casualvisitor,

You'll find the seating plans linked from our What Aircraft? guide (link below) with all that information.

Darren

pallan,

TOM512 (Boeing 767-300/ER) is the first flight of the day for that aircraft, there's nothing immediately before it. It operates to Palma (TOM2170/1) the evening before and arrivies back in the early hours.

Darren

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone can help please? I have pre-booked our seats (can't change them now) on the Thomson plane (a Tuesday flight). Layout shows a 757, so I assume this is what it will be. Please can anyone confirm if they use any other planes on this service (such as the nice ex-FC/ Britannia 767)? Also, do they have any IFE or will it be switched off? I'm really looking forward to the hol but am dreading the flight as am claustrophobic Thank you very much.

PurpleTang,

welcome onboard
LGW-TCP-LGW (TOM726/7) are operated by Boeing 757-200 (assuming you're travelling in the summer season). You'll find extensive aircraft information on our What Aircraft? guide (link below) including aircraft and cabin photos, IFE information etc.

Darren

My query is more of a general Thomson Airways one, After watching a brilliant documentary about the maintainance of a BA 747, I wondered how often Thomson's 757 and 737-800s go into the hangers during the Summer season for planned work ? As they seem to be in use most of day and night with few hours down time each day, I have seen the ramp engineers checking Oil and tyres at night.

Do they also rotate the aircraft around the bases much as I know at EMA and BHX they seem to have the same aircraft all season unless one goes tech which then changes things.

uno28,

Thomson Airways aircraft go through exactly the same maintenance schedule as what you saw on the excellent BBC documentory. What they missed out on that programme was the aircraft was going through a D check. All aircraft have various maintenance schedules depending in the age of the aircraft, number of hours / cycles etc. The various checks are anything from the visual walk-around pre-flight to daily maintenance checks all the way up to the very expensive D check roughly every 5 - 6 years dependant on aircraft type. The aircraft is stripped to bare bones, thoroughly checked and re-assembled and like new when it re-enters service. Aircraft are rotated all the time to fit maintenance schedules around operational needs although some airports have maintenance facilities onsite so it can be carried out locally. Lower level maintenance can be done between flights, usually at night with the more intrusive and time consuming work carried out at quieter times of the year.

Darren

That was a real eye opener of a documentary - even the loos and coffee makers are checked!

Adding onto what Darren said, all UK, EU and American registered aircraft (from two seater Cessna's to Airbus 380's) have to adhere to a rigorous maintenance program which is worked out by the aircraft manufacturer and the country aviation authority - in our case the CAA. Every step in that program is documented and has to be double checked and signed off, and any parts (new or used) replaced logged. It doesn't matter that Thomson, EasyJet or whoever are "low cost" airlines - their planes will not fall out of the sky because of lack of maintenance, They choose to do the maintenance at times when it wont not to get in the way of your holiday. These "heavy" maintenance checks are often booked years in advance. There is also a diagnostic check carried out almost every second of every flight on the Thomson (and others) fleet and the engineers will often see a potential fault before the (very highly trained) pilots.

The diagnostics on the more modern types also report faults back to maintenance bases during flight so that engineers can be on standby to rectify faults as soon at the aircraft lands . All very clever stuff.

Nice to see you back posting Baz. Not long before your Dreamliner flights now!

Darren

Looking on Airlinequality Thomson Airlines are getting some very poor reviews seems ontime flying is a thing of the past main complaints No IFE no Meals Poor Cabin Crew. Gone are the good old days of Britannia being the No1 Charter Airline.On the ontime flying i have been looking at Tom 2700 we travel on this on 2 September Man/Lca. Average 51mins late on departure from Man.Not bad to say this is the first flight of the day for this Aircraft??? What are the savings to the Airline not giving IFE? and not supplying the hot food option? would save the isle being blocked for most of the flight by Cabin crew trying to sell over priced items.

qatarman,

My understand with regards to IFE and hot meals, is they weren't dropped due to cost cutting (although I'm sure that was part of the decision), it was through lack of demand. Market research on their short haul flights suggested passengers weren't watching the costly IFE and a service that mirrored the low cost airlines would be acceptable. I would also take the reviews with a large pinch of salt. Many will only post a review to criticise, you get very few that post to praise that introduces a bias in to review sites.

Darren

Hi Darren, as a loyal Thomson Holidays customer over the past 25+ years I have noted a drop in standards on short haul flights ( long haul are very good) But the onetime record I believe is slipping why I don't know. The number of people who would change if they could is high.I suppose it's a sign of the times.

qatarman,

I don't fly short haul that often these days but the last time I did, I didn't think standards were that bad. Not up to full fare schedule, but then you can't expect that. It's personal perception isn't it really. What one thinks is fine, others may not. The average delay at Manchester in the first quarter of this year was 11.84 minutes with 76.36% of flights leaving within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure. Only 3.03% of flights were delayed over an hour and 0.61% over 3 hours. The figures for the second quarter aren't out yet, but the increase in traffic in summer sometimes gives slightly worse figures. The Q1 figures are comparable to British Airways and some of the other major airlines (stats from Flights On Time). Delays are an unfortunate part of aviation and it's not always the airline at fault. If you don't have other options, there's not much you can do really. There's nothing to say the flights on your day of travel wont leave on time.

Darren

Agreed Darren not enough choice out there now if you want a package..I don't really expect Thomson Airway to compare to the top Airlines that would be unfair. On the Tom 2700 I do watch this flight as I will be on it soon and it does seem to have a poor on time record Flightstats have average 51mins delay I feel that is poor for the first flight of the day for this aircraft.

The 'market research' that apparently led to this decision allegedly took place at a small hub and from one flight. Market research of course can come to an outcome that the airline wants very easily by the way the questions are phrased.

1. Do you enjoy the inflight meals? - no
2. Would you prefer to have a choice of meals on board? - yes

Or

1. Would you prefer for an inflight meal to be included in the cost of your holiday? - yes

2. Are you happy to choose from two options? - yes

Same questions phrased differently with two different outcomes.

Hi Dazbo....!

Could you please check up a flight of a friend of mine. Flight No TOM2254 Manchester to Santorini 11/9/12 at 14:40 hrs. They would like to reserve seats with extra leg room could you recommend which are the best seats which fits the bill......!

Thanks Dazbo.

Ash.....!

barjiash,

MAN-JTR-MAN (TOM2254/5) are operated by Boeing 737-800. Extra legroom seats are at the front and rows 15 and 16 (over wing exits). There are no 'best' seats as it's personal preference. There's a seat plan on our what Aircraft? guide (link below).

Darren

You need to be aware that when there are two rows of exit seats providing extra leg room on some airlines the first row of seats do not recline.

You cannot recline onto an exit. We have been caught out like this before

wendywu,

That's correct, row 15 does not recline as there is an emergency exit row behind. However, row 15 has the same legroom as row 16.

Darren

Cheers Dazbo.......!

Excellent service as always........