Jet2 buys Thomas Cook’s slots at Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham airports
Budget airline Jet2 has snapped up Thomas Cook’s airport slots at Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham, the collapsed travel company’s liquidators confirmed today.
The official receivers did not reveal how much Jet2 paid for the landing and take off slots, which came hours after Easyjet bought Thomas Cook’s slots at Gatwick and Bristol.
Read more: MPs slam government for ‘inaction’ over Thomas Cook’s collapse
“The acquisition of these key UK airport slots will play an important role in supporting our continued growth at Birmingham, London Stansted and Manchester Airports,” Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said.
“We have been adding more flights and aircraft, resulting in increased capacity, at each of these bases for many years.
“Today’s announcement is the latest demonstration of our commitment to providing holidaymakers with more choice and flexibility when it comes to flying to sun, city and ski destinations with our award-winning airline.”
Earlier today Easyjet revealed it paid £36m for other Thomas Cook’s slots as buyers picked at the corpse of the collapsed holiday operator.
Thomas Cook fell into liquidation last month with a debt pile of £1.5bn.
Read more: Thomas Cook lives on in name only as Fosun buys brand assets for £11m
Majority shareholder Fosun has paid £11m for Thomas Cook’s brand name, which is the only part of the company that will live on.
Meanwhile family-run firm Hays Travel revealed it would buy all 555 Thomas Cook high street stores and hire as many of Thomas Cook’s 2,500 UK staff as possible.
Hays Travel paid just £6m to buy the British giant’s chain of stores from the government’s Insolvency Service last month.
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