Shocking news for all concerned. I cant help but think that this is just the thin end of the wedge :cry: Though it did strike me as strange that they have two head offices.
 
Was one of them the former Airtours Head Office?

I seem to remember the Airtours/Mytravel HQ being in Manchester, could be wrong.

It does seem that the restructure is looking to cut away at the sheer number of premises, with todays announcement along with the announcement that they are cutting the number of highstreet outlets.
 
It's not good for the Thomas Cook workforce in Bradford but the company needs to do whatever is necessary if it is to stay in business.
 
There's no reason why people shouldn't book with them. They still have the backing of the banks who will almost definitely continue to support them so long as they are seen to be carrying out the necessary changes to make the company profitable again. As well as that, customers booking with Thomas Cook are still protected ATOL and ABTA.
 
Aviador said:
There's no reason why people shouldn't book with them. They still have the backing of the banks who will almost definitely continue to support them so long as they are seen to be carrying out the necessary changes to make the company profitable again. As well as that, customers booking with Thomas Cook are still protected ATOL and ABTA.

Well I bet I know about 500 people who wont be booking a Thomas Cook Holiday next summer after getting the news like they did today?
There former chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa also just got a astonishing £15 million payout for driving the company towards the very edge of the cliff. And now its the staff based at the Bradford office "who are going to pay the price of that mismanagement with their jobs".

If that means down sizing to survive, then let them do it as you quite rightly point out aviador they have got backing from the Banks now. But at a sizeable cost?

But I think a total pull out from both the Leeds/Bradford and Humberside region will hurt them even more. "I know they wont be forcing me either down the A1 to Donny or over the M62 to Manchester as Monarch, Thomson or Jet2 will get my money instead".

Thomas Cook will have to have a major re-brand and advertising campaign throughout the UK to win this battle. Also they will have regain consumer confidence as its a damaged brand. That I'll be twice as hard in the Yorkshire region as well now after today's bomb shell off an announcement.
 
It wouldn't surprise me if these jobs get shifted to abroad now, I read somewhere they are wanting to set up in India don't quite know what it means by set up as it doesnt state what. £15 million for poor management, shouldn't be payed it i say.
 
Thomas Cook 'agrees easyJet deal'

(UKPA) – 1 day ago

Beleaguered holiday firm Thomas Cook has reportedly signed a deal to book thousands of seats on flights run by low-cost carrier easyJet.

The UK's second-biggest travel company will use the easyJet seats as part of its package holidays for next summer, the Sunday Times said.

The tie-up, which could reportedly be announced this week, will cover about 80,000 trips, representing 3% of Thomas Cook's capacity.

The group, which was recently forced to turn to its banks for an additional £200 million of loans, has scaled back the size of its own airline in the past year as it moves to slash costs.

While it is thought to be the first time that easyJet has sold seats wholesale to another company, Thomas Cook has regularly worked with other airlines, such as Monarch.

The group was plunged into crisis in November after it turned to its lenders for help, sparking fears of a collapse, and recently appointed former Premier Farnell boss Harriet Green to lead its turnaround as its chief executive.

Thomas Cook has so far sold part of its aircraft fleet, five Spanish hotels and its Indian arm as part of the strategy to reduce its £1 billion debt mountain.

Ms Green is currently undertaking a review of the business that is likely to lead to a broad overhaul - but the outcome will not be known until next year.

Developments at easyJet have been overshadowed in recent months by various spats between the airline's founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, and its directors.

Last month, easyJet fended off Sir Stelios's attempt to oust its chairman Sir Michael Rake, who is also deputy chairman of Barclays, after it failed to win the support of the majority of shareholders. Earlier this year, Sir Stelios was also defeated in his attempt to throw out a multimillion-pound pay deal for executives.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpres ... 188860152A
 
It's not unusual to have low cost airlines taking seat allocations for tour companies. Jet2 has been doing it for a number of years.
 
It's not unusual to have low cost airlines taking seat allocations for tour companies. Jet2 has been doing it for a number of years.

The Tui Group certainly used low-cost carriers (may well still do so) for some of their summer Lakes and Mountains inclusive holidays.

In June 2011 my wife and I went on one such holiday to Montreux and the carrier was easyJet between Bristol and Geneva.
 
Another 430 jobs threatened at Thomas Cook

Around 430 jobs are under threat at Thomas Cook after it announced plans to reduce its UK fleet from 35 to 31 aircraft.

The move will impact operational staff, engineers and office-based support.

