Preussag<.> has acquired a 50 per cent holding in the new Italian charter airline Neos<.>. Following on from the acquisition of a ten per cent stake in the tour operator Alpitour, this is another important step by the tourism Group in the Italian market.

Neos was founded in June 2001 in Malpensa as the charter carrier for the short and medium haul routes of IFIL, the parent company of Alpitour. The carrier took off for the first time at the beginning of March 2002 with a new Boeing 737-800. A second aircraft of the same type will be delivered in May. Neos has around 70 employees and will initially fly from Italy to the main destinations Sharm-el Sheik, Ibiza, Kos and Menorca. Neos will be part of TUI Airline Management, which bundles all of the holiday carriers within the Preussag Group.

This joint company will benefit from our airline management expertise gained from operating around 90 aircraft and from the know-how of our partner as the leading Italian package tour company. With this teamwork and the Alpitour customers we plan to fly high together to success, says Wolfgang Kurth, Airlines Divisional Director.

Preussag acquired a ten per cent shareholding in Alpitour in May 2001. With a 38 per cent share of the air-inclusive package tour market, an annual turnover of around Euro 1 billion, and 1.2 million customers, Alpitour is easily the largest vertically integrated group in the Italian travel market.