Thomas Cook likely to use Niki seat capacity after Lauda buys airline

LONDON (Reuters) - Travel group Thomas Cook is likely to buy seats on the Austrian airline Niki after it was bought back by its founder Niki Lauda, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

"As a holiday company we are likely to buy seat capacity for our customers from Laudamotion, as we did with Niki and Air Berlin in the past," a spokesman for Thomas Cook said, referring to a company controlled by Lauda.

"In addition, Laudamotion has asked us for operational support services to enable Niki's flight operations to restart as quickly as possible. We are prepared to start such discussions shortly."

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton)