Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

headquartered in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and

MyTravel Group 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 ...

, and was part of the

Thomas Cook Group Airlines Thomas Cook Group Airlines Limited was an airline holding company of the defunct British Thomas Cook Group. The airlines operated as a single operating segment of the Thomas Cook Group to allow aircraft to be used when and where they were needed ...

. It served leisure destinations worldwide from its main bases at Manchester Airport and

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 H ...

on a scheduled and charter basis. It also operated services from eight other bases around the United Kingdom. Thomas Cook Group and all UK entities including Thomas Cook Airlines entered compulsory liquidation on 23 September 2019.

History

The airline was created on 1 September 1999 as JMC Air Limited through the merger of Flying Colours Airlines and Caledonian Airways. following the purchase of Thomas Cook & Son by the Carlson Leisure Group. It started operations on 27 March 2000, operating flights from 6 bases in the UK, offering seat-only bookings and bookings via Thomas Cook Tour Operations. In 2001, the airline became the first UK operator of the stretched Boeing 757-300. In April 2003,

Thomas Cook AG Thomas Cook AG was an Anglo-German, global travel group. The group had its headquarters in Rochdale, and sold products such as package holidays and flights through its 3 in-house airlines. On 19 June 2007, the group merged with MyTravel Group p ...

rebranded its airlines under the ''Thomas Cook'' name brand. In June 2007, following the merger between

and

to form Thomas Cook Group, on 30 March 2008,

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 ...

was merged with Thomas Cook Airlines. In 2013, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium,

Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia Sunclass Airlines A/S (formerly Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia) is a Danish charter airline that operates charter services from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The company is affiliated with Ving Group, a Nordic tour operator. It and Vin ...

and

Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vu ...

merged into a single operating segment of a group named the

. Thomas Cook Airlines carried around 6.4 million passengers during 2015, a six percent increase compared with 2014.

Collapse

The airline fell into liquidation on 23 September 2019. Airlines around the world took part in ferrying stranded passengers back to the UK, using their aircraft. The repatriation effort covered 165,000 passengers, the largest in UK history, and 65,000 more passengers than the collapse of Monarch Airlines in 2017. The last flight to depart was MT2643, Registration G-MLJL ( Airbus A330-243) from

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

. The airline's AOC was revoked on 7 November 2019.

Corporate affairs

Overview

Thomas Cook Airlines was part of the airline division of the Thomas Cook Group, which consisted of three more sister airlines, all of which had a joint fleet management:

, German-based

and

Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics S.L. was a Spanish leisure airline that launched in 2017 and was previously owned by the Thomas Cook Group. After the collapse of its parent company on 23 September 2019, the airline itself was eventually declared ...

. The airline held a

United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the statutory corporation which oversees and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the United Kingdom. Its areas of responsibility include: * Supervising the issuing of pilots' licences, testing of e ...

Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

Profits

Business figures

Destinations

Fleet

Final active fleet

At the time of closure, the Thomas Cook Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

Historical fleet

As JMC Air, the airline has previously operated the following aircraft:

Callsigns

The airline has used a number of callsigns:

Cabin

Long haul

Premium economy Thomas Cook offered 'Premium Class' on most long-haul flights on board their Airbus A330 aircraft. The cabin offered extra legroom, wider seats with more recline, personal entertainment, complimentary hot meal and drinks. Economy Thomas Cook's long-haul 'Economy Class' was offered on all Airbus A330 aircraft. It offered a standard 31-inch of seat-pitch , seat-back entertainment, and complimentary hot meal. Drinks and additional snacks were available to purchase.

Short and medium haul

Economy Thomas Cook's short and medium-haul economy cabin on their fleet of A321 aircraft offered a standard seat-pitch of between 28-30-inch at 6-abreast. Drinks and snacks were available to purchase on board or to pre-order and inflight entertainment was available. In 2017, the company introduced ''Economy PLUS, a''n upgraded economy class package on short and medium-haul flights. This package included a priority security lane and check-in, an additional 4 kg of hand luggage, inflight drinks and food, access to in-flight entertainment and an option to reserve their seat.

References

External links

* {{Thomas Cook Group Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Airlines established in 1999 Airlines disestablished in 2019 Defunct charter airlines of the United Kingdom British Air Transport Association Companies based in Manchester