Flying Colours was a UK

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...

that operated for 4 years between 1996 and 2000.

History

The airline began operations in the summer of 1997 with a fleet of

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the Boeing 727, 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. ...

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

and A321 aircraft. Flying Colours had several operational bases outside of its

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

headquarters, including

London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

and

Glasgow International Airport gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu , image = Glasgow Airport logo.svg , image-width = 200 , image2 = GlasgowAirportFromAir.jpg , image2-width = 250 , IATA = GLA , ICAO = EGPF , type = Public , owner = AGS Airports , hub = *easy ...

. The airline quickly established a positive reputation in the charter industry, with a fleet of newly built aircraft and new features; Flying Colours were the first airline in the UK to have LCD TV screens in the cabins of their 757s. In 1998, then the travel agent

Thomas Cook & Son Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. In 1851, Cook arranged ...

acquired Flying Colours Leisure Group. Subsequently, the in-house charter airline of Thomas Cook,

Airworld Airworld Aviation Ltd was the in-house charter airline for the travel agent Thomas Cook Group. It began operations in 1994, and was the first British operator of the Airbus A321. It was integrated into Flying Colours on November 1, 1998 when ...

, adopted the Flying Colours Airlines brand. Shortly after the takeover two ex-Airworld

Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the ba ...

s were returned to their lessor. The airline also maintained the Airworld operating base at Bristol. In 1999 Thomas Cook completed the acquisition of Carlson Leisure Group, who operated the charter carriers

Caledonian Airways Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British charter airline formed in April 1961. It began with a single 104-seat Douglas DC-7C leased from the Belgian flag carrier Sabena.''Flyi ...

and

Peach Air Peach Air was a United Kingdom charter airline that operated for two years between 1997 and 1998. History Peach Air was formed in 1996. It was part of Caledonian Airways (1988), created to operate for the tour operator Goldcrest. In 1999, T ...

. This led to a complete rebrand by Thomas Cook of its growing tour operation. In 2000, Thomas Cook rebranded their charter airline operations as

JMC Air JMC Airlines Limited (also known as JMC Air, JMC Airlines or simply JMC and stylised as jmc) was a UK charter airline formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours Airlines, following the purchase of Thomas Cook & Son by the Car ...

, part of a new universal customer-facing brand, "JMC". Flying Colours ordered two

Airbus A330-200 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...

aircraft to begin longhaul operations, these aircraft arrived after the JMC rebrand. JMC Air was rebranded as

Thomas Cook Airlines Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It ...

in 2002. Thomas Cook Airlines UK then later announced a merger with fellow Manchester-founded airline

MyTravel Airways MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various t ...

; the parent companies were scheduled to merge in June 2007 with the two airlines merging in November 2007. Thomas Cook Airlines ceased operations in September 2019, following the collapse of the parent travel agent company.

References

External links

{{Airlines of the United Kingdom 1996 establishments in England 2000 disestablishments in England Airlines established in 1996 Airlines disestablished in 2000 Defunct charter airlines of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Manchester Transport in Manchester British companies established in 1996 British companies disestablished in 2000

History

See also

References

External links