Thomas Cook Aviation has declared bankruptcy. The news came after its contracts with its sole customer, the German carrier Condor, were canceled. Around half a year ago the Thomas Cook Group collapsed into bankruptcy.

You may have read the title of this story thinking "hang on, Thomas Cook declared bankruptcy last September?" Well, you would be correct, the Thomas Cook Group did collapse. However, despite the collapse of its parent company Thomas Cook Aviation continued operations.

It is, however, now the turn of Thomas Cook Aviation to join its namesake in bankruptcy as Condor has pulled the plug on its only contracts.

Contracts canceled for cost reduction

Condor was the only airline that Thomas Cook Aviation had contracts with. According to Aviation24.be, it operated as a technical subsidiary of the German carrier. However, Condor has decided to cancel the contracts that it holds with Thomas Cook Aviation. According to Aviation24, these contracts were due to expire after the 31st of December 2021.

In a statement to Simple Flying, a Condor spokesperson said:

"Like all other airlines, Condor is also affected by the effects of the corona crisis. Even though Condor is currently an integral part of the repatriation on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office and has brought almost 67,000 guests back to Germany in the past two weeks, we will have to park aircraft in the foreseeable future, too, until travel is possible again.

"For this reason, we, like many other airlines, had to terminate our contract with our seasonal partner airline Thomas Cook Aviation for reasons of cost reduction."

About Thomas Cook Aviation

Like Condor, Thomas Cook Aviation survived the collapse of the main Thomas Cook Group in September last year. However, the story of Thomas Cook Aviation is quite an interesting one indeed. The airline was founded only two and a half years ago in October 2017. It was initially known as Air Berlin Aviation in the aftermath of the collapse of Air Berlin. However, in November of 2018, it was renamed to Thomas Cook Aviation.

According to the German Language publication Focus which originally broke the story, Thomas Cook Aviation operated six aircraft all from the A320 family. This consisted of both the A320 and A321. The airline was mainly serving destinations in Europe (as would be expected with a narrowbody fleet) on behalf of Condor.

On Wednesday Simple Flying reported that Condor could be nationalized by the German Government. The airline is in the midst of a takeover by the LOT Polish Airlines owner, PGL.

Have you flown on Thomas Cook Aviation? Do you think the bankruptcy will have a huge impact on passengers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.