Thompsonfly

I guess they are and they aren't.

Thomsonfly are a budget airline, borne out of the much bigger fish, Thomson and their owners TUI, one of the biggest travel companies in Europe, if not the world. This means they have considerable financial clout and can “move mountains” or at least hold local councils to random, but more about that later.

Being on the former Britannia Airways (now Thomson Flights) mailing list, I discovered ...
...started flying out of Coventry. It was quite a fortuitous e-mail. I was looking for flights to Alicante at the time, to take advantage of a holiday apartment we had been offered on the Costa Blanca for a ridiculously cheap price during the school holidays.

WHO ARE THEY?
As already stated, owned by Thomsons, they are a scheduled budget airline flying out of Coventry to 19 European destinations, including locations Spain, Ireland, ... more

I guess they are and they aren't.

Thomsonfly are a budget airline, borne out of the much bigger fish, Thomson and their owners TUI, one of the biggest travel companies in Europe, if not the world. This means they have considerable financial clout and can “move mountains” or at least hold local councils to random, but more about that later.

Being on the former Britannia Airways (now Thomson Flights) mailing list, I discovered Thomsonfly probably before many, and about 2 months before they started flying out of Coventry. It was quite a fortuitous e-mail. I was looking for flights to Alicante at the time, to take advantage of a holiday apartment we had been offered on the Costa Blanca for a ridiculously cheap price during the school holidays.

WHO ARE THEY?
As already stated, owned by Thomsons, they are a scheduled budget airline flying out of Coventry to 19 European destinations, including locations Spain, Ireland, Italy, Balearics, Austria, France and the Netherlands. At our time of booking, they were only flying to Valencia on the Costa Blanca, but are due to start flights to Alicante soon.

BOOKING
This was via their website, called, unsurprisingly, www.thomsonfly.com. The site is ridiculously easy to use, and I am glad to say, completely navigable using both keyboard and mouse, although sight impaired users may struggle as text is not resizable. You can also book through their call centre, although you will incur a £5 / 7.50 Euros charge for this.

You select where you want to fly from (at the moment, Coventry is their only UK airport, although they are due to start flying from Robin Hood airport near Sheffield at the end of the year), where you want to fly to, preferred travel dates, the number of people travelling, (up to 20 adults, 19 children and 19 infants – but a maximum of 20 passengers per on-line booking), click the search button and wait to see what comes back. As with EasyJet and BMI Baby you will be presented with flights for the desired day of travel, the day before and the day after. All prices quoted are for a one-way trip and are exclusive of tax and extra charges.

On this note, I would say that prices have risen substantially since we booked. We paid a paltry £138 including £4 booking fee for three of us to fly to Valencia in July, with those prices we just had to book. The journey from Cardiff to Alicante with BMI would have cost us around £500 then. However, prices rose very quickly once the public got wind of the service, and a month later we would have found ourselves paying nearly £700 for the same trip

Thomsonfly is ticketless, so your only confirmation will be a screenprint and an e-mail; the day before we were due to fly, I ‘accidentally’ lost 700+ e-mails, but had no problem obtaining repeat copies from the Thomson call centre.

What we didn’t know at the time of booking is that Thomson’s had not actually got the go-ahead to run flights from the airport. They had exploited a loophole in the airports planning laws and built terminals (portakabins really) that fell within 1m2 of the airports planning limits. This op is not directly about Coventry International airport (probably more familiar as Bagginton Airport for the locals), but it is worth mentioning a few things about it so you don’t get too much of a shock.

Changes can be made to flight tickets for £30 per one-way journey up to 3 hours before departure and bookings can be made on-line up to 2 hours before departure. No refunds are given for missed or cancelled flights.

PARKING
The airport does not currently have its own car parks and is making use of local business excess space to accommodate customers. It does not come cheap just at just under £7 a day if not booked in advance, and £4 odd a day if you book in advance. People arriving at the airport will need to check in at the main terminal to be allocated a car park and space if not secured beforehand. Local hotel have not, as yet, committed themselves to offering 'Park and Fly' from Coventry, although I suspect it is only a matter of time, particularly as there is Britannia outlet about 10 miles down the road, which already provides the service to Birmingham International.

All four car parks are within a 2 mile radius of the main passenger terminal and there is a regular bus service back and fore.

CHECK-IN AND ARRIVALS
As mentioned the terminals are portakabins and space really is as at a premium,. Customers cannot take trolleys into the check-in area, and once the queue reaches about 10 / 12 families, you will find yourself queuing outside, so it is worth arriving early, particularly if the weather is poor. I would not advise entering straight into departures after check-in, as it is no smoking and there is no entertainment and also no alcohol on-site. There is a nice coffee bar outside the departures area, and you can enjoy a cigarette on one of their ‘park’ benches.

