Flying Colours was a

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

in the United Kingdom that operated from 1996 until 2000.

History

The airline began operations in the summer of 1997 with a fleet of six

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

, two

Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

and eleven

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden ...

aircraft. Flying Colours had several operational bases outside of its

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2024, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passengers (the busiest outside of London) ...

headquarters, including

London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport , also known as London Gatwick Airport (), is the Airports of London, secondary international airport serving London, West Sussex and Surrey. It is located near Crawley in West Sussex, south of Central London. In 2024, Gatwic ...

and

Glasgow International Airport Glasgow Airport, also known as Glasgow International Airport () and formerly Abbotsinch Airport, is an international airport located in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, west of Glasgow city centre. In 2019 it handled 8.84 million passeng ...

. The airline quickly established a positive reputation in the charter industry, with a fleet of newly built aircraft and new features; Flying Colours were the first airline in the UK to have LCD TV screens in the cabins of their 757s, these would fold down from the interior ceiling of the aircraft. In 1998, then the travel agent

Thomas Cook & Son Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a British travel company that existed from 1841 to 2001. It arranged transport, tours and holidays worldwide. It was owned by the British government from 1948 to 1972. The company was foun ...

acquired Flying Colours Leisure Group. Subsequently, the in-house charter airline of Thomas Cook, Airworld, adopted the Flying Colours Airlines brand. Shortly after the takeover two ex-Airworld

s were returned to their lessor. The airline also maintained the Airworld operating base at Bristol. In 1999 Thomas Cook completed the acquisition of Carlson Leisure Group, who operated the charter carriers

Caledonian Airways Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations charter airline in the United Kingdom formed in April 1961. It began with a single 104-seat Douglas DC-7#DC-7C, Douglas DC-7C aircraft lease, ...

and

Peach Air Peach Air was a charter airline in the United Kingdom that operated for two years between 1997 and 1998. History Peach Air was formed in 1996. It was part of Caledonian Airways (1988), Caledonian Airways, created to operate for the tour ope ...

. This led to a complete rebrand by Thomas Cook of its growing tour operation. In 2000, Thomas Cook rebranded their charter airline operations as

JMC Air JMC Airlines Limited (also known as JMC Air, JMC Airlines or simply JMC and stylised as jmc) was a charter airline in the United Kingdom formed by the merger of Caledonian Airways (1988), Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours Airlines, followin ...

, part of a new universal customer-facing brand, "JMC". Flying Colours ordered two

Airbus A330-200 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs alon ...

aircraft to begin longhaul operations, these aircraft arrived after the JMC rebrand. JMC Air was rebranded as

Thomas Cook Airlines Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It s ...

in 2002. Thomas Cook Airlines UK then later announced a merger with fellow Manchester-founded airline

MyTravel Airways MyTravel Airways Limited was a British scheduled and air charter, charter airline with headquarters in Manchester, England. It operated worldwide holiday charter services mainly for its parent company, the MyTravel Group. The airline merged wit ...

; the parent companies were scheduled to merge in June 2007 with the two airlines merging in November 2007. Thomas Cook Airlines ceased operations in September 2019, following the collapse of the parent travel agent company.

References

External links

{{Airlines of the United Kingdom 1996 establishments in England 2000 disestablishments in England Airlines established in 1996 Airlines disestablished in 2000 Defunct charter airlines of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Manchester Transport in Manchester British companies established in 1996 British companies disestablished in 2000

History

See also

References

External links