Noticed all the extra capacity is in the Midlands, North and Scotland nothing in the South where some slots maybe available at Gatwick, or the West Country. Comments please.

EXT, BRS CWL all had TCX/MT IT flights - I gather CWL was summer only - not sure if EXT was the same, and EXT had no based TCK a/c there so I have been told)

Whether TUI/TOM will pick up the TCX slack at these airports remains to be seen, but TUI have used 3rd party airlines such as Alba Star Freebird and Norwegian to fly their packages for a few years to some destinations.

Methinks my mistake about TCX having an EXT a/c - I think that was a while back - apologies

Thomas Cook at CWL was a single aircraft A321 summer base with no winter service, which has been the case for a number of years, although until a year or so ago it was an A320.

BRS was 3 x A321 in summer although for part of the summer one of the 321s was replaced by a 320 in a pre-planned move. In winter BRS was a single A321 base.

As has been said, EXT had no Thomas Cook presence.

Thomas Cook was handling around 500,000 passenger journeys annually at BRS so some scope there for other carriers/tour companies if they have a mind.

Wondering if the more 757’s are now getting another stay of execution given TCX situation? Dummy booking (I think!) shows GLA has a 757 based again next summer. When I tried to book previously on that same route, appeared to be 737.

Two 757 are leased in to help cover Max issues, the other 9 757 were due to be retired this winter but that plan is now on indefinite hold. I assume some of these frames would have found their way to freight operators after conversions, but must now be a headache for them as well.

Presumably this is due to the narrower toilets installed at the rear, enabling the rear section seats (aft of the overwing exits) to be pushes further back towards them. Hence then allowing a couple of extra rows with 2-3 extra inches of legroom...

No 738s have been modified. It's also caused issues with pax already this summer on flights that were planned to be on MAXs but now on 738s. It's actually a poor idea of TOM not to have had exactly the same cabin layouts to avoid that issue alone.

They may have sent a message but if i was in the board room of Jet2 i'm sure i wouldn't be as worried as the other way. Why? Well Jet2 has no new aircraft orders (unlike TUI which has the no-fly MAX). Thet sounds odd however they don't build orders into fleet plan, like TUI, for them not to be delivered to suddenly scramble to the ACMI market or cancel and consolidate. On top of this - Jet2 already has established relationship with ACMI operators Air Tanker (lead to believe 3 A330 in MAN next year), Titan (3 A321 in STN this year, could easily probably grow that number and add them elsewhere in the network) and SmartLynx. As well as other operators - Air Europa (previous) and for a short period of time this month Evelop. They also like going into the used market and have been effective with this. TUI yet to do this.

TUI have a more difficult few months ahead over Jet2 due to the fleet. They spread themselves everywhere but thinly with the fleet and unable to compete on frequencies with Jet2 from regional airports (look at NCL-DLM for example of Jet2 5 v TUI 3, NCL-TFS Jet2 5 v TUI 2). TUI have advised they are adding 2,000,000 extra seats - i'm waiting with baited breath to find out where, to where, how many. This is what makes me also hold with baited breath - they've said put a lot into the press release with no evidence. Jet2 do the other way round, do the work, evidence it with flights on sale & in the timetable and then the press release.

I had an interesting catch up on Saturday with some ex colleagues that are now at BHX with TUI , We was talking about the TCX situation at Birmingham and the drop in capacity for the summer. They have said that they have heard that BHX is due to be getting at least one 787 for short haul in summer 20. They have been told that at present they are planning two 757s at BHX the rest being 738 or Max’s if get required clearance. Another thing that they mentioned was about in flight WIFI being installed on all the fleet this winter not sure if any other crew have heard this. Personally I am not sure about this as would have thought that Tui would be using this in their advertising as its selling tool against Jet2

It's not wifi internet. It's just an onboard network. No internet access and was being trialled on a couple of the max aircraft.

Tui also have longstanding relationships with those ACMI operators (even air tanker, just not in the UK) both for long and short periods, so not sure what your angle is there?

Jet2 have also said they will be expanding but I haven't seen any details yet? apart from the extra capacity during October half term? So again no real difference there?

The crew at BHX were under the impression that the WIFI was to be on all the 787,Max aircraft and the 738s that have the Sky cabin which is G-FDZT onwards I believe . Having used it on Norwegian before I personally think this is a value added product that leisure customers would use especially on the longer routes down to Eastern Med and Canaries where there is no IFE. I understand from the service providers that it is actually quite an easy install with only a few days of downtime to retrofit the equipment.

