Thomas Cook Airlines welcomes the first of its new Airbus A321s to be based at Birmingham Airport

David Winstanley, Birmingham Airport and Louise Arscott from Thomas Cook with passenger
Mya Yardley from Stourbridge holding the new Sunny Heart Airbus A321

Thomas Cook Airlines UK has welcomed the first of its new Airbus A321 aircraft to be based
at Birmingham - this follows the news in July this year that the airline would base four Airbus
aircraft at the airport Summer 2015, replacing the outgoing Boeing 757 fleet
  
Ahead of the aircraft’s first flight – to Fuerteventura - holidaymakers looking for winter sun
helped celebrate the arrival of the aircraft as they checked-in.  With the new fleet based at
several airports across the UK, Birmingham is the latest to receive a new aircraft which joined
Thomas Cook Airlines this summer
  
Christoph Debus, CEO for Thomas Cook Airlines, said, "It’s an exciting day for our airline as
we bring one of our new fleet of aircraft to Birmingham. We’re convinced that our customers
will love the new comfort and reliability this winter with more legroom and space on-board,
with more aircraft set to arrive next summer to take our customers from the Midlands to
a great range of new destinations"          

David Winstanley, Birmingham Airport’s Chief Operations Officer, said: "Thomas Cook is a
very established airline at Birmingham Airport which has carried nearly nine million passengers
since launching in 1999 so we are delighted that it is placing its new A321 aircraft at Birmingham
Airport to give passengers an enhanced experience

Over the last few months, Thomas Cook Airlines has added six brand new Airbus A321 aircraft
to its UK fleet, and this is set to continue in 2015 with three further deliveries from Airbus as
part of the 25 aircraft being delivered to the Thomas Cook Group Airlines by 2016.  With the
airlines new fleet based at airports across the UK , Birmingham Airport is also set to become
a base featuring the new aircraft in the airlines new Sunny Heart livery

For summer 2015, there will be a 20 per cent increase in flight seats available with Thomas Cook
Airlines. These include three brand new destinations for Birmingham Airport to Mytilene (Lesbos,
Greece), Kalamata (Greece) and Djerba (Tunisia) on top of the new-for-Thomas Cook destination
of Paphos.  The airline will also now be able to offer daily flights to Dalaman, as well as increased
frequencies to Zante, Mahon, Bodrum, Antalya, Izmir, Bourgas and Fuerteventura

These – and flights this winter - can be booked as part of holidays and flight only seats from
Thomas Cook and Co-operative Travel in the Birmingham region, on-line at www.thomascook.com 

Thursday 4 December 2014