Last Thomas Cook Airbus now at Aviationtag!

The Airbus A330-200 left the factory doors for British Airtours International Airways in June 1999 with the registration G-MLJL and manufacturer serial number (MSN) 254. The plane took to the skies for the airline for a total of eight years, serving international destinations. In February 2002, the Airtours travel group was restructured and renamed the MyTravel Group. The group’s two airlines, British Airtours International and Danish Premiair, then began operating under the joint brand name MyTravel Airways on 1 May 2002, but legally remained two separate companies, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways A/S.

In 2007, MyTravel merged with Thomas Cook Airlines, which took on the entire fleet, comprising 16 aircraft at the time - including three A330-200s. At the same time, Swedish MyTravel Airways A/S was renamed Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, which our G-MLJL was also in operation for.

In September 2012, the national airline of Indonesia Garuda Indonesia used the Airbus until it returned to Thomas Cook in November 2012.

On 23 September 2012, the A330 made its last flight from Orlando to Manchester. The G-MLJL landed at Terminal 1 at 8:52 BST with a delay of 17 minutes. This marked not only the last flight for our plane, but the last flight for Thomas Cook as a whole. The British tour operator had to file for insolvency for itself and for its German subsidiaries. It was a very special flight. The entire crew and passengers, too, were very emotional and tears were shed in the knowledge that this was the very last flight for Thomas Cook. Donations were even collected for the crew who were then unemployed after this last flight.

So we are all the more thrilled to have been able to preserve part of the Thomas Cook story and bring it home to you as an Aviationtag!