by Andy W » 12 Jan 2016, 19:43
Thomas Cook, and Thomson, exist as airlines to provide seats to the package holiday businesses. They sell a few seats to flight-only travellers, and if the package holiday business is good, there aren't very many of them, so the price goes up.
Personally I never use them because they are almost always dearer than flying scheduled by the time you've added the extras you can't really fly without - and then there's the ridiculous hand baggage allowance - a small laptop and a large camera and you're over weight!. I'm not just talking about EasyJet and Ryanair, Jet2, Aegean (connections in Athens) and British Airways are usually cheaper too. I also look for days that there are scheduled flights but no Thomas Cook/Thomson flights, these may be cheaper as they're not traditional changeover days.
However from some airports they're the only game in town and people have no alternative unless they're willing to travel to a different airport.