Does anyone know why G-TUII positioned LGW-STN as ZT9006, did nothing for two days, then positioned STN-MAN as TOM676F?

would guess engine change
as i was at STN 12th saw a 787 emerge from the diamond hangar, puff of smoke on a engine test
departed latter that day it seems
mark

They do but considering it is rumoured that the 3 Tankers are going to join Jet2 (2 already signed in to long term contracts), Titan and Jet2 work hand in hand very well together, they've had a good relationship with Air Europa in the past and also started using SmartLynx (who's biggest customer was TC). The strength to TUI here is Sunwing.

Can you please evidence where Jet2 have said they are expanding for S20? There is nothing out there to suggest this. Instead it is all hearsay, all rumours, and all been worked on within the airline. It is inventible,however it is the forums that take ideas and run with them at 1000mph. This is different to TUI who have announced the extra seats, extra flights, but never really given me anything. I want TUI to expand but i just can't see how at the moment they will - other than Sunwing.

Do you honestly think they would announce it without the plans in place? They have been at this game a while now. And doubt it will be a huge sunwing increase as they dont have a huge fleet themselves.

Am sure the details of the expansion will be out in due course.

Let's wait and find out. But to me why it's the other way - why announce it without putting flights/seats/holidays on sale.

This is exactly what I'm trying to get at. TUI have announced but yet no evidence. So i am sure it hasn't sent a clear message or going to influence their plans as there is little evidence just yet - Re: original post which suggested this.

They are expanding at airports stated in the press release, Thats a fact.

TUI (and Britannia before them) have been doing this for years, get the business first and then work out how you are going to cope with it. If you wait until all your ducks are in a row, the opportunity may have gone.

2 million seats on an A321 size operation is around 30 return flights over a 20 week summer season.

The job postings on the TUI website for 'Thomas Cook' suggests otherwise - saying 'All Positions will be on the B737'!! https://tuijobsuk.co.uk/work-at-tui-...opportunities/

Intresting times ahead.

Well that appears to all but quash the near 'certainty' many seemed to have that TUI would be taking on Airbuses (short-term lease or otherwise) for their expansion.

Of course, things could still change but for now it looks unlikely. It looks like they will use the quiet winter months to re-train flight crews on Boeing – seems sensible. Where the expansion will come from is still difficult to see – perhaps it's based on the MAXs returning and then keeping more older 738s (and potentially 757s) than previously planned? Maybe even some intra-group movements (Condor and Thomas Cook Scandinavia are still trading so maybe TUI will reduce their presence in these markets in order to move aircraft to the UK)?

Depending on the MAX situation (and possibly even regardless of it now), TUI will most likely take on some ACMI capacity for S20 (more likely to be Airbus than Boeing at the moment). For this, it will probably be a case of trying to beat Jet2 to it.

Has anyone else had a go at the maths on this? I have, and I'm struggling.

Two million extra seats from the UK next summer over a 30-week summer season is 66,667 seats per week. Divide by 189 and that's 352 extra roundtrips per week. If each TUI aircraft is typically operating 16 roundtrips per week, that's 22 more 189-seat aircraft, but they've announced 50 direct entry Captain jobs and with a typical ratio of 6 to 7 sets of crew per aircraft, that sounds like about 8 extra aircraft.

How do you square away the difference between these numbers? Is the two million figure referring to sector seats, so 1m extra holidays?

My guess is that this must include some 757 retentions to provide 40-odd extra seats on some flights versus the 737s. If all of the TUI pilots are already flying those 757s this summer due to the MAX issues, it would explain why all of the new vacancies are on the 737 fleet.

The only way I can get close to some numbers that add up is if you assume that eight 757s due to go this winter will now stay. That provides around 170,000 more seats and then the eight 737s provide around 800,000 more seats and you get to a million holidays and two million seats.

Put another way, if this is the case, then it means that any option to use the 757s as contingency for continued MAX grounding is gone, as those 757s are already providing extra lift after Thomas Cook's failure. That's quite ballsy.

Looks to be quite a lot of third party flying already creeping into the system.

That is what BHX crew have been telling me that that they are getting a 787 for short-mid haul in summer 20 they understand it will do high capacity route in the morning e.g AGP,ALC,PMI,IBZ then in the afternnon it will do a longer sector to maximise fuel savings like LCA,PFO,HRG,AYT