UK-based tour operator Thomas Cook Airlines has selected Thales to provide a set of avionics solutions including flight management system (FMS), surveillance products and new on-board airport navigation system (OANS) for its Airbus A320 and A321 airliners.
With this agreement, Thomas Cook will become one of the first airlines in the world to equip its single aisle aeroplanes with OANS, a fully integrated and avionic certified airport moving map developed by Thales for Airbus.
The OANS, which is currently equipped on A380s in many airlines, is enabling all the future ground surveillance and situational awareness capabilities currently in work.
Thales will also provide Thomas Cook aircraft with the new generation of dual FMS where Thales’s worldwide market share is more than 60%.
In addition, the selection agreement includes advanced integrated surveillance suite. known as T3CAS that includes traffic and collision avoidance system (TCAS), terrain awareness warning system (TAWS) and transponder functions.
The T3CAS includes the latest Airbus solution automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B IN) capabilities known as air traffic situational awareness (ATSAW), as well as a Mode S Transponder DO 260A and a certified change 7.1 TCAS complying with the latest regulations.
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By GlobalDataThomas Cook Group fleet management executive vice-president Bernd Bechtel said that airlines needed to take crucial avionic equipment decisions to be compliant with the new CNS standards and at the same time enhance their flight operation procedures to further improve operational efficiency.
"Thales’s avionics solution offer technology which delivers the required compliance, with growth potential where operators are becoming capable to further develop their operational procedures ultimately resulting in more efficient operations."
Thales Avionics Services Worldwide in Europe, Middle-East and Africa general manager and vice-president Jean-Louis Viala said: "This avionics configuration, will lay the foundations for all future ATM requirements in Europe."
Thomas Cook Airlines Group consists of Condor Flugdienst, Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and Thomas Cook Airlines UK. The combined fleet comprises 86 aircraft.
Image: Thomas Cook Airlines will equip its single aisle A320s with Thales’s on-board airport navigation system map. Photo: courtesy of H Gousse / Airbus SAS.
