Thomson Airways
 

With the merger of Thomsonfly with First Choice Airways, will there be any standardisation of the combined long haul fleet with respect to seating configuration on the B763 aircraft (2-4-2 v 2-3-2) ?

If there will be two different B763 seating configurations within the Thomson Airways brand, how will potential passengers know which configuration will operate a specific service?

I recently flew short haul on a First Choice B763 in 2-3-2 configuration. A large sticker on the side of the aircraft said 'Aircraft owned by First Choice Airways - Operated by Thomsonfly' but the cabin crew wore First Choice uniforms and name badges......... confused

I flew back from Kefalonia last Thursday on a flight due to be operated by a Thomsonfly 738W.

When the plane landed at Kefalonia it was a FCA 757. I knew the two operators had merged so didnt have a problem.

However there were passengers in the airport who didnt know this and were confused. Also when we got on board, the onboard announcements from the crew and captain were also mixed with some saying Thomsonfly, some saying Thomsonfly operated by First Choice Airways and some just saying First Choice Airways.

Hopefully the integration will go smoothly and quickly to avoid any confusion for passengers.

Thomson Airways doesn't truly exist until 1st November. However, we are now using a single A.O.C hence operated by etc. The First Choice brand will continue for holidays, but flights will be done by Thomson Airways. It will take a while for re paints etc as the final livery is not yet decided. FCA crew will soon adopt Thomson uniforms, with a new uniform for all when the 787 arrives. I imagine 767 configs will remain as they are. Some Thomson 767's operate short haul and are configured for this. The aircraft changes are just ops optimising aircraft use, but there has been lots of juggling to rescue XL pax.

S.

Skyriter1
 

Thanks for the information.

With regards to the B767 configuration for long haul flights, am I correct in assuming that the current First Choice aircraft are 2-3-2 configuration whilst the current Thomsonfly aircraft are 2-4-2.

If the configurations remain unchanged after the merger, it would seem reasonable that the ex First Choice aircraft will be allocated soley to First Choice Holidays whilst Thomson Holidays will be allocated th ex Thomsonfly aircraft.

Regarding the B787, do you have an 'anticipated' date for entry into service.

The aircraft won't be allocated depending on holiday company. They will all be part of the same airline so will be allocated accordingly - there will be pax with thomson hols and first choice hols on all thomson airways a/c.

SAM-EMA

correct the 6 ex FCA B763s 9n 2-3-2 with premium filling full front cabin will be used for longhaul as well as some of the ex Thomsonfly B763s in 2-4-2 with the smaller premium section taking half the front cabin,

certain routes will have certain configs I believe, but as has already been said it will not be "tour operator brand" specific.

from 1st Nov 08 all flights will operate with the TOM designator, however ex FCA aircraft will still have "pink cabin crew" and ex TOM aircraft will still have "blue cabin crew" until summer 09 season when every thing and everyone will be one....

there's also the issue of course that the B752s have different number of seats too between TOM and FCA

tom/fca
 

All Thomson Airways B757's ,plan to have 233 seats.

oh are they removing row 1 from the 14 or so ex Thomsonfly ones? or just going to operate all flights ignoring those 2 seats if its BY registered aircraft?

mind you the "new seats" fitted to the TOM 757s a few years back are mucher nicer than most 757s and nicely free up a little extra space with the seat pocket away from knee level

For the winter TOM 757's are being capped at 233, with a view by Summer of removing row 1 to be in line with FCA. Not actually confirmed yet though as far as im aware.

at least it'll provide more room around forward galley for crew (and pax waiting for the loo)

interestingly a few years ago I heard of a project that suggested the removal of one pax seat on 757 in charter config was the equivilent of £500k of revenue per annum, sounds a bit high but possible (based on revenue to the group, for holiday and on board sale etc)

so IF TOM was operating these aircraft full that's £1m revenue per aircraft lost to Thomson???

Whose aircraft (767) will be operating TOM 834 from Barbados on 8/11 bringing the P&O one way croozers back:E

As it's a Thomson flight code it is most probably a Thomson aircraft, I think had it been a First Choice it would have been FCA code. I think that they keep their separate codes until 30th April 2009 and from 1st May they all become TOM, somebody will no doubt correct me if I am wrong.

It will be a Thomsonfly 767.

The TOM flight code for both airlines comes into force on 1st Nov 2008 so from now on will make it very difficult for people to work out which aircraft they are on(unless you work for the company:p).

Thomson Airways becomes the new airline name for both companies from 1st November, which is when we can promote the name however the livery and internal branding(Star Class etc...) will remain until May 1st 2009.

to be 100% correct, ALL the aircraft are now operated by Thomsonfly, First Choice Airways Ltd doesn't lease any aircraft at all, they were all transferred to Thomsonfly last week.....but as TUI says from 1st Nov everything is TOM designator, if looking at a brochure then TOM = old Thomsonfly and ToM = old FCA. However, from 1st May 09, all the crew will be integrated, the service will be the same etc etc so at that point impossible to tell unless you have access to the flying programme.

I did hear that most of the cruise flying was destined to be on ex TOM premium config B763ER and most longhaul TUI package flying was due to be on ex FCA B763ER over this winter...not seen if that's happened yet tho

Thanks for the info, I do hope BGI :ouch:(Barbados)airport has improved , ready for the influx of winter croozers:hmm:

Clipstone
 

TOM and ToM/Tom are only used "in house" to identify the two different fleets during the merger process. In the brochures they use TOM with a cross similar to a crucifix to identify the ex FCA fleet and TOM(minus cross) to identify the ex Tfly fleet.

ah ok I was basing it on the FC Florida brochure I have which says the flights for winter08/9 ah with Thomsonfly and quotes the flight numbers as ToM as opposed to TOM or +TOM)......so presumed we were using it everywhere....

A thought has just ocured to me- new name for the company TOMTOMGO!:O:O:O