Thomas Cook to pull out of Ireland

Atlantic Dawn

Might be of interest to anyone who booked with Thomas Cook for departure from after 30th April...

The country's second largest tour operator Thomas Cook has announced plans to end its high street presence in Ireland, and cancel its summer charter flights from Irish airports.
The company has also entered into a 30-day consultation with colleagues in Dublin with a view to closing its business support function based in Ireland.
The proposal potentially affects 44 employees in the business.
In a statement Thomas Cook UK and Ireland said it plans to move exclusively online and away from charter holidays.
The company said it will no longer be offering charter holidays from 30 April 2014.
A small number of customers who had already booked a summer charter holiday with Thomas Cook's Irish tour operator are to be contacted and offered an alternative package holiday, or a full refund.
Customers who opt to rebook their holiday with Thomas Cook will be offered a 10% discount.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0115/498128-thomas-cook/

scudzilla

Can't believe there's been no replies to this, the news that TC have pulled out of Ireland is huge and will cost us a lot of money in the long run.

Direct Holidays, Panaorama and Sunworld have now gone, well, in the sense that you can no longer book a package holiday like you used to.

The only place you can buy a package now, if you want to avoid the no frill airline route, is with Falcon, who are run by First Choice/Thomson, so i'm guessing they have the monopoly now and price will go up, especially if you want to go to somewhere like the Greek Islands as they're the only one's who really fly there (not inculding Ryaniar to Chania in Crete as thats on the arse end of knowehre)

StreetLight

This is a kick in the knickers. I've been going from Dublin to Gumbet in Turkey for quite a few years booked through various operators, but they all used the Thomas Cook charter flights from Onur Air on Saturdays.

Now that Thomas Cook have cancelled their charters, there are no more direct flights between Dublin and Bodrum Airport, which serves the Gumbet resort. The beauty of this was that the transfer only took about half an hour. Now, if I want to go to Gumbet, I'll have to suffer at least one stopover, which to me, just isn't worth the hassle.

There is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Wings Abroad have issued a press release saying that they are going to try and cater for the gap. It looks as if they have chartered their own Onur Air flights with departures on Fridays. I might think about it, but they are offering a fairly limited choice of places to stay with many B+B and All-inclusive, whereas in the part of central Gumbet to where I am used to going, I would prefer self-catering!

http://www.travelmedia.ie/press-releases/wings-abroad-expand-capacity-to-cater-for-increased-demand/

scudzilla

StreetLight wrote: »

This is a kick in the knickers. I've been going from Dublin to Gumbet in Turkey for quite a few years booked through various operators, but they all used the Thomas Cook charter flights from Onur Air on Saturdays.

Now that Thomas Cook have cancelled their charters, there are no more direct flights between Dublin and Bodrum Airport, which serves the Gumbet resort. The beauty of this was that the transfer only took about half an hour. Now, if I want to go to Gumbet, I'll have to suffer at least one stopover, which to me, just isn't worth the hassle.

There is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Wings Abroad have issued a press release saying that they are going to try and cater for the gap. It looks as if they have chartered their own Onur Air flights with departures on Fridays. I might think about it, but they are offering a fairly limited choice of places to stay with many B+B and All-inclusive, whereas in the part of central Gumbet to where I am used to going, I would prefer self-catering!

http://www.travelmedia.ie/press-releases/wings-abroad-expand-capacity-to-cater-for-increased-demand/

If you've been going for some years then contact some places you've stayed in and book direct, then just book a flight.

sawdoubters

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/q-a-how-will-thomas-cook-s-closure-of-its-irish-office-mean-affect-the-market-1.1658208