TUI Airways

History

Foundation and early years

TUI Airways has its origins in several rival airlines. Euravia (later renamed Britannia Airways in December 1964) was founded in January 1962. Orion Airways, founded in 1979 by Horizon Holidays and later owned by the large brewing firm Bass Brewery and InterContinental Hotels Group, was sold and merged with Britannia Airways in 1989 but retained the Britannia name. (These events happened before TUI came to the UK.)

Britannia was rebranded to Thomsonfly in May 2005 as its parent company Thomson Travel Group was bought by TUI Group as part of a wider reorganisation of TUI's operations in the UK. Air 2000 was founded in 1987, and integrated the operations of Leisure International Airways in 1998. They became First Choice Airways in 2004 after being bought by First Choice and became their in-house airline.

Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways merged following the merger of the travel divisions of TUI Group and First Choice Holidays in September 2007. The Thomson Airways brand was launched for the combined airline on 1 November 2008.

The new brand retained the Thomsonfly colour scheme, and aircraft in the fleet were gradually repainted. Several First Choice Airways aircraft remained in the First Choice livery as they were due to be phased out of service. A new livery, named "Dynamic Wave" (which will also be applied on Thomson Cruises ships), was introduced in May 2012.

TUI Airways became the first UK airline to take delivery of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, receiving the first aircraft in May 2013. Passenger services with the aircraft began on 21 June 2013 with a flight between London Gatwick and Menorca. Also in 2013, the parent group TUI Travel, now known as TUI Group, ordered 60 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for delivery to group airlines.

Rebranding and latest developments

On 13 May 2015, it was announced by the TUI Group that all five of TUI's airline subsidiaries would be named TUI, whilst keeping their separate Air Operators Certificate, a process taking over three years to complete. TUI Airways was the last airline to be completed in late 2017. The rebrand began in mid 2016, with the addition of the new 'TUI' titles to its fleet.

In December 2016, Thomson Holidays launched their final television advertisement using the 'Thomson' brand, before integrating into the 'TUI' brand. During the rebrand in 2017, the "TOMSON" callsign was dropped and replaced with "TUI AIR" and then changed again to "TOMJET".

In May 2017, the brand TUI Airways began to be used in several areas and was implemented on all flight tracker applications. Most of the aircraft had been branded with 'TUI' titles, and onboard items such as glasses and napkins carried the new brand. Thomson Airways officially changed its legal name to TUI Airways on 2 October 2017. TUI's sister company, TUI UK (formerly Thomson Holidays), ceased using the 'Thomson' brand, adopting the TUI UK brand on 18 October 2017.

In November 2023, TUI Airways retired their last Boeing 767 as the sole remaining passenger operator in the United Kingdom.

During May 2025, TUI UK published details of package holidays including flights to be operated by 'Thomson Airways', suggesting a leaked rebrand of the airline to TUI's former flagship UK brand, Thomson. As of 23 May 2025, details were amended to display flights operated by TUI Airways.

Corporate affairs

Head office

The airline's head office is in the Wigmore House near Luton, Bedfordshire. The facility is adjacent to Luton Airport.

Overview

The airline is part of a single-branded group, being the product of two mergers: the travel division of TUI Group with First Choice Holidays in September 2007 to form TUI Travel, under which their respective airlines, Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways, were merged under the former's Air Operator's Certificate in May 2008 and rebranded as Thomson Airways on 1 November 2008.

The investable enterprise and overall leadership formally merged with TUI to form London (LSE) and Frankfurt (DAX) listed TUI Group since December 2014. TUI Airways officially changed its legal name from Thomson Airways to TUI Airways on 2 October 2017. This was in line with TUI airline sister companies TUI fly Belgium, TUI fly Deutschland, TUI fly Netherlands and TUI fly Nordic.

Business figures

Destinations

Most scheduled flights operated by TUI Airways are on behalf of tour operators. The airline offers flights to destinations around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean from 19 base airports in the United Kingdom. Additionally, seasonal charter routes are served from Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.

Airline partners

TUI Airways has partnerships with the following airlines:

• Aer Lingus
• AirExplore
• Air Mauritius
• AlbaStar
• Ascend Airways
• Avion Express Malta
• BA CityFlyer
• British Airways
• Corendon Airlines
• easyJet
• Emirates
• Enter Air
• Fly4 Airlines
• Freebird Airlines
• Go2Sky
• KM Malta Airlines
• Qatar Airways
• Ryanair
• SunExpress
• Titan Airways
• Virgin Atlantic
• Vueling

Fleet

Current fleet

, TUI Airways operates an all-Boeing fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Seasonal leasing

In 2023, TUI Group and Enter Air agreed to set up a joint venture wet-lease ACMI operator called Fly4 Airlines. The Irish-based airline, which is set to take off in spring 2024, will take on three TUI Airways Boeing 737-800s plus one from TUI fly Belgium, and lease them back to TUI Airways during the peak summer seasons. These aircraft will then be leased to other airlines during the winter schedule when TUI operations are not at high demand. TUI had previously also leased multiple Airbus A320-200 aircraft for the summer 2023 season to cover for the delay in Boeing 737 MAX deliveries. In December 2024, TUI Airways announced it has ordered 14 additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft sign leased from BOC Aviation, to help cover the absence of the delayed MAX 10 aircraft. Older Boeing 737-800s are due to retire. It has been announced these aircraft will be delivered between 2025 and 2026.

Historical fleet

TUI Airways formerly operated the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

• On 20 October 2023, TUI Airways Flight 3551, a Boeing 737-800 (registered as G-TAWD), skidded off the runway while attempting to land at Leeds Bradford Airport in heavy rain caused by Storm Babet. There were no injuries reported, but the airport subsequently closed while the aircraft was recovered. The airport reopened on 21 October 2023. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service.
• On 4 March 2024, TUI Airways Flight 6114, a Boeing 737-800 (registered as G-FDZS) barely cleared the A38 road by less than 100ft during take off at Bristol Airport. The AAIB determined that the plane's autothrottle was disconnected uncommanded due to a known fault with voltage being supplied to the autothrottle servo motor in 737s.

References

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