TUI Sells Five Brand New Boeings 737 MAX After Catastrophic Spain Cancellations

IT’S far from plain sailing for TUI as it sells five brand new Boeing 737 MAXs after suffering from their catastrophic flight cancellations to Spain. The Anglo-German tour operator has been forced to sell five brand new large capacity aircraft before they even had the opportunity to incorporate them into their fleet.

The tourism magnate has signed a sale and leaseback agreement with the Singaporean company, BOC Aviation. Therefore, TUI has sold the five brand new planes to BOC for a whopping €192 million but the tour operator will be able to use them thanks to their lease.

The tourism giant is currently trying to scramble as much liquidity as possible and it has even considered the option of selling hotel assets. The coronavirus crisis has been especially hard-hitting for the hospitality industry and even more so after Boris Johnson enforced a mandatory quarantine for travellers returning from Spain.

After this sudden announcement on behalf of the Conservative government, TUI immediately cancelled all of its flights to Spain. This means they will have a long list of refunds to attend to, a catastrophic ordeal for a company who has already suffered during lockdown and is strapped for liquid cash. Another decision they have taken to save money is the reduction of their fleet for the German airline TUIfly which has been depleted from 39 to 17 aircraft.