JMC Airlines Limited (also known as JMC Air, JMC Airlines or simply JMC and stylised as jmc) 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 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

formed by the merger of

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 Flying Colours Airlines, following the purchase of

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 ...

by the Carlson Leisure Group. JMC Air primarily served the Thomas Cook holidays brand and was rebranded in March 2003 to Thomas Cook Airlines UK.

History

JMC Air was initially announced in 1999, with a five year, £200m rebranding plan to join three of Thomas Cook's holiday brands Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations and Flying Colours and Caledonian airlines. JMC Air was named after the initials of the son of

Thomas Cook Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy. He served an appren ...

, John Mason Cook. JMC Air's managing director was Terry Soult who had previously served the same role with Flying Colours. It started operating under the JMC Air name from March 2000. The main operating bases were

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

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) ...

. Aircraft were also stationed at

London Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's Airports of London, third-bu ...

, Birmingham International Airport,

Bristol Airport Bristol Airport , at Lulsgate Bottom, on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, in North Somerset, is an international airport serving the city of Bristol, England, and the surrounding area. It is southwest of Bristol city centre. Built ...

, Glasgow International Airport,

Cardiff Airport Cardiff Airport () is an airport in Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan. It is the only airport offering commercial passenger services and cargo services in Wales. The airport is owned by the Welsh Government, operating it at arm's length as a commercia ...

and Newcastle Airport. JMC Air also operated flights from

Leeds Bradford Airport Leeds Bradford Airport is located in Yeadon, West Yorkshire, Yeadon, in the City of Leeds, City of Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, about northwest of Leeds city centre, and about northeast from Bradford city centre. ...

. At the start of operations the fleet consisted of

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

-200,

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 ...

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 ...

and

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the Douglas DC-8, DC-8 for long-Range (aeronautics), range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; i ...

aircraft. In 2000, Thomas Cook was sold to C&N Touristic, a German based group backed by

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

and rebranded as Thomas Cook AG. JMC Air became closely linked to

Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua language, Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. One species, the And ...

as a result of the acquisition, and was estimated to control 16% of all European charter airline seats. During the same year, JMC faced legal action from 20 tourists who fell ill on a package holiday in

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. JMC Air were also part of an eight airline consortium that attempted to buy the British National Air Traffic Services. Prior to launch in 1999, JMC Air sought to acquire Boeing's latest

757-300 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 fl ...

aircraft which led to them becoming the first UK operator of the -300 in 2001. By late 2001, Thomas Cook made over 550 staff redundant of which 100 were with JMC Air. JMC Air also closed three bases in the UK, as a result of lower passenger numbers in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In November of the same year, a JMC Air flight from Newcastle to

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

was diverted due to a drunk passenger incident, which led to the passenger being arrested and jailed for four months. In the same month, JMC Air took delivery of two leased

aircraft via CIT Aerospace and Tyco Capital. The aircraft were configured in a two class layout and powered by

Rolls-Royce Trent The Rolls-Royce Trent is a family of high-bypass turbofans produced by Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rolls-Royce. It continues the Turbofan#Three-spool, three spool architecture of the Rolls-Royce RB211, RB211 with a maximum thrust ranging from . Lau ...

engines. The aircraft were primarily used for long-haul operations to the Caribbean and United States. In early 2002, a JMC Air passenger successfully won damages for suspected

deep vein thrombosis Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a type of venous thrombosis involving the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs or pelvis. A minority of DVTs occur in the arms. Symptoms can include pain, swelling, redness, and enl ...

as a result of a long-haul flight from

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. In May, it was announced JMC Air would be rebranded as Thomas Cook for summer 2003. Around this time, JMC were considering a move to offer flight only bookings to compete with no-frills carriers such as

Easyjet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airlin ...

. The first Thomas Cook liveried aircraft took to the skies in late 2002. In 2003, JMC Air was noted as the best UK charter airline for shortest delays by Holiday Which, having taken an average 33 minute delay in 2001 down to an average of 13 minutes in 2002. In the same year, Sufyan Sadiq, a 16 year old travelling with Stamford College was denied boarding of a JMC Air flight from

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 ...

after joking with staff that he had a gun in his luggage. JMC Air concluded operations in March 2003, becoming

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 ...

whilst JMC was retained as a family holiday brand under the Cook's package holiday umbrella.

Fleet

JMC Air's final and historical fleet prior to rebrand as

in March 2003.

Final Fleet

Historical fleet

In popular culture

In 2001, JMC engaged in an advertising campaign for better air health with popular television fitness expert Mr Motivator. A JMC Air female cabin crew uniform from 2003 is part of a collection with the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...

in London.

References