Thomas Cook Airlines, part of the Thomas Cook Group, has today confirmed its ongoing commitment to Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports through extension of its current partnership agreement with parent Manchester Airports Group (MAG). The further five year agreement from November 1, 2014, will see the airline grow the number of seats on offer across MAG’s airports by 15 per cent - including a 21 per cent increase at Manchester - compared to figures in 2013.

To celebrate the commitment to Manchester Airport, the airline has also finally confirmed its new routes to both Los Angeles and Boston from May 2016 – the only routes to these iconic US cities from outside London. Building on the airline’s new routes to New York (JFK) and Miami which began with inaugural flights this past weekend, Thomas Cook will serve both destinations on a twice weekly basis during summer 2016.

We first revealed about Thomas Cook Airlines’ plan to launch flights between Manchester and Los Angeles earlier this year and highlighted the news in our story on its initial summer 2016 schedule from the UK (see ‘Thomas Cook Airlines Hits the Summer 2016 Sales’).

Thomas Cook Airlines is now the biggest long haul carrier at Manchester Airport, having the largest number of long haul aircraft, serving the most non-stop long haul routes – with more to the USA than any other airline.

“We are incredibly proud to have the largest non-stop route network from Manchester Airport, with 15 long haul destinations including six to the USA - more long haul routes than any other carrier from Manchester,” said Christoph Debus, chief airlines and hotels officer for Thomas Cook Group.

As well as the new links to Los Angeles and Boston from 2016, existing routes increase in frequency too – New York increases to six flights a week, Orlando becomes a daily service in the peak season in summer 2016 and Las Vegas increases to up to six flights a week.

“Based on our relationship with Manchester Airports Group, we will continue to grow passenger numbers by over 20 per cent, including further developing our long haul network by 50 per cent in summer 2016. With Manchester as a hub for our airlines across Europe as a gateway to the USA, this announcement of new routes to Los Angeles and Boston is great news for our customers with even more choice from outside London,” added Debus.

Thomas Cook Airlines confirmed last year that it is introducing long-haul services at London Stansted this summer with flights to Cancun, Las Vegas and Orlando from July, and has committed to retaining its current flight programme from East Midlands Airport.

Short-haul customers from Manchester are also benefitting from increased choice through more flights representing a capacity increase of 50,000 in 2015 by the addition of a further short-haul aircraft – a further new A321. Flights to Antalya in Turkey will increase from four times per week to daily this summer with further increases on flights to Bodrum, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Larnaca, Palma, Paphos, Sharm el Sheikh, Skiathos and Tenerife.