First Choice (travel firm)
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | : |
| Industry | Transport |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Defunct | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Crawley, England, UK |
|
Key people
|
Friedrich Joussen (Chairman) Sir Michael Hodgkinson (Deputy Chairman) Peter Long (Chief Executive) |
| Products | Passenger transport, travel agency, accommodation |
| Revenue | £15,051 million (2013) |
| £297 million (2013) | |
| £63 million (2013) | |
| Owner | TUI AG (56.4%) |
|
Number of employees
|
54,000 (2012) |
| Subsidiaries |
Thomson Airways Thomson Holidays |
| Website | www |
TUI Travel PLC was a British leisure travel group headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex. The company was formed on 3 September 2007 by the merger of First Choice Holidays PLC and the Tourism Division of TUI AG, which owned 56.4%. The company operated in 180 countries and claimed 30 million customers.
The company was listed on the , and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. TUI Travel merged with its German parent in 2014 to form the TUI Group.
The company was founded in 1923 in Berlin, Germany as Preußische Bergwerks und Hütten-Aktiengesellschaft operating in the industrial sector. In 1959 it listed on the and in 1964 was renamed Preussag. In 2000 it acquired Thomson Travel and in 2002 bought Hapag Lloyd, which itself owned the travel firm TUI (formerly Touristik Union International), and renamed itself TUI AG. In June 2014 TUI AG and TUI Travel announced the two companies would be merged.
The company was founded in 1973 as Owners Abroad operating as a travel agent. It first listed on the in 1982. In 1987 it launched Air 2000 and in 1990 acquired Redwing. It changed its name to First Choice in 1994.
In July 2005, First Choice Holidays purchased the Europe Express group of companies consisting of multi-channel distribution companies including: go-today.com for direct to consumer vacation packages, E.E.I. Travel and Brian Moore International Tours (BMIT) with travel agent distribution, Travel Services Europe (TSE), the contracting division for hotels and travel services throughout Europe.
In March 2007, the merger of the travel division of TUI AG with First Choice was announced. The European Commission approved the merger on 4 June 2007, on the condition that the merged company sell Budget Travel in Ireland. The merged company, TUI Travel PLC, began operations in September 2007.
TUI and First Choice's in-house airlines, Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways, were brought together under the former's Air operator's certificate in May 2008, and the merged airline was rebranded as Thomson Airways in November 2008.
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Wikipedia