Even D-AIAA ?

D-AIAA is staying with Condor according to Jethro.

Air Transat have an A330 with Condor to operate from Dusseldorf this winter, so may well be heading there way opposed to UK as its a Thomas Cook Group deal.

Just been confirmed that Thomas Cook are opening a new base at Leeds/Bradford Airport replacing some of the capacity loss after Monarch going bust

Good news. Every cloud and so on...

Depends on who owns the airframe and who is flying it!

Looks like Leeds/Bradford and Luton will both become new bases for Summer 2018 following Monarch's demise.

2x New bases are we to see some new incomming A/C over the winter ?

http://mobile.plane-mad.com/forums/manchester/man6913-news-from-august-2016.html?view=all


Please see post 95 of this thread, TCX U.K. to become and all airbus fleet

Thomas Cook Long Haul
Whilst I'm pleased to see TC jumping into long haul from Manchester, some of their choices make me wonder if they know their market. I'm also worried about the lack of consistency in product offer (Air Tanker, Air Transat to follow).
To be clear, I've used them several times to the Caribbean, to New York and to Boston and the preference is always to fly in the Premium cabin where it is offered....and it's very good to be fair. Trouble is, it seems to be a bit of a lottery as to whether there is one or not - even on the same route (!)

Mrs FFMAN and myself were mulling a New York trip last night and although the prices and schedule were good, when Mrs FFMAN saw the words 'operated by Air Tanker' she said 'it sounds like a freighter - I'm not going on that'. When there was no Premium seating either well, that was that. Virgin got the business. This is even though we both know from experience that TC Premium Economy is better than Virgin Premium Economy.
If it doesn't exist though, you can't buy it :sad:

On their choice of route / aircraft....
Miami - as a leisure offering is more of a Winter route yet they ran it as a Summer only
Antigua - this is a Premium destination, but they don't offer a Premium cabin and run it as triangular route meaning grief on the return. I know some regulars who prefer the drive to Gatwick. They could also run that route into early May as well as St Lucia.
Seattle - a business heavy route surely - but again flying it without a Premium offering...all that way in economy? Not if you're on business.

Agree with FfMan we have just been to Boston on the troop carrier VYGM, it is definitely not set up for long haul, the seats are uncomfortable non existent headrest and 1980s retro tv screen that comes down in the centre seats, which is great for banging your head on. These a/c are 4-5hours max charter machines.The Tcx premium offering is fantastic and as cheap as Vs economy so well worth the upgrade. With oyvkf coming into the fold next year and the possible Air Transat A330 that only looks like 1 Airtanker ( it is on the bookings for next summer) the other appears to be off to Jet2 as they look odds on for 2 next season as they love them on short haul. Looking at the prelim allocation for next summer we seem to be showing 8 A330 deps from Manchester on Thu.

Thomas Cook have lost their #2 spot in the largest ATOL providers. Jet2's growth particularly with the addition of BHX/STN has now launched them well ahead.

Rank Licence Holder ATOLNumber Passengers Licensed
1 TUI UK Ltd 2524 5386845
2 Jet2holidays Ltd 9618 2936420
3 Thomas Cook ' Ltd 1179 2389227
4 Expedia, Inc 5788 1416227
5 On The Beach Ltd 10017 1205480

This is related to the tour operations business and not the airline directly. Both Thomas Cook & Jet2 carry many more passengers than is bonded under the ATOL scheme.

@goldeneye

I do appreciate that, just making a point about how Jet2 has grown as an airline. If Thomas Cook were priding themselves on their position at #2, it may make them think about their own plans for growth. TC did use Jet2's seats for their own package when they were starting out, but since TC stopped using them & stopped selling them in store, Jet2 have continued to grow. Maybe their new based a/c at LBA is a warning shot at them?

Jet2 have exceeded their own expectations at STN and there is a lot of talk about major expansion of the base in summer 2019 with double the fleet of summer 2017.

TCX and TUI are definitely feeling the arrival of jet2 at STN
I would have thought EZY would have had some fight in them regarding jet2 at STN but as usual they are staying stagnant the same as TCX and TUI.

@Plane.Silly

I don't think they are worried about being the market leader anymore, that is what caused some of there financial issues a few years ago. They are concentrating on delivering a good product rather than it being capacity driven.

Jet2 have grown dramatically over the past few year, it will be interesting to see where they go in the next few years.

@zwf - agreed everytime i've looked at booking premium its never been available because it was on air tanker. They need to be consistent on that. There new cabins look great but if its a lottery i'd book VS too.

Presumably if LH at MAN continues to do well they'll be needing to replace the fleet at some point - aren't a few of them knocking on?

@plane - Will be interesting to see what LS does money wise over next few years. It's never had 30+ brand new planes to pay for before and could park the old ones in winter.

Agreed Thomas Cook group airlines inc Condor and Scandinavia really need to look at fleet replacement, those Condor 757’s and 767’s aren’t exactly fuel efficient to be able to take on the competion and or operate with low Ish cost base moving forward, Norwegian and Eurowings plus possibly LEVEL in the future could be a serious threat to long haul operations

They will have 10 based aircraft in summer 2018 and will also be self handling their whole operation to give them complete 100% control.

As we know the B757 are leaving the UK and being replaced with fairly new A321s
but A330 are a differnt kettle of fish as 2nd hand machines are like gold dust.