Regional airports to lose as many as one in 10 passengers due to Thomas Cook Airlines’ failure

Manchester Airport will lose the greatest number of flights as a result of Thomas Cook Airlines’ collapse, according to data from analytics expert Cirium.

The airline carried 1.9 million passengers from Manchester this summer, compared with 712,000 from London Gatwick, its second largest hub. Its third largest was Birmingham with 332,000, followed by Bristol (255K) and Glasgow (254K).

However, the airline’s failure is likely to hit Cardiff Airport the hardest, as Thomas Cook flights accounted for just over 11.3% of its passengers, while at Manchester, every one in 10 passengers was travelling with the airline.

Cardiff airport CCO Spencer Birns said: "As a summer only operator with one based aircraft, Thomas Cook accounted for 9% of our traffic across the year, approximately 150,000 passengers.

“All of the 10 routes are also operated by TUI and/or Vueling so customers will still be able to fly from Cardiff. We are confident that these routes will continue to be popular in our market and are looking at options for how we fulfil the demand with our airline partners."

Both East Midlands and Newcastle airports carried around 170,000 passengers, which was about 8% of their total traffic.

Cirium spokesperson, Alistair Rivers said: “What some of the industry may also be thinking now is what happens to the routes that Thomas Cook operated?

“If you look at the next two weeks,~the most popular routes are from Turkey, including from Dalaman to London Gatwick (32 flights), Antalya to Manchester (29 flights), Dalaman to Manchester (29 flights) and Antalya to London Gatwick (28 flights). The fifth most popular route being Orlando, FL to Manchester.

“Other airlines will now have the opportunity to operate these routes, something that of course will not happen immediately.”

When Monarch collapsed in 2017, it took Manchester six months to fill the capacity it left. Today, a spokesman said: “We regret the loss of such an important and longstanding airline, and our thoughts are with those at Thomas Cook who are affected.

“Our immediate focus is on supporting customers who are returning to the UK via Manchester Airport and providing whatever assistance we can to former Thomas Cook employees impacted by this sad situation.

“However, it is also important to recognise that the airline operated a number of routes that were extremely popular with passengers across our catchment area.

“This gives us confidence they will prove attractive to a range of airline partners and we will actively explore all opportunities to ensure the North’s connectivity to these destinations is restored.”