Also known as **Condor Airlines**),* is a German leisure airline based in Frankfurt and a subsidiary of the insolvent and now defunct Thomas Cook Airlines Group. It operates scheduled flights to leisure destinations in the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Its main base is at Frankfurt Airport with further smaller bases at other German airports. Despite its parent company Thomas Cook Group filing for insolvency, the airline continues to operate after securing a loan from the German government

## Early days...

The company was founded on 21 December 1955 as **Deutsche Flugdienst GmbH**, its ownership being split between Norddeutscher Lloyd (27.75%), Hamburg America Line (27.75%), Deutsche Lufthansa (26%), and Deutsche Bundesbahn (18.5%). The initial fleet of three 36-passenger Vickers VC.1 Viking aircraft was based at Frankfurt Airport, the Lufthansa hub. Lufthansa bought out the other shareholdings in 1960.

In 1961, Deutsche Flugdienst took over its rival Condor-Luftreederei (which had been founded in 1957 by Oetker), subsequently changing its name to **Condor Flugdienst GmbH**, thus introducing the "Condor" name with Lufthansa

## LOT Polish Airlines Acquisition

On 24 January 2020 Condor announced that PGL Polish Aviation Group would be buying Condor and the deal is expected to close in April 2020 once antitrust approvals are obtained. With this deal, PGL will repay the bridge loan from Germany in full. However going forward Condor will continue to operate under their current brand and management. on 2 April 2020 it was announced that the sale to LOT Polish Airlines had fallen through.

## More information

- In December 2010, Thomas Cook Group chose the Airbus A320 family as preferred short-medium haul aircraft type for its airlines, with a review concerning the longhaul aircraft scheduled for 2011

- On 4 February 2013, the Thomas Cook Group announced that Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium, and Condor would be merged into a single operating segment of the Thomas Cook Group, Thomas Cook Group Airlines. On October 1, 2013, the Thomas Cook Group began presenting itself under the new unified brand symbol. The aircraft of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines also had the new logo: the Sunny Heart added to their tails and were re-painted in the new corporate color scheme grey, white, and yellow. On the aircraft, the Sunny Heart on the tail is meant to symbolize the unification of airline brands and tour operators within the entire Thomas Cook Group.

- In early 2017 Condor's CEO Ralf Teckentrup introduced a plan to cut operating costs by € 40 million, because of the € 14 million operating cost loss and the € 1.4 billion revenue drop.The passenger numbers also dropped by 6 %. Condor had also planned new routes to the United States which were: San Diego (now terminated), New Orleans, and Pittsburgh – all flights were and are operated by the boeing 767-300ER.

- On 25 September 2019, Condor secured additional credit facilities of € 380 million to keep flying notwithstanding the collapse of Thomas Cook Group. On the same day, a Frankfurt court authorised investor protection measures to allow Condor to be restructured.