There is a lot of 'oneness' going on within the Europe's two tour operating giants as they strive for increased efficiency and reshape their businesses for the digital age.
Last week during its half-year update TUI Group talked of its future as a single brand while today, reporting its results, Thomas Cook spoke of working towards being one tour operator, following the model of its one airline.
The results were released amid the current public outcry surrounding the company's handling of the recent inquest into the deaths of two children in Corfu whilst on a Thomas Cook holiday in 2006.
One report quotes group chief executive Peter Fankhauser as saying he is "deeply sorry" and the tour operator is now communicating directly with the family.
Against this backdrop, the operator gave its half-year update on current trading, transformation and strategy moving forward.
The tour operator said a year ago that it was embarking on Wave 2 of its transformation programme with increased 'digitisation' and efficiency improvements to reap a further £400 million in benefits.
Now, the plan is to take things a step further according to Fankhauser who spoke of common systems and linking platforms.
He went on to talk about a "New Operating Model more far reaching than the Wave 2 initiative" which would integrate the business, have it working from a common platform and being closer to customers.
While TUI says it's working with SAP and IBM on its platforms, there was no similar steer from Cook on technology partners.
Some five years ago IBM was replaced by CapGemini for the main IT contract for the company.
Interesting to note however that Fankhauser did mention exceptional costs of £100 million over the three-year Wave 2 programme, lower than the previously reported £145 million "partly due to lower consultancy costs."
The omni channel is one of Thomas Cook's four drivers going forward including expanding its exclusive product, making the best use of assets and improving operating efficiency.
One example is a plan to reduce its 9,000 hotels to about 2,500 core hotels and offer the remaining properties via a lower cost, low-touch platform.
Fankhauser says the OneWeb platform was "leading an improvement in online sales" with package bookings on thomascook.com up 12% and conversion up 20%.
Bookings from desktop have decreased from 78% to 67% year-on-year while bookings via tablet have gone from 20% to 25% for the same period.
Bookings from mobile and tablet devices now represent one third of total bookings compared to 20% a year ago.
Digital projects in the pipeline include the UK launch of a digital companion app and a desire to bring virtual reality experiences into people's homes via its website as the technology becomes more widespread.
The operator has also set up a mobile hub in Stockholm.
Financial highlights for the half-year ended March 31, 2015:
- a 1.2% increase (£37 million) in group revenue to £2,742 million
- losses reduced by £66 million to £220 million
- the signing of a new £800 million financing facility until May 2019 replacing the existing £470 million arrangement which ran until May 2017.