Thomas Cook

[forest1979]

Is this correct?
https://www.thomascookairlines.com/en/cheap-flights/caribbean/barbados/from-bristol/

 

[forest1979]

... with bmi regional and condor..
why would anyone go east to go west?
Not sure why TC wouldn’t give it a go or Jamaica? There must be demand if they had these flights before from CWL

 

[Jerry]

... with bmi regional and condor..
why would anyone go east to go west?
Not sure why TC wouldn’t give it a go or Jamaica? There must be demand if they had these flights before from CWL

As someone who goes east to go west a lot of the time it's more convenient than trekking to London or Manchester.
There is demand for the Caribbean from the area. Enough for 2 carriers? Maybe. Problem is though for TCX they don't really have the aircraft to operate any flights because they have most of their eggs in the Manchester basket at the moment. Maybe 2019 will be different?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As someone who goes east to go west a lot of the time it's more convenient than trekking to London or Manchester.
There is demand for the Caribbean from the area. Enough for 2 carriers? Maybe. Problem is though for TCX they don't really have the aircraft to operate any flights because they have most of their eggs in the Manchester basket at the moment. Maybe 2019 will be different?

I agree with Jerry about going east first to go west. When my wife and I used to visit the USA and Canada we would invariably use KLM from BRS to access the AMS hub. The alternative was Heathrow which still meant travelling east first, sometimes for up to a two hour drive if traffic was heavy whilst the short BRS-AMS hop was an hour or even less.

If we were to visit the USA again, which I doubt because we've seen and done all we want to do there, we'd have a look at the Aer Lingus service via Dublin as well as AMS and LHR but in the end we'd choose the route that was most convenient to us overall.

Flying to Frankfurt first might be a little too much east to fly west even for us. The elapsed flight times are not great either - between 15 and 21 hours depending on service used. If I ever went to Barbados I wouldn't be looking at this as an option. When I go to Australia I'm not in the air for more than 21 hours!

 

[Jerry]

at the Aer Lingus service via Dublin

The irony for me was that when Aer Lingus was operating to CWL they were usually the cheapest but generally the longest flights and we are talking about 20 hour journeys with 5 to 6 hour layovers in Chicago or Washington. I haven't used Germany as generally flights to Portland are limited from there. I think Condor does do flights from FRA. There are a lot of people who don't mind using hubs but i have a feeling your average traveller to BGI or MBJ or MCO would go for the direct flights. Hopefully in the years to come TCX will get some more aircraft and look at operating flights like that out of CWL in the summer maybe.

 

[forest1979]

Have we got confirmation of TC’s base size at Bristol next summer? Assuming 2 321’s and a 320?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Have we got confirmation of TC’s base size at Bristol next summer? Assuming 2 321’s and a 320?

The timetable suggests this - see Severn's post #132 earlier in this thread.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Enfidha

I note that Thomas Cook is resuming flights to Enfidha next year from LGW, MAN, STN, LTN, BHX, GLA, NCL and LBA. I'm a bit surprised that they haven't included BRS in this list.

 

[Aviador]

This might be just me, but just had a look at the Thomas Cook holidays booking page and selected BRS as flying from, then clicked list for destinations which came up with the following anomalies:-
View attachment 6350

Will you do that for Leeds as well

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2018

Does anyone know which third party airline will be providing the A320 for next summer? A post elsewhere on F4A suggests that TCX have obtained four former Monarch A320s. If so, there should not be the need for as many third party A320s next summer.

 

[forest1979]

I was wondering what the set up would be. According to Wiki, seems they are having a transfer of aircraft across the group with the only 320 they have going to the new set up 'TC Balearics' along with the now defunct TC Belgium aircraft... Their 757 300's are off to Condor and Condors 321's to TC UK....
If this is the case then I assume (not knowing anything about the potential Monarch aircraft) they would have to lease a 3rd party 320 for the additional Bristol capacity...

 

[Jerry]

If they were going to lease a 3rd party aircraft i'd imagine it would be either Smartlynx or Avion Express.
Hopefully though TCX will get their own A320's.

 

[Seasider]

Haven't I read they are taking 4 ex Monarch A320's?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Haven't I read they are taking 4 ex Monarch A320's?

Yes, that's what I thought. See #170 above.

I don't think that BRS has ever had Smartlynx or Avion Express operating a full season for TCX. They used to have two of TCX's own A320s based which were upgraded to two A321s several years ago. Next summer will be the first season that TCX has had three aircraft based at BRS.

 

[Severn]

TCX have acquired 4 ex-MON A321s.
No word yet on where these will be based or their purpose. TCX may want these aircraft to add capacity at existing bases (MAN,LGW,BHX For example after the loss of MON). Or they may want them to be added to the bases where a leased aircraft was scheduled to be based for next summer meaning they are less reliant on leased in metal. As it stands, BHX, BRS, NCL, CWL, LTN, LBA are set for a leased A320 each (not sure on LGW or MAN but last year there were 2x A320s & 1xA321 leased in at LGW and 1x A320 & 2xA321s at MAN).
It’s seems unlikely CWL (being seasonal) and to a lesser extent LTN and LBA will see TCX metal based as these are not pilot bases for TCX. Amongst other things would not be cost effective given the logistics that go into creating a pilot base. However LBA and LTN look like they’re not just seasonal, and with th demise of Monarch it might make sense to start a year round base now with TCX-own metal.

 

[Jerry]

If TCX stayed seasonal at CWL using their own metal would they really need to open a pilot base? They could just use BRS based pilots. Well within commuting range. Same for LBA and LTN they could just use MAN and STN pilots respectively. TUI operate a few seasonal bases with their own aircraft and their pilots must come from somewhere?

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Likely pilots fly from BRS that were previously based at CWL anyway. What they would need to be careful of is being able to recruit/relocate enough pilots to sustain new pilot bases for both CWL and BRS. At least if a 3rd party Airline is used, they bring their own in from elsewhere.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2018

I've been reading that Thomas Cook will not now operate a base at LBA. It was planned originally to use a leased A320. Instead there will now be five flights per week with four operated by non-based TCX A321s and the fifth by a third party carrier.

I've not read anything that suggests the proposed additional based unit at BRS (leased A320) will also be axed, unless anyone knows differently.

 

[Jerry]

Summer 2018

I've been reading that Thomas Cook will not now operate a base at LBA. It was planned originally to use a leased A320. Instead there will now be five flights per week with four operated by non-based TCX A321s and the fifth by a third party carrier.

I've not read anything that suggests the proposed additional based unit at BRS (leased A320) will also be axed, unless anyone knows differently.

According to Wikipedia they will lease 2 A320s and 2 A321s from Avion Express. Pretty sure CWL will get an A320 so then it'll probably be between BRS and NCL in who gets the other one.

 

[Marko1]

Some positive news for a change - dalaman goes to 6 weekly for the month of October 2017 and lanzarote also goes 2 weekly during that month