"Regrettably these proposals, if implemented, will have an inevitable impact on our people and we have today entered a period of consultation with our employees, with the expectation that approximately 430 roles will be impacted," said Thomas Cook in a statement yesterday.

"As always in such situations we will work openly with our colleagues and their representatives to support them throughout the process."

Read more: http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature. ... id=2003426
 
Here's an interesting interview with the head of long haul at Thomas Cook.

I'm sure Birmingham was only mentioned as a 'for instance' and I'm not reading too much into it but I do hope they have a proposal worked out as it's long haul IT is pretty poor. I'm sure there will be some stiff competition though.

30-Second Interview – Jens Boyd, Head of Group Long-Haul, Thomas Cook Airlines Group

Thomas Cook Airlines Group (TCAG) has issued two requests for proposals (RFP), the first being for additional frequencies to current long-haul destinations in its network out of new European departure airports that can be served by its existing 767 or A330 fleets on an inside W-pattern (out of the destination). The second RFP is looking to add new long-haul points in the Americas, Asia and Africa from its existing European departure points.

The reason for the RFPs is that presently in its S13 schedules, TCAG employs five of its 20-strong fleet of long-haul aircraft on short- and medium-haul sectors; in the winter the spare capacity drops to three aircraft. anna.aero discusses the RFPs with Jens Boyd, Head of Group Long-Haul at the group to understand how airports, and their partner tourism bodies, can secure some of the reallocation of TCAG’s capacity.

anna.aero: What is TCAG looking to get out of the RFP process?

Jens Boyd: In particular, we are seeking to obtain insightful traffic analysis, projections and firm proposals of commitment and incentives, which will be used to steer our long-term network planning process.

aa: Has TCAG done this type of thing before?

JB: We have never done it in such a structured manner before, as we are looking for the airline, tour operators, airport, tourism board, hotel operators, and travel agents to work together to deliver a positive result. In the past, a tourism authority may have come to just the tour operator, a decision is made and the airline is just seen only as a part of the tour operator. This is perhaps why long-haul routes have not been continued in operations, and also why there has been limited growth to new markets, as adding this type of flight is higher cost and higher risk than for short-haul. We are also looking to use our experience of developing our scheduled network, of using passenger data like MIDT to make more informed decisions, as we did in our recent North American expansion.

aa: Are you looking to tie-up all the spare capacity available for W14/15 and S15 from these RFPs, or do you think the process may have to be repeated next year?

JB: We will take that decision once we have gone through the process. We are looking to add say two relevant European departure airports, as well as two new global destinations in this iteration. But clearly, as we have the spare capacity, we could look to add more new network points if the business case is right and the strong partnerships with all stakeholders have been established.

aa: In the departure airport (from Europe) RFP it mentions that feed from domestic and regional airline partners like Lufthansa, SAS, LOT is closely integrated to the TCAG product – surely this gives preference to unserved airports like Berlin or Düsseldorf for example, where there is significant presence with Lufthansa?

JB: Feed into the airport is important, particularly when we are talking about niche destinations where there is limited demand at the origin, but we are not limited to those feeder carriers. If Brussels Airport thinks it has the potential to become a new departure point, then they may wish to propose we work with Brussels Airlines on a feeder agreement. Similarly, if Dublin wants to talk to us, it might be important that an airline like Aer Lingus is involved in any discussions we may have. So it is down to the airport in question to suggest who we could work with.

aa: Do you think the margins achieved on seven long-haul sectors per week will be higher than those generated by the 10-20 short- and medium-haul sectors these aircraft are currently flying?

JB: The overall cost position of a long-haul aircraft operating on a short-haul route is always going to be much worse.

aa: What is going to happen to these short-haul sectors, will the capacity be replaced seat-for-seat?

JB: We will be back-filling this flying with a combination of our own fleet or by using ACMI providers. It is always good to have a percentage of the latter in order to reduce our risk to unpredictable market changes.

aa: Could airports “buddy-up”? For example, a new European airport with a new Caribbean destination.

JB: Yes they can – it’s in the RFP. So, for example, if Birmingham Airport thinks that in addition to a strong leisure demand, there is also local VFR traffic to Antigua, then we would consider that type of opportunity. In many ways, this style of approach, with both ends of a potential route working together, is taking this process to the next level.

aa: What percentage of TCAG long-haul’s costs are allocated to airport charges?

JB: Of course…it should be 0%!! Just kidding (he laughs). In reality, it’s around 3-6% of total costs.

aa: On that basis how important is the ‘airport deal’ – isn’t it more important that the business case works?

