Thomas Cook collapsing leaves me wondering how it will impact the markets they served. •
MT served the following US cities: LAS, LAX, JFK, MCO, SFO & SEA.
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When considering their US service, the route that comes to mind is MAN-MCO. This also happens to be their top US route based off frequency. They served it up to 2x during the summer. •
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MAN-MCO -
Over 420,000 passengers flew nonstop between the two airports in 2018.
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Nonstop service was provided by Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook. VS up to 2x daily 747s and MT up to 2x daily A330s. Both airlines serve the route year round. Thomas Cook going bust leaves a large void in the market and I wonder if anyone will step up to fill it? Maybe Virgin Atlantic? Unlikely imo, at least in the case of MCO-MAN, solely based on the fact that they already offer up to 2x daily 747s on the route. •
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MT was the only carrier offering nonstop MAN - SEA & SFO service. Routes that had competition are now monopolies, such as MAN - LAX, MCO, JFK, CCC, VRA etc. •
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It’s easy to forget that Condor, based in Frankfurt, is part of the Thomas Cook Group. I’m sure we’ll learn in the coming days as to how this collapse will impact the airline. If Condor suffers the same fate as MT, many US airports will lose a valuable link to Frankfurt.
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Airports like PDX, MSY, PIT, FAI etc will all lose incredibly important nonstop service to Frankfurt. •
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Thankfully, Eurowings is adding nonstop FRA- LAS, PHX and ANC cushioning the blow to those airports. •
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Lufthansa added nonstop FRA- SAN & AUS the past few years, pushing Condor out of those markets. I imagine those airports are incredibly grateful for Lufthansa adding service. •
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This doesn’t even touch on how large MT was in many popular European, Caribbean, Turkish, and Middle Eastern tourist destinations. Many of those areas rely solely on tourism to support themselves and a large loss of capacity like this could be catastrophic to the local economy. •
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It’s sad to see them go, but from what I’ve read, the operation was very unprofitable, and you just can’t run an airline like that. •
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I’m very interested to see where their A330s end up... •
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