Tui is to further pool the resources of its group airlines across Europe in an effort to combat delays due to flight schedule disruptions and squeeze out more efficiencies in the face of intensfying low-cost carrier competition.
A new organisational structure is being put in place and management changes made for its five leisure airlines in the UK Belgium, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany which have a collective fleet of 150 aircraft carrying 27 million passengers a year.
Tui Group said the measures “will further intensify the integration of its airlines with the source market organisations”.
The company added: “Besides increasing efficiencies and the investment in fuel efficient next generation Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, passengers will benefit from initiatives like a group-wide on board streaming service for the latest entertainment content or a joint approach towards spare airplane capacity management which will reduce delays during flight schedule disruptions.”
Kenton Jarvis, chief executive of the umbrella arm Tui Aviation, has restructured the business to create greater integration.
Jarvis said: “Our airlines operate in an environment characterised by increasingly fierce competition with both traditional airlines and low-cost carriers making in-roads onto core leisure routes. As a consequence of this competition there have been numerous airline washouts recently, which affects the availability of third-party capacity.
“This structural development underlines the importance of our in-house aviation capabilities, so that we can cover the core flight capacity requirements for our tour operators and also be able to build new destinations like Cape Verde and continue to develop existing destinations.”
The company confirmed that Dawn Wilson will take over Tui’s northern region airlines as managing director from January 1, reporting directly to Jarvis.
In the new role she will head airlines in the UK and Scandinavia and replace John Murphy at the UK carrier, who is stepping down to focus on flying,as reported by Travel Weekly on last month.
Wilson will also be in charge of operations control areas across the group as director airline operations.
As part of the changes, Tui Airways and Tui fly Nordic customer director Jill Nye is newly-appointed as in-flight services director covering product selection and logistics in co-ordination with source markets.
Oliver Lackmann becomes sole managing director of TUI fly Germany while Gunther Hofmann continues as boss of TUI fly Belgium and TUI Netherlands airlines.
The managing directors will also have lead responsibilities in the aviation platform functions which go across all Tui Group airlines.
Additionally, Marco Ciomperlik becomes chief operations officer in charge of engineering and maintenance, supplier management and procurement, in-flight services and aviation IT.
Geert Somers becomes engineering and maintenance director in charge of all maintenance work for the airlines and for supplier management and procurement. Isabelle Droll will director for aviation IT.
Jarvis added: “Seamless interaction between operators and users of the group’s aviation services is essential for achieving an efficient airline network.
“All three airline managing directors are now integrated in the respective source market boards for northern, central and western regions.
“This will allow us to further improve collaboration and gain greater efficiencies from working together and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.”