Have I put you off yet?

THE FLIGHT
All Thomsonfly’s planes are Boeing 737 500’s seating 131 passengers each. I naively expected them to be new planes as the Britannia fleet are 757’s and 767’s. With hindsight I believe they must be using planes from somewhere else in the TUI family, as these planes are definitely not new.

Unlikely EasyJet, seats are not on a free for all basis but allocated on check-in. Thomson advise customers on their website, that they can chose their seats on the plane by ringing their call centre, and a charge of £5 upwards will be incurred for this. Having had some bad experiences with Thomson and their pre-booked seats, we decided to save our money.

On the way out we were fortunate enough to secure extra legroom seats for no extra charge, however, on the way back this was not to be. However, the leg pitch in the normal seats is substantially higher than that of EasyJet, BMI and Britannia’s and caused no problems for any of us, although Martin did complain that the seat backs could be slightly higher to accommodate taller people.

REFRESHMENTS
No meals are included in the flight price, but you can buy refreshments such as sandwiches, crips and nuts on-board, although on the return journey they had run out, again, in my experience, this is not unusual. Prices are reasonable in commercial terms; we paid around £5 for three soft drinks, nuts, a Mars bar and Pringles. A double G&T will set you back £4.

ENTERTAINMENT
Simply put, there isn’t any, so if, like me, you can’t sleep during flights, take a book.

LUGGAGE LIMITS
A fairly standard 20Kg per passenger, and no more than 2 pieces of luggage per passenger for the hold. Hand luggage is the standard 1 piece, 5Kg maximum weight, although laptops can be carried in addition. This is quite common practice, as most airlines are not prepared to take any risks with such a valuable commodity that tends not to be insured in the UK, let alone overseas.

Overhead lockerspace on the planes is actually quite substantial, the plane was probably around two thirds full, but wouldn’t have caused a problem had it been full.

As with most small planes, embarking and disembarkment is quick. At Coventry you will be straight out onto the tarmac via your nearest clear exit.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Everyone was very friendly both on the ground and in the air, and staff did everything in their power to accommodate those with limited mobility. However, I was shocked, on reading their website, to discover that they state that those with sight impairments who are unable to fly without assistance, must travel accompanied and pay for an extra seat. A blind colleague recently flew alone from Glasgow to Coventry with BMI Baby (operated by Air Wales), and the staff supported him every step of the way. I would be intrigued to know where they would sit under the disability discrimination act with this situation should anyone chose to complain.

TIMEKEEPING
Being the only major airline flying out of Coventry, there is little to stand in their way of airspace, save the fact that they are less than 20 miles from Birmingham International Airport. We didn’t encounter any problems in either direction. Speaking to airport staff, it transpires their timekeeping is excellent, although it is early days.

They may, like Air Wales, encounter overseas difficulties in the fact that their UK destinations are not well known, however, unlike AW, they have the financial clout of the Thomson and TUI names behind them.

ADDITIONAL SERVICES
ThomsonFly have teamed up with various hotel and car rental providers to get preferential rates. We hired a car through Europcar from Valencia airport for some £100 less than it would have been had we booked direct with the company and even Holiday Autos. They have also negotiated special bus rates for transfer from Rome Ciampino airport to the centre of Rome and Pisa airport into Florence

SECURITY
Don’t be fooled that because they are small they are less security conscious, if anything they are more so. Both Tasha and I were subjected to bag searches and I had a couple of lighters basking in the bottom of my bag confiscated.

Also, on the day we arrived back at Coventry, someone had been arrested dropping off passengers because he was found to have a small arsenal of weapons in his car. If this had been Gatwick or Heathrow, chances are he would not have been caught, although what his intentions were is anyone’s guess.

SUMMARY
Excellent prices, clean aircraft, efficient timekeeping, easy booking, they have all this going for them. However, Thomson are at war with the local council and residents, it therefore remains to be seen what the long-term future holds.

I do sympathise with residents who won’t want Jets flying over their properties at any time of the day or night (there are currently no restrictions on night flights from Coventry because of their status as a Parcel Force airport). However, if you buy a property near an airport, this is a risk you take. We currently have jet engine planes flying very close to our property daily, and it is really not a problem, however, Air Wales have now been beaten and are sadly wrapping up operations at Swansea Airport.

The impact has to be offset by the additional income that will be generated for the region and the jobs it will create. It will certainly help local hotels who frequently offer very low rates, probably because of their close proximity to Birmingham, and it will help give this city back a pride that has dropped since the demise of the motor industry.

WOULD I FLY WITH THEM AGAIN? Without hesitation.

Recommended

For more info, visit: www.thomsonfly.com
 

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