aa73

I hear it a lot on my JFK-Caribbean flights. Usually down near Santo Domingo and that area. Usually a British accent. What airline and why this call sign? Thx

Artic Monkey

Airline - Thomas Cook

Why? - No idea.

Scott C

Yup, definitely Thomas Cook.

Prior to 'Kestral' I believe their callsign was 'Top Jet'

763 jock

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Those of us in TCX would quite like some Royal Protection at the moment. I think we may be an endangered species.

Not sure why this is in this forum though....

aa73

thanks all... that would explain the Caribbean, as TC does a lot of charters there. Still, curious as to why "Kestral" and not just "Thomas Cook"

cobol

Hearsay was, in the early 90's, that the founding fathers of Airtours International (AIH) were a handful of MD83 type rated pilots and assorted managers. The wives of the founding fathers held a competition to decide the callsign, Dave Wilmot's wife came up with 'Kestrel' and won. So the rumour was.

To confirm this, you would need to check with those recruited by Airtours in the winter of 91; they were nearly all MD83 type rated (but not all), and would have done Long Beach MD courses and line trained on empty sectors.

There may be some left at TCX from those days, Rex Taylor comes to mind, but most likely all retired by now - Tom Beck perhaps and his generation.

763 jock

Thomas Cook Group PLC own 4 airlines in Europe:

Thomas Cook Airlines UK-Callsign "Kestrel"
Thomas Cook Belgium- Callsign "Thomas Cook"
Thomas Cook Scandinavia- Callsign "Viking"
Condor Flugdienst- Callsign "Condor"

Hope that helps!

aa73

Yes it does.... thanks!

Cheers from "across the Pond"

Capt Scribble

Airtours were originally 'Tourjet' but it clashed with another operator so it changed to Kestral. Funnily enough, I Hear Tourjet around Europe these days.