Thomas Cook's sale to Polish travel group approved by CAA

Co-founded by chief executive Lukasz Habaj some 20 years ago, the eSky Group travel platform is now operating in 50 countries worldwide.

Based in Katowice, it has the eDestinos brand and operates in Central and Eastern Europe and South America. The company offers flights, hotels, packages and ancillaries.

In 2023, eSky recorded pre-tax profit of more than €18.7 million and served 3.3 million customers. The company is part-owned by private equity fund MCI.

The deal means synergies for both brands across Central and Eastern Europe coupled with Thomas Cook’s UK, Dutch and Belgian operations. This will allow eSky to offer more packages and Cook to gain an inventory of 560 potential airline partners.
 
Habaj said: “Adding Thomas Cook to the eSky and eDestinos family of brands is a key part of our group’s transformation from primarily a flight platform to an online travel agency.

"It is our ambition to become one of the leading dynamic package sellers in Europe, as well as more firmly establishing ourselves in the minds of Western European travellers.”

Cook chief executive Alan French, who spoke to TTG about the brand’s future last month, becomes eSky Group chief holidays officer.

“The opportunity for us to use our holidays expertise combined with eSky’s technology will help us to realise our ambitions of re-establishing Thomas Cook as a leading holiday company once again," said French.
 
Habaj added: “The objective is to deliver strong growth into 2025 while maintaining the company’s profitability achieved, in part, by streamlining processes and enhancing margins through the introduction of a comprehensive range of additional services tailored to the eSky customer base. 

“Furthermore, the implementation of our tech solutions will result in considerable savings, thereby significantly improving profitability.”

eSky Group anticipates turnover in the tour operator segment will reach £250 million by the end of 2024, with a customer base of approximately 300,000. “By 2025, we anticipate that these figures will reach £290 million and 640,000,” it said. 

The deal marks an end to Fosun Tourism Group’s bid to enter the UK mainstream travel sector. Fosun was the biggest shareholder in Cook with an 18% stake when it collapsed in 2019 and later paid £11 million to buy the brand and assets, relaunching it as an OTA.

Fosun said in September that Cook did not meet its strategic goals and that eSky would pay up to £30 million for it. Fosun added Cook had lost £15 million in the 2022 calendar year and £4.2 million in 2023. However, the brand is said to have made a small profit in the first half of this year.

French added: “The new Thomas Cook has enjoyed considerable success in a relatively short period of time. We are on track to end the year on a turnover of almost £115 million without additional investment and having already started to build our market share in this highly competitive sector.”