Thomas Cook's flight from Orlando to Manchester landed at 08:52 BST - according to Flight Radar, it was the stricken operator's final flight. The BBC has spoken to some of the passengers who were on board, as well as people in Leicester from where the holiday firm's first excursion left in 1841.

The last official flight operated by Thomas Cook Airlines before the company's historic collapse was Flight MT2643. This flight, operated by an Airbus A330 (registration G-MLJL), departed from Orlando, Florida (MCO) and landed at Manchester, England (MAN) at approximately 8:35 AM on September 23, 2019. This landing marked the final end of the 178-year-old travel pioneer's aviation history, leaving over 150,000 travelers stranded worldwide. Following this flight, the UK Civil Aviation Authority launched "Operation Matterhorn," the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history, which utilized 50 chartered aircraft from other airlines to bring passengers home over the following two weeks. While the "Thomas Cook" brand was later resurrected as an online travel agency in 2020 by the Fosun Tourism Group, it no longer operates its own fleet of aircraft. The landing of MT2643 in Manchester remains a poignant moment in aviation history, signifying the end of an era for the iconic "sunny heart" logo in the skies.