THOMSONFLY

'Thomsonfly' is a British airline owned by the TUI Group with bases across the United Kingdom. Thomsonfly is the largest charter airline in the world. Thomsonfly operates services to 20 European cities. The bases include Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Coventry (CVT), Glasgow, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Doncaster-Sheffield and Teesside (Durham Tees Valley).
Thomsonfly Limited holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats ^[1]

Contents

History

Destinations

Europe

Worldwide

Fleet

Awards

Gallery

External links

References

History

Thomsonfly traces its roots to its parent airline, Britannia Airways, founded by Ted Langton to fulfil his holiday company's charter demands. The airline began as Euravia in 1962 with a small fleet of Lockheed Constellations. It moved on to the Bristol Britannia aircraft; the name was changed to Britannia Airways and remained until December 2004. The greatest period of growth came when Britannia acquired Boeing 737-200 aircraft and the fleet expanded to 45 aircraft. Britannia was the European launch customer for the Boeing 767 and then moved to an all-Boeing 767 and 757 fleet in the mid-1990s.
Realising that the Internet and a changing marketplace (taken advantage of by companies such as easyJet and Ryanair) were leaving them behind, Thomson Holidays initiated a web-oriented rebranding. It used the Thomsonfly name to include all of the UK flying operations and so the larger Britannia Airways was rebranded as Thomsonfly in 2005.

Scheduled operations began on 31 March 2004 with four Boeing 737-500s from a new passenger terminal at Coventry Airport. The airline became involved in controversy when it took over ownership of the airport lease. A small number of local residents and Warwick District Council mounted a campaign against regular passenger flights from the airport, which had previously been used for both passenger and freight aircraft. The planning case was contentious and lengthy, so Thomsonfly continued to operate from Coventry awaiting the outcome of the case. Planning permission has been granted for a larger passenger terminal and the ownership of the lease has passed to CAFCO, an airport and property development company with no links to TUI.
On 28 April 2005, Thomsonfly became the first airline to fly from Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, the UK's newest airport serving Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Thomsonfly was also the first to operate direct long haul services from the airport. Thomsonfly remains the dominant carrier at Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield (Doncaster Sheffield Airport) Coventry and Bournemouth airports.
Britannia Airways/Thomsonfly was the best on-time charter airline in 2004 as measured by the Air Transport Users' Council and also won the 'TravelWeekly' best UK charter airline award for 2004. Thomson Travel was taken over by the German company Preussag, in 2001 and was rebranded as TUI AG. Together with other acquisitions TUI became the world's largest travel company. Thomsonfly is part of Tui Airline Management (TAM).
On December 14, 2006 TUI announced that all of its airlines will be rebranded as TUIfly by 2008.
In March the parent group of the airline First Choice Holidays PLC is to merge with the TUI AG, which will see Thomson Holidays and First Choice Holidays combined. This will eventually see a merger of both holiday company's airlines, (Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways), This is expected to be achieved by the start of summer 2009. The new company is to be known as TUI Travel PLC and is to be operational by 3 September 2007.

Destinations

Europe

★ Austria - Salzburg

★ Bulgaria - Bourgas, Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna

★ Croatia - Dubrovnik, Pula and Split

★ Czech Republic - Prague

★ France - Grenoble, Lyon, Nantes, Paris and Toulouse

★ Greece - Chania, Corfu, Heraklion, Kavala, Kefalonia, Kos, Preveza, Rhodes, Santorini, Thessaloniki, Zante

★ Italy - Alghero, Catania, Figari, Lamezia Terme, Naples, Pisa, Venice and Verona

★ Malta - Malta

★ Netherlands - Amsterdam

★ Portugal - Faro and Lisbon

★
★ Madeira Islands - Madeira

★ Serbia - Niš

★ Spain - Alicante, Barcelona, Gerona, Ibiza, Málaga, Mahon, Palma de Mallorca, Reus and Valencia

★
★ Canary Islands - Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma ''[from November 2007]'', Tenerife (Los Rodeos Airport & Reina Sofia Airport)

★ Turkey - Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman

★ United Kingdom

★
★ England - Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Coventry, Doncaster/Sheffield, Durham Tees Valley Airport, Humberside, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London Gatwick Airport, London Luton Airport, London Stansted Airport, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, East Midlands and Southampton

★
★ Northern Ireland - Belfast International

★
★ Scotland - Glasgow and Edinburgh

★
★ Wales - Cardiff

Worldwide

★ Barbados - Bridgetown

★ Puerto Rico - San Juan

★ Cape Verde- Sal

★ Dominican Republic - Puerto Plata and Punta Cana

★ Jamaica - Montego Bay

★ Kenya - Mombasa

★ Egypt - Hurghada, Luxor, Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Marsa Alam

★ India - Goa

★ Israel - Tel Aviv ''[from November 1, 2007^[2]]''

★ Maldives - Malé

★ Mexico - Cancún

★ Mexico - Puerto Vallarta [begins summer 2008]

★ Morocco - Agadir and Marrakech

★ Tunisia - Monastir

★ United States - Orlando

Fleet

In May-2007, the Thomsonfly fleet comprises ^[3]:

★ 8 Boeing 767-300ER

★ 2 Boeing 767-200ER

★ 1 Boeing 767-200

★ 4 Boeing 757-200ER

★ 14 Boeing 757-200

★ 8 Boeing 737-800

★ 11 Boeing 737-300

★ 2 Boeing 737-500
The average age of the Thomsonfly fleet is 11.2 years (as of May 2007) ^[4].

Awards

★ FlightOnTime.info - Runner-up UK Charter Airline for punctuality - Summer 2005

★ FlightOnTime.info - Most Punctual UK Charter Airline - Summer 2004

★ AUC Crown Awards: Most Punctual Charter Carrier - Summer 2004

★ Travel & Tourism Web Awards: Best Airline - 2004

★ Telegraph Travel Awards: Best Charter Airline - 2003

Gallery

External links

★ Official site

★ TUI Airlines Group

★ Fleet

References

1. CAA operating licence
2. Thomsonfly launches first low-fare flights to Tel Aviv
3. CAA Aircraft Register
4. Thomsonfly Fleet Age