Cardiff: TUi Airways Flights, New Routes & Base Updates

[Jerry]

TOM have a one off flight to Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees today on a 737 800 departing at 13.30

 

[superking]

TOM have a one off flight to Tarbes-Lourdes Pyrenees today on a 737 800 departing at 13.30

they did 1 last Saturday as well,like wise from brs.It was last weeks pax that came back today.Its done from lots of airports this time of year and always think once these doine then the summer time table kicks off. Its a place similar to mecca and its a week of religion,must be the right time of year for this faith.

 

[Jerry]

they did 1 last Saturday as well,like wise from brs.It was last weeks pax that came back today.Its done from lots of airports this time of year and always think once these doine then the summer time table kicks off. Its a place similar to mecca and its a week of religion,must be the right time of year for this faith.

I didn't realise there was one last week. I'm guessing it's a pilgrimage to Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Just had a look online and the place looks beautiful.

 

[Jerry]

And I've just realised as well that I got the aircrafts wrong. It was a 767 300 not a 737 800. According to SWAG G-OBYE.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As superking says, most regional airports have flights to Tarbes-Lourdes each year for pilgrimages. CAA stats show that in 2016 CWL handled 699 passengers on the route.

 

[Tinkerman]

G-FDZG in TUI Family Life livery inbound to CWL.

 

[Jerry]

It's a nice livery. Really stands out! The spotters will love it! Hopefully they'll keep it at CWL all summer in that livery.

 

[Jerry]

Thomson Airways stats March 2017
Alicante 2764
Malaga 1478
Arrecife 3226
Las Palmas 1214
Tenerife South 4684
Bridgetown 1046

 

[Severn]

Summary of TOM Routes - Summer 2018

I've compared a week in August 2018 to the same week in 2017 of Thomson Airways schedule from CWL:

Number of routes operating per week:
2017: 20
2018: 20


Number of flights per week:
2017: 34

Operated by TOM: 32
Operated by other airlines: 2​

2018: 34

Operated by TOM: 32
Operated by other airlines: 2

​

Number of aircraft based:
2017: 2 - (2x B738)
2018: 2 - (2x B738)


Weekly Frequencies: (a '[+]' or '[-]' represents change from 2017)

7x Weekly
Majorca (PMI) - (1 of the 7 flights operated by Eurowings 2017 & 2018)

3x Weekly
Ibiza (IBZ)

2x Weekly
Alicante (ALC)
Lanzarote (ACE)
Malaga (AGP)
Menorca (MAH)
Tenerife (TFS) - (1 of the 2 flights operated by Norwegian 2017 & 2018)
Dalaman (DLM)

1x Weekly
Bourgas (BOJ)
Corfu (CFU)
Faro (FAO)
Gran Canaria (LPA)
Heraklion (HER)
Kefalonia (EFL)
Kos (KGS)
Larnaca (LCA)
Paphos (PFO)
Reus (REU)
Rhodes (RHO)
Zante (ZTH)


SUMMARY
Summer 2018 sees no changes from Summer 2017

 

[Jerry]

Do Norwegian on TFS and Eurowings on PMI operate on behalf of Thomson Airways or Thomson Holidays. I believe it's Thomson Airways but i'm checking to see if i'm correct or wrong!🙂

 

[Tinkerman]

Do Norwegian on TFS and Eurowings on PMI operate on behalf of Thomson Airways or Thomson Holidays. I believe it's Thomson Airways but i'm checking to see if i'm correct or wrong!🙂

I believe that Eurowings and Norwegian operate on behalf of Thomson Holidays, since it is the tour operator that charters these other airlines to operate its charter flights on its behalf if they don't have the capacity within their in-house airline Thomson Airways. Same goes for Thomson Airways themselves, their flights are technically operated on behalf of Thomson Holidays, exactly in the same way as it's technically Thomas Cook Airlines, operated by Avion Express, operated on behalf (chartered by) Thomas Cook Holidays.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I too believe that it's for Thomson Holidays for the reasons that Tinkerman puts forward. The only obvious difference I can see between Thomson/Norwegian and Thomas Cook/Avion Express is that Norwegian uses its own flight numbers whilst Avion Express uses Thomas Cook flight numbers.

