TUI AG or TUI Group (TUI = Touristik Union International) is an multinational travel and tourism company headquartered in Hannover, Germany. It is the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world, and owns travel agencies, hotels, airlines, cruise ships and retail stores. The group owns six European airlines - the largest holiday fleet in Europe - and nine tour operators based in Europe.
The origins of the company lie in the industrial and transportation company, Preussag AG, which was originally formed as a German mining company. It was incorporated on 9 October 1923 as Preußische Bergwerks- und Hütten-Aktiengesellschaft (Prussian Mine and Foundry Company). In 1927 it was merged with the Ruhr coal company, Hibernia AG, and electricity utility to become the Vereinigte Elekrizitäts und Bergwerks AG (VEBA AG) (United Electrical and Mining Company).
With the purchase of the navigation and logistics company Hapag-Lloyd AG in 1997, Preussag became a global enterprise in the service and leisure industry. Hapag-Lloyd held a 30% interest in the tourism conglomerate TUI (founded 1968), which was increased to 100% by 1999. In addition Preussag acquired 25% of Thomas Cook shares in 1997, which it doubled the following year. On 2 February 1999, the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by the Westdeutsche Landesbank, Carlson Inc and Preussag. However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cook's rival Thomson Travel and was forced to sell its majority 50.1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities.
In 2002 Preussag renamed itself TUI AG. TUI held a 55% stake in the new company, TUI Travel PLC, which began operations in September 2007. From 2009 until 2012 the logistics activities, concentrated in the shipping sector, were sold to optimize the tourism business with expansion in Russia, China and India. In June 2014 the company announced it would fully merge with TUI Travel to create a united group. The merger was completed on 17 December 2014.
On 13 May 2015, it was announced by the TUI Group that the airline subsidiaries (except Corsair International) will be named TUI, whilst keeping their separate Air Operator's Certificate, taking over three years to complete. Arke was the first to undergo the change, and was renamed TUI fly Netherlands on 1 October 2015. It became the charter carrier of TUI Netherlands with main base at Schiphol Airport. Since 2017, the other renamed subsidiaries are TUI Airways (former Thomson Airways), TUI fly Deutschland, TUI fly Belgium (former Jetairfly) and TUI fly Nordic. The group airlines operate both scheduled and charter flights to more than 150 destinations worldwide departing from more than 60 airports in 9 European countries.
Livery
Boeing 737-8K5, registration PH-TFA, built 2007, serial number 35100 Schiphol (AMS/EHAM), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 24 February 2018
