Thomas Cook AG

Thomas Cook AG

Former type	Public
Industry	Transport (Package Holiday Group)
Fate	Merged with MyTravel Group
Successor	Thomas Cook Group plc
Founded	2002 (as Thomas Cook) Origins: 1997 (C&N Touristic AG) 1841 (Thomas Cook & Son)
Defunct	12 February 2007
Headquarters	Rochdale, England, UK
Products	Package holidays, flights
Number of employees	14,600 Full Time

Thomas Cook AG was the parent company of Thomas Cook UK & Ireland, Condor Airlines and other such subsidiaries until 12 February 2007 when it merged with MyTravel Group PLC. The new combined company was named Thomas Cook Group plc and was listed on the .

It was originally incorporated on 1 November 1997 as "C&N Touristic AG" but the name was changed following the 2001 acquisition of Thomas Cook. The Group was jointly owned by Lufthansa and Karstadt, until the latter bought out Lufthansa's share on 23 December 2006. Karstadt paid €800m (£540m), though a condition of the agreement was that Lufthansa would retain a stake in Condor for at least two years.

Thomas Cook Worldwide had five wholly owned subsidiaries Thomas Cook UK, Thomas Cook Netherlands, Thomas Cook France, Thomas Cook Belgium, and Thomas Cook Destinations, along with majority holdings in Condor and TC Touristik. Thomas Cook used to have a franchise agreement in the Middle East - Specifically in the United Arab Emirates through a licensee agreement it had with a local group called the Al Rostamani Group. The venture was terminated after the Thomas Cook brand name was sold to Dubai Holdings which planned to use it in the Middle East.

In the United Kingdom, Thomas Cook conformed to the model of a 'vertically integrated travel company' operating an airline, a retail arm and also a tour operator. This tour operator division was previously known as Thomas Cook Tour Operations but in early 2006 was restructured as the 'Holidays Division', incorporating the previously separate Thomas Cook Signature brand alongside the Thomas Cook, JMC and Sunset brands. The 'Specialist Products' division included Uptrips (including the Club 18-30 brand), Style, Neilson Active Holidays and Sunworld Ireland.

In 1999, Thomas Cook AG sold off its worldwide foreign exchange business to Travelex to concentrate only on tours and holidays. After the market depression, particularly following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Thomas Cook AG began a disinvestment programme by disposing off some of its subsidiaries and business ventures to follow a highly flexible business model and become an asset light company with minimum capital tie up. The business focused on Europe for the sale of package holidays and tailor-made holidays for customers specific requirements.