Tour operator Thomas Cook to set up new Spanish airline

Thomas Cook has applied for a Spanish aviation operating licence.

UK-headquartered travel company Thomas Cook – creator of millions of package holiday memories for Brits of all ages – has announced this week that it is to set up a new Spanish airline to cope with an expected increase in demand for flights to and from Spain in 2018…

At a time when low-cost airlines are either going bust (Air Berlin and Monarch) or struggling with staffing issues (Ryanair), Thomas Cook is seeking to take advantage of uncertainty in the industry by entering perhaps the most competitive, but potentially lucrative, portion of the aviation business: serving Spain.

Spanish airports are among Europe’s busiest, ferrying in holidaymakers from across the globe for most of the year, largely due to Spain’s perennial popularity as the world’s favourite tourism destination.

With this in mind, Thomas Cook will base its new airline from Palma de Majorca, and will begin flights to and from the Balearic island in early 2018. Its initial fleet will be three Airbus A320 planes, flying under a Spanish operating licence, but the tour operator has said that the number in its fleet will likely rise to meet the expected demand.

“The new airline and base will provide us with the right platform to better manage the seasonal demand in our business, giving us more control at lower cost as we continue to expand the choice of destinations we offer our customers,” Christoph Debus, chief airline officer at Thomas Cook, said in a statement.

Even for a company as large as Thomas Cook, the winter months are often loss-making ones, the company said. Hence, by operating seasonal staff from Spain, the company can better respond to demand and hopefully make a profit between November and March, which is typically the quiet period for both the company and Spanish tourism.

By operating from Majorca, the Thomas Cook Balearics Division will be able to loan planes more easily to other divisions in the group, which will mean a smoother balance sheet for the firm.

Currently, Thomas Cook has 94 aircraft and handles 16.7 million passengers annually.