If an airline was subbing for another airline that airline would normally use the client airline's flight numbers, whether wet, damp or dry leased which is what Avion Express does.

I'm a bit intrigued to know whether the question was prompted by a practical consideration.

 

[Jerry]

Thomson Airways Stats April 2017
Paphos 1489 average pax 186 LF 98%
Tarbes-Lourdes 445 average pax 222 LF 67%
Alicante 3213 average pax 178 LF 94%
Malaga 1887 average pax 188 LF 99%
Arrecife 3326 average pax 184 LF 97%
Las Palmas 1851 average pax 185 LF 98%
Tenerife South 4296 average pax 179 LF 95%

 

[Jerry]

Thomson Winter Long haul flights.
These flights are on sale on TOM's website with holiday packages.
19DEC 10:10 TOM724 CWL-MBJ
31DEC 11:55 TOM834 CWL-BGI
16JAN 10:10 TOM724 CWL-MBJ
20FEB 10:10 TOM724 CWL-MBJ
04MAR 11:55 TOM834 CWL-BGI
These are believed to be P&O Cruises flights for the Britannia and Azura
25NOV 10:35 TOM046 CWL-BGI
13JAN 11:35 TOM168 CWL-BGI
17FEB 11:35 TOM168 CWL-BGI
17MAR 11:35 TOM168 CWL-BGI

 

[Aviador]

Looks like a good programme.

 

[Jerry]

Yeah the P&O flights i'm not surprised about as cruises sell really well from Cardiff and TOM may not have had the choice of airport there. The TOM own flights i am surprised about that considering their new long haul operation from BRS i'd have thought they would operate them from there. Only thing i can think of is that they may want the option of using the 767s instead as they did several DXB earlier in the year with the 767s.

 

[Selig]

Going to Corfu end of June. Tried to book a flight only from Cardiff several weeks ago, found there was only one airline flying there, Thomson, & they quoted £469 pp return! Tried from Bristol & easyJet quoted £135.16 pp return. Obviously I chose Bristol, & added select seating & priority boarding, total price £158.71 pp.
If Thomson are puzzled why their passenger numbers are not improving then there is an easy explanation.

 

[Jerry]

Going to Corfu end of June. Tried to book a flight only from Cardiff several weeks ago, found there was only one airline flying there, Thomson, & they quoted £469 pp return! Tried from Bristol & easyJet quoted £135.16 pp return. Obviously I chose Bristol, & added select seating & priority boarding, total price £158.71 pp.
If Thomson are puzzled why their passenger numbers are not improving then there is an easy explanation.

Thomsons passenger numbers are doing fine. They fill the aircraft aircraft with most of their LFs in the high 90's. They are the airline for a package holiday company not a low cost airline so there prices for flights only will be high as they want you to buy the whole thing off then. It's unfair to compare them to Easyjet when they serve different markets.

 

[Jerry]

And the only way Thomsons passenger numbers would improve is by them adding another aircraft to the CWL base or more non based flights and adding new routes which hopefully as CWL grows they will do eventually.
And you may have wanted to wait! Half the price now!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Welcome to Forums4Airports, Selig. Thank you for your post - we hope you will continue to contribute.

As a matter of interest, did you check the Thomson and Thomas Cook flight prices from Bristol to Corfu? I wondered how these compared with easyJet. It may be that most people use TOM and TCX to CFU from BRS (and to other destinations for that matter) for package holidays leaving easyJet as flight-only.

I don't know how long you've been following aviation in this corner of the UK but up to about ten years ago Thomson had a slightly bigger operation out of CWL than out of BRS. This is not quite as cut-and-dried as it might seem though because BRS also had a thriving First Choice operation that was very small at CWL. When Thomson and First Choice merged the combined BRS operation was bigger than TOM's at CWL and that has been the case ever since with TOM adding a third based aircraft in summer for the past two or three years, with a 787 also due to be part based in summer 2018.