Thomson
Pete,
I largely ignore the on line brochure information. One year a family member booked a skiing holiday in the Autumn for the forthcoming ski season at a Thomson shop and was given incorrect flight times by the agent. She informed him the Salzburg flight returned at lunchtime on the Saturday despite our crew timetable showing a W pattern through Stansted.The agent was having none of it at the time of booking. The crews will appreciate not having to position to Stansted.
I think the 787 has a full line of flying at BHX this winter, that may include a days downtime for maintenance .
I am fairly certain no extra aircraft for us next summer as a pilot bid has just been run. The company are keen on expansion using third party airlines as you have mentioned and want the in house lift capacity to be about 75/80 .% ish That means using other airlines to do the extra work / expansion. This is tour operator business and we are not informed about it. Remember Thomson Airways only provides lift capacity for the tour operator.