Thomas Cook has relaunched its iconic Airtours brand to sell dynamic packages.
The brand, which became synonymous with package holidays in its 90s heyday, will sell a larger range of short and medium-haul holidays using three to four-star hotels from bed bank partners.
Cook’s own-brand and partner hotels which were previously sold in Airtours charter packages will move to Cook’s holiday charter programme from this winter.
The change comes into effect from today for Cook agents and will be rolled out to third party agents and consumers later this year.
The move means all Airtours brochures will be scrapped.
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Cook’s internal dynamic packaging brand Flexible Trips will be retired at the end of the summer.
The number of hotels available under the new Airtours brand will increase from 584 to 18,000.
Cook said it is making the change to simplify its brands.
Will Waggott, chief of tour operating at Thomas Cook said: “This move is all about making it easier for agents and simplifies what we offer under Thomas Cook and Airtours.
“Our new Airtours holidays will complement our charter holidays and allow agents greater flexibility to build customised packages for those customers who do not want a pre-defined charter holiday.”
A revived Airtours brand was launched in 2015 under Chris Mottershead, who was finance chief and then managing director of Airtours Holidays from 1993-2001.
Airtours specialised in package holidays throughout Europe, as well as in parts of North America and the Caribbean.
It fell within the MyTravel Group between 2002 and 2007, which then merged with Thomas Cook.
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