Call sign "KESTRAL?"
 

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

Airline - Thomas Cook

Why? - No idea.

Yup, definitely Thomas Cook.

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

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....

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"

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.

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!

Yes it does.... thanks!

Cheers from "across the Pond"

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

In the spirit of keeping the wheel turning...

Here is a NOTAM to amuse the previous contributors to the thread.

Q) EGXX/QAFXX/IV/NBO/E/000/999/5504N00500W999
B) FROM: 18/10/02 08:50C) TO: 18/12/31 23:59E) THOMAS COOK AIRLINES UK WILL PERMANENTLY CHANGE ITS TELEPHONY
DESIGNATOR TO THOMAS COOK FOR ALL FLIGHTS SCHEDUELED TO DEPART AFTER
0001 ON 1ST NOVEMBER 2018. FOR INFO 01614 982905 OR 07766 510900.
2018-11-0165/AS4

I left the spelling mistakes in there, to prove the authenticity of the message.

Kestrel
 

A lovely bird , indeed.
May it fly free and prosper.
Drift
In 1999 I had the misfortune to loose my job due to a bankruptcy.
Fortunately I was airborne in less then 6 weeks doing Glasgow London City.
Drawback:
Callsign : "Suckling 123"
Roy and Merlin Suckling was proud as they should be.
Later that year it was named Scot Airways and a nice Tartan tail livery added.
The callsign was the same for some years and at one point a Essex Radar controller blurted out, " Oh Dear, how many Sucklings are there?" after checking in nr 4 in his sector.
Strangely I kept my mouth shut even if I had a few oneliners lined up. I reckoned it was a 50 50 chance old Roy S, owner and Ops Manager was proudly commanding one of the incoming Cambridge flights!
Good times.
A Happy and prosperous New Year to You all.
Cpt B

Kestrel was indeed the Airtours International call sign (VZ/AIH)
Aspro Holidays and their inhouse airline Inter European Airways were acquired - They also acquired Danish charter airline Premiair (was Conair and Scanair merged)

Airtours later renamed themselves MyTravel (MT/MYT) Kestrel was still their call sign
(I had retired by then)

A merger in 2007 with My Travel Group and the Thomas Cook Group (TCX) formerly JMC Air (MT callsign JMC) but even today flight numbers from UK airports still use both MT and TCX for flight numbers -
why? dunno....

Kestrel callsign has just been replaced with Thomas Cook
I have no idea who uses Tourjet now (if at all)