Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was a Belgian leisure

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

owned by the

Thomas Cook Group Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — and ...

. It operated scheduled flights to destinations throughout Europe and Africa from its base at

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport is the main international airport of Belgium. It is located in the municipality of Zaventem in Flemish Brabant, northeast of Brussels. Also informally known as Brussels-National Airport or Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Brussels ...

. The airline operated from 2002 until 2017.

History

The airline was established on 12 December 2001 by the

to serve the Belgian holiday market, and started operations on 13 March 2002. Until January 2004, flight tickets could only be purchased via travel agencies as part of package tours; since then individual seat reservations are also possible. The airline had several sister companies,

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 ...

, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and

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 ...

, all of which have a joint fleet management. In March 2017, parent company Thomas Cook announced its intention to sell its Belgian operations to

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 ...

. Consequently, Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was shut down by late October 2017 with two aircraft and all traffic rights being handed to

Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...

. Its three remaining aircraft were to be relocated to Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium's sister companies. This would have led to the layoff of 40 non-flying staff members, but Dutch group SHS Aviation announced it would take over the flight licences, two of the three remaining aircraft, and the remaining 40 employees, and integrate them into a new airline, confusingly called "VLM Airlines" though no longer connected to the Antwerp

VLM Airlines VLM Airlines, short for ''Vlaamse Luchttransport Maatschappij'' – "Flemish Air Transport Company", was a Belgian airline offering scheduled, charter and ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) services. It was headquartered at Antw ...

(since defunct), with the remaining single

Airbus A320-200 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 ...

transferred elsewhere within the Thomas Cook Group. This company has since been acquired from SHS Aviation by Dutch investors ''FS Aviation Management B.V.'' The last flight of Thomas Cook Belgium was ''HQ1508'' from Tenerife South Airport to

on 27 October 2017.

Destinations

At the time of the closure, Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was flying to 36 destinations in

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

and several European countries.

Fleet

The final Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Authority control Defunct airlines of Belgium Airlines established in 2001 Airlines disestablished in 2017 Zaventem Belgian companies established in 2001 2017 disestablishments in Belgium Defunct charter airlines