Thomas Cook expands A330 operations at Manchester

More widebody flights for the UK holiday airline

Thomas Cook (MT/TCX) has increased its wide-body operation at Manchester Airport (MAN/EGCC) with additional A330 services over the summer.

The UK holiday airline, which recently launched a direct service from Manchester to Seattle (SEA/KSEA) will use its wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft on 8 additional services across Europe and Turkey.

Thomas Cook operates 8 A330-200 aircraft in a  two-class configuration and most have Thomas Cook’s latest Premium cabin. The fleet ranges from 6 years old (G-MLJL) through to the newest aircraft G-VYGM, which was delivered from the Lessor last month. It also has one A330-300 (EI-FSP) leased from I-Fly which is expected to fly the majority of the additional A330 routes.

The additional destinations that will see an A330 operation from are:

• Alicante (1 weekly)
• Faro (1 weekly)
• Kos (1 weekly)
• Palma (1 weekly)
• Tenerife South (1 weekly)
• Fuerteventura (1 weekly)
• Antalya (2 weekly)
• Dalaman (2 weekly)

The additional A330 flights will run from the end of June through to mid-August.

Thomas Cook launching the Seattle service helped Manchester Airport pass 2.5m passengers through its terminals last month with two bank-holiday weekends and the half-term break. It also comes as the Northern gateway secured two more long-haul flights to Addis Ababa and Mumbai.

Andrew Cowan, CEO of Manchester Airport, said: “It’s been another busy month for Manchester Airport both in terms of the numbers of passengers passing through our doors, and key our long haul route announcements. 

“It was great to see flights to Seattle launch, opening up another area of the West Coast of America for our passengers.  The news of direct flights to Africa and India was another big boost for the airport, and the North, and shows the hard work we’re putting in to ensure that the region is connected to key growth markets around the world.”