Kaykedi

[Kaykedi]

Can anyone advise me which aircraft type will operate MAN-BJV 16/5/2017 flight number TCX 2896. Was TCX aircraft, now Avion Express

[ericlday]

There is a Thomas Cook thread, perhaps you should ask there !

[rutankrd]

With industry reported declines of as much as 40% in forward bookings to Turkey in summer 2016 consolidation is inevitable

Carriers are rapidly redeploying resources to the other end of the Med at the moment and Thomas Cook/Condor are rather short of in-house sub 200 seat capacity aircraft these days.
(Just a dozen or so A320s used from secondary Germany cities and Belgium)

So its a case of cancel (from the likes of Newcastle /Leeds) consolidate and/or out-source and here is the conundrum with the rise of the inter webs and flexible fares carriers the traditional basket of charter carriers collapsed some years ago.

Today the UK has just One ! such provider in Titan and they appear to be pretty much booked up solid (So much so even BA a significant customer of theirs has turned elsewhere for the coming northern summer )

The trend of this secondary capacity disappearance is not just in the UK either .

Result a few rather obscure EU based East European Airlines are taking on this mantle.

Thomas Cook Group have already employed Avion Express services from Newcastle actually operating as Thomas Cook !

So they have experience with them - The are Lithuanian and operate around 8 180 seat A320s of some vintage 14-24 years old.

The on board service level will be determined by Thomas Cook however.

Other similar carriers include Small Planet, Smartlynx and several sub divisions of the Czech national carrier CSA.