Awaiting Their Fate - Thomas Cook A330s at Manchester

            Thomas Cook Airlines Airbus A330s G-MDBD and G-MLJL sit outside the Thomas Cook Airlines hangar at Manchester Airport awaiting their fate following the demise of the carrier several months previously. There were actually four A330s here at the time, G-OMYT was out of frame and parked on a stand to the right of the shot while a fourth was located inside the hangar, that one being from Thomas Cook Scandinavia and would eventually leave for the rescued and rebranded "Sunclass Airlines".

The future was not going to be bright for any of these three aircraft, they were the three oldest Airbus A330s on the British register having all been delivered in 1999 (fun fact - Monarch beat Airtours to the punch with their A330s coming in the spring with Airtours taking theirs in Summer and Autumn). The collapse of Thomas Cook Airlines was one thing but the massive downturn in the global aviation industry as a result of Covid meant there were younger airframes around for anyone in the market for an A330 or three...

Despite being touted for freighter conversion all three aircraft would unceremoniously be scrapped outside the Thomas Cook hangar over the course of February 2021 in full view of the passengers in Terminal 1, unlike in 2003 when Monarch's DC-10-30 G-DMCA was scrapped on the Manchester ramp the airport authorities didn't "loose their s***t" mainly because thanks to Covid there weren't actually that many passengers knocking around to see the spectacle...

G-MDBD was delivered to Airtours International Airways on 24th June 1999 and aside from two stints with Garuda Indonesia for Hajj charter purposes the aircraft remained with the company through its rebranding to the very clunky sounding MyTravel Airways and their subsequent merger into the just as clunky sounding Thomas Cook Airlines...

G-MLJL in the background has a similar history, it has the distinction of being the first A330 delivered to Airtours (on 15th June 1999) and also operating the last ever Thomas Cook Airlines flight following MT2643's arrival into Manchester from Orlando on 23rd September 2019.

© Phil Cribbin 2020

Taken on: September 7, 2024

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Sets appears in: • Thomas Cook Airlines • A330 more » • Stored Aircraft • Airbus • Manchester Airport « less

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