Thomas Cook Airlines was one of the launch Partner airlines when CTC Aviation’s airline pilot career programme, CTC WINGS, was announced in 2003. Between then and 2008 the airline employed 47 of the programme’s graduate pilots.

This year, the airline has returned to CTC Aviation to choose four pilots from the company’s airline placement pool of newly qualified CTC WINGS candidates to join its 2,500 employees working out of 10 bases. The first group are now doing their Thomas Cook A320 type rating at CTC Aviation’s Group Headquarters and main airline training centre in Southampton (UK). From April, they will commence line operations out of Thomas Cook’s East Midlands and Newcastle bases.

Tim Cheal, General Manager Training for Thomas Cook Airlines announced the four pilots as Joseph Cammell, Dean Corbin, William Sharp and Georgie Sweeney.

“We were extremely impressed by the quality of the CTC WINGS graduates we met,” he says. “They passed the entry standards for Thomas Cook Airlines UK by some margin and we are delighted they will be joining our team.”

Martin Hunt, Chief Operating Officer of Ab initio Training (Europe) for CTC Aviation, who oversees the training of all pilots through the company’s CTC WINGS airline pilot career programme, says: “Our main objective with CTC WINGS is to provide our Partner airlines with pilots who are fully prepared for airline operations and will adjust easily to the airline’s culture. Just as important is our role in securing the very best placement opportunities for our graduate pilots. Thomas Cook Airlines was one of CTC WINGS’s launch Partner airlines and 12 years on it is great to see our graduates still being given the opportunity of their first airline job with such a long-standing Partner.”

Thomas Cook has a fleet of 31 aircraft flying from more than 20 airports in the UK, carrying 6.7m passengers to over 60 destinations including North America, the Caribbean and India, as well as resorts across Europe and ski destinations in winter.

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