Indigo Partners has entered into talks about the acquisition of airline units from Thomas Cook Group, Reuters has reported. Lufthansa Group has also previously expressed interest.
The British travel group is awaiting formal Expressions of Interest (EOI) by May 7, 2019.
Sources also indicated that both IAG International Airlines Group and easyJet (London Luton) have explored submitting EOIs, although they are less interested than Indigo Partners and Lufthansa.
It is unclear whether the two front-runners would bid for all airline units or just a part of this business. Bloomberg reported earlier that Lufthansa Group was focusing exclusively on the long-haul unit of Condor (DE, Frankfurt International).
Besides Condor, Thomas Cook also owns Thomas Cook Airlines UK (Manchester International), Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics (Palma de Mallorca), Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia (Copenhagen Kastrup), and Thomas Cook Aviation (Frankfurt International). The group has launched a preliminary call for EOIs for its airlines earlier this year after issuing a profit warning. It hopes to use the proceeds from the sale of the airlines, which are profitable, to repay its accumulated debts.
