Thomas Cook

[superking]

Is it known yet if this will be the based aircraft for summer.

 

[Jerry]

Is it known yet if this will be the based aircraft for summer.

It is believed to be the based aircraft yes.

 

[Jerry]

Is it known yet if this will be the based aircraft for summer.

It is believed to be the based aircraft yes

 

[Jerry]

With all the Flybe stuff it's been forgotten that today was the first day of operation for Thomas Cook at CWL in April and with an A321 now instead of an A320.

 

[Jerry]

Reports online suggest that the Thomas Cook flights have got off to a good start. 205 on today's PMI and 200+ on Mondays Dalaman and there was 200+ on Thursdays Lanzarote.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Reports online suggest that the Thomas Cook flights have got off to a good start. 205 on today's PMI and 200+ on Mondays Dalaman and there was 200+ on Thursdays Lanzarote.

It's good because I don't think that the school holidays begin yet in Wales. In South West England the Easter holidays seem to begin this weekend but in South Wales they begin a week later according to the local authorities I checked.

 

[Jerry]

It's good because I don't think that the school holidays begin yet in Wales. In South West England the Easter holidays seem to begin this weekend but in South Wales they begin a week later according to the local authorities I checked.

Yes it is! I know an old work colleague of mine always used to go to Turkey in April and always complained he had to fly from London so its possible they are attracting people like him and with PMI I wouldn't be surprised if they are picking up some flight only passengers as well as I've heard many people complain about the lack of PMI flights on the weekend.

 

[Huw M Jones]

Caught a headline last night on Sky News at Midnight announcing that a Chinese firm, Fosun, was in talks to purchase Thomas Cook's tour operations. No other details were given.

 

[Jerry]

Hopefully it'll turn out positive for Cardiff.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Caught a headline last night on Sky News at Midnight announcing that a Chinese firm, Fosun, was in talks to purchase Thomas Cook's tour operations. No other details were given.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ake-an-offer-for-thomas-cook-unit-sky-reports

Fosun is already Thomas Cook's biggest shareholder and wants to acquire the tour operating business. Currently it could not buy the airline because of EU rules.

 

[Jerry]

The based aircraft this peak-summer is a SmartLynx A320 which is the same as Summer 2018.

The based is a Smartlynx A321.

 

[Severn]

Summary of TCX Routes - Summer 2019 - Updated (Thanks Jerry, copy and paste error showed CWL as a A320 base this summer, not A321)
Summer 2019 is upon us, and I realised there hasn't been a post about this summer for a while.
The based aircraft this peak-summer is a SmartLynx A321, an upgrade from the A320 based in summer 2018.

I've compared a week in August 2019 to the same week in 2018 of Thomas Cook Airlines schedule from CWL.
-----------------------------------------------
Number of routes operating per week:
2018: 11
2019: 9 (-2)
-----------------------------------------------
Number of flights per week:
2018: 16
2019: 14 (-2)
-----------------------------------------------
Number of aircraft based:
2018: 1x A320 (operated by SmartLynx)
2019: 1x A321 (operated by SmartLynx)
-----------------------------------------------
Weekly Frequencies: (a '[+]' or '[-]' represents change from 2018)

3x Weekly
Dalaman (DLM) [+1]

2x Weekly
Majorca (PMI) [-1]
Tenerife (TFS)
Zante (ZTH)

1x Weekly
Enfidha (NBE) (NEW) [+1]
Antalya (AYT)
Larnaca (LCA)
Reus (REU)
Rhodes (RHO)

Dropped
Bourgas (BOJ) [-1]
Ibiza (IBZ) [-1]
Lanzarote (ACE) [-1]

Notes
In 2018, the weekly AYT was operated by a BRS based TCX A321 on a W-Pattern.
In 2019, the weekly AYT will be operated by a CWL based A321 on a Saturday afternoon which will take the place of the IBZ and BOJ flights that operated that time slot in 2018.

Capacity
2018 - 2,920 departing seats per week in peak summer (15x based A320 flights, 1x A321 w-pattern)
2019 - 3,080 departing seats per week in peak summer (14x based A321 flights)

Schedule (Departure times from CWL)
Mon: ZTH - 06:40 / DLM - 16:05
Tue: PMI - 07:10 / TFS - 14:15
Wed: NBE - 06:00 / RHO - 14:55
Thu: ZTH - 06:00 / DLM - 15:05
Fri: TFS - 06:10 / DLM - 16:30
Sat: PMI - 07:10 / AYT - 14:05
Sun: REU - 07:40 / LCA - 14:00

 

[superking]

All Thomas cook flights grounded as airline have collapsed tonight.This is another blow for CWL.My thoughts are with staff which there is about 22000 world wide.

 

[Jerry]

Really sad news for the industry and especially the staff who has lost their jobs. For CWL this is a big blow and only time will tell whether any of the flights will be regained. Just terrible news.
It looks like Titan Airways will be operating the Zakynthos return today.

Cardiff Airport - Careers

Browse Cardiff Airport job vacancies and career opportunities across aviation, operations and support roles. Join Wales’ national airport team and apply today.

www.cardiff-airport.com

 

[Jerry]

The loss of Thomas Cook will mean not only the loss of a based aircraft and based crew who sadly will lose their jobs but Cardiff will also lose up to 14 weekly departures and for the year roughly 90,000 departing seats.

 

[Rob c DSA]

Cardiff really suffering due to the problems in the UK airline industry going to be tough for the airport to recover in the short to medium term.

 

[Tinkerman]

A very, very sad day for the UK Aviation scene. Heart goes out to all Thomas Cook employees, and both current and future holidaymakers who are effected by today’s news.

Unfortunately the writing has been on the wall with Thomas Cook for some time now, and sadly the bubble has finally burst.

A major gap left to fill in the UK air travel industry, where i imagine the majority of the slack will be picked up by TUI/Jet2 in the months/years to come.

 

[Severn]

Mon 23rd Sep
Very sad news today regarding TCX. Gutted for all the staff and passengers who are affected and wish the crew luck over the next few months.
The two TCX arrivals today have now been cancelled and repatriation flights organised in replacement.
ZTH - ZT1915 (Titan Airways) Arr 19:05 (original arrival time was 15:05)

DLM - ZT925 (Titan Airways) Arr 05:55 (original arrival time was 01:55)

 

[Jerry]

Cardiff really suffering due to the problems in the UK airline industry going to be tough for the airport to recover in the short to medium term.

Yep 14 weekly departures will be hard to recover especially as the airlines needed to replace them will no doubt be focusing on filling the gaps elsewhere at much bigger airports.

 

[Pontyboy]

Thomas cook was considerably bigger than Monarch and this is a huge hole in capacity. Or a rebalancing however you look at UK aviation. Dart group (Owner of Jet 2), easy jet, Tui and Ryanair share price are all up this morning as this will help with winter margins when many airlines make a loss perhaps these airlines will now have a healthier period. Thomas cook airlines flew over 8 million passengers last year and grew 10%. Quite a big percentage of its fleet is wet leased. The air tanker a330’s and the smart lynx airbus a320/321. I wonder if Jet 2 will see the TCX A321 as a cheap replacement to its 757 fleet. They do like a bargain. Plus a few a330’s on the market soon.