I'm trying to book a flight from Santorini, Greece to Manchester, England and the only option that I can find is one by Thomas Cook Airlines (the specific route I am after is offered only twice a month, which I thought was kind of strange).
I have never heard of Thomas Cook Airlines? Has anyone used them before? I'm just looking to make sure they're legit. Any info about them and your experiences would be appreciated, thank you!
Thomas Cook is a charter airline that operates vacation flights out of the UK. They are notorious for being late.
Thomsonfly is another British charter that flies that route every Tuesday night from May through October. They charge more than Thomas Cook.
Santorini is not a major airport. Most if its flights are commuter flights from Athens. The other name for it is Thira.
There are numerous one stop options but they will cost more.
Hi Jenny,
I flew with Thomas Cook between Canada and the UK. Although I had not heard about their reputation that Frank II mentioned, it would not have bothered me anyways due to the price.
I actually found the airline to be very comfortable and their in-flight food (which for my long-haul flight was included in the cost of the airfare) was very good. The in-flight entertainment system offered personal TVs with a wide choice of programs, and there was even more legroom than other airlines (for me, notably Air Canada). I would fly with them again, especially if the price is right.
In the recent say 5-8 years Thomas Cook created a huge mess with renaming pretty much every airline and every tour brand. Around 2000 the German tour operator Condor Und Neckermann took over the British tour operator Thomas Cook and renamed the entire company Thomas Cook. A couple of years later they renamed all of their airlines (JMC, Condor, MyTravel Airline, etc.) into Thomas Cook Airlines. In many markets that didn't work out so they had to rename them into their original brands. In the UK it remained Thomas Cook Airlines because of the well-introduced brand name. Here's more about that airline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cook_Airlines
I, too, used Thomas Cook to travel from Eastern Canada to London Gatwick - found the legroom and yes -food -better than our major Canadian airlines. Cant say about other (perhaps different) divisions of the airline.
Thank you everyone your responses were really helpful! I'm going to go ahead with it and book the flight =)
We flew TC from Manchester to Calgary last year when Zoom went under. Found it was punctual and comfortable. We are using it Calgary to Glasgow and Gatwick to Calgary this year and hope to have the same experience. Within Europe they have offered charter flights and holidays for many years and the holiday flights do tend to be late and passenegers herded like cattle. Never used then as a straight charter flight within Europe, so I cannot comment on their service.