JB: You are absolutely right. The business case needs to work in the long-term, as often these new route incentives expire anyway. What we are encouraging our airport partners to do is to consider the total costs of operating from their airport. For example, how competitive are the prices fuel providers charge, or indeed ground handlers? This is important when we are considering two airports in a particular region. We were evaluating two airports situated close to each other, where the larger airport’s landing charges were three times more expensive than its smaller competitor. However, our other costs at the bigger airport were so much cheaper than those levied at the smaller airport that no amount of incentive was ever going to recover the savings of operating into the larger airport.

aa: In terms of the prospective global leisure destinations are you looking for the airport or the tourism body to take the lead?

JB: We think that airport needs to take the lead, and also to take on a broader role in the overall partnership. They are many airports which are very good at telling us about their new check-in halls or improved security processing times, but still very few take on the responsibility of being the ‘champion’ in terms of pulling together all of the other stakeholders from the destination that we want to be included in this process.

aa: Many of your existing destinations are tried and tested – is TCAG prepared to try unproven markets that are not as well-developed in order to create fresh markets for its customers?

JB: Absolutely. Last winter we started services to Siem Rep (Cambodia), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Yangon (Myanmar) and Cape Town (South Africa). Puerto Rico and South Africa will return again for this winter, in fact Cape Town may actually be increased. So while this route churn rate is almost as bad as those from low-cost carriers, we are committed to exploring network white spots where customers want to go, but can’t easily get there. In the past, we have even considered places like Siberia! We know that there are lots of Russians that take holidays near Lake Baikal, so we were interested to see why and whether it would work for us. In the end, all of the components were not there to make the numbers stack-up, but yes we are keen to fill a void perhaps where a normal scheduled airline is not prepared to go.

http://www.anna.aero/2013/08/09/30-seco ... f-86869353
 
Thomas Cook confirms Flybe partnership

Thomas Cook has confirmed a partnership with Flybe that will open up long-haul routes to regional airports across the UK via the operator's Manchester hub.

Thomas Cook Airlines hinted at a partnership earlier this year but has today confirmed the details of the deal.

It will mean that customers can fly from Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Inverness, Isle of Man, Norwich and Southampton to Manchester to connect with Thomas Cook flights to the Caribbean, Florida, Las Vegas, Mexico and Goa.

These include the only routes outside London to Antigua and St Lucia, and one of only a handful of flights from the UK to Barbados.

Full report at: http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature. ... g&region=2
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlyuPufsnzg

New A330 Economy Cabin:- Available from December 2014
The new Thomas Cook Airlines Economy cabin includes new seats, offering maximum living space and comfort, alongside brand new 8.9” touch screen on-demand in-flight entertainment system and a range of blockbuster movies.
 
Stonebaked said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlyuPufsnzg

New A330 Economy Cabin:- Available from December 2014
The new Thomas Cook Airlines Economy cabin includes new seats, offering maximum living space and comfort, alongside brand new 8.9” touch screen on-demand in-flight entertainment system and a range of blockbuster movies.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlyuPufsnzg[/video]

Seems pretty good but not everybody likes the ultra thin style seats. Sign of the times I guess.
 
Thomas Cook seeks to sell airline business -report

British holiday company Thomas Cook Group is seeking to sell its airline business as part of a cost-saving plan, the Sunday Times newspaper reported, without citing its sources.

The world's oldest travel group has sounded out a number of potential buyers over the last few months including rival carriers and private equity investors but no deal has yet been reached and no talks are currently under way, the newspaper said.

Full article at http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/ ... G820150222
 
Thanks for that TLY, since the airline almost collapsed during the worldwide recession the airline has been turned around and is now a formidable business. I can see the airline being snapped up quite quickly.
 
New Years Eve saw the last ever Thomas Cook 757-200 flight.

It will be a sad day when the type is fully retired, it's a magnificent aircraft.

View media item 40Thomas Cook 757-200, by Channex 757, hosted on Forums4airports.com
 
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9 trips in 9 days done 70 miles walked and over 23-00 photos taken with a large number taken at 20mph or above. Heavy rain on 1 day only
5 trips done and 45 miles walked,. Also the RAF has had 4 F35B Lightning follow me yesterday and today....
My plans got altered slightly as one of the minibus companies had to cancel 3 trips and refunded me but will be getting nice discount when I rebook them.
wondering why on my "holidays" I choose to get up 2 hours earlier than when going to work. 6 trips in 6 days soon coming up with 3 more days to sort out

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