TUI Airways
TUI Airways Limited is a British charter and scheduled airline, owned and operated by the TUI Group. They fly scheduled and charter flights from the United Kingdom and Ireland to destinations in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. The air carrier is the fourth largest UK airline by total passengers carried, after EasyJet, British Airways and Jet2.com. It is also the world's tenth largest airline by number of route pairings served. TUI Airways holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Type A Operating Licence permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats. Its head office and registered office is Wigmore House in Luton, Bedfordshire.
Key facts
History
Foundation and early years
TUI Airways has its origins in several airlines which were rivals. Britannia Airways (ex Euravia) in December 1964 Orion Airways, founded in 1978 by Horizon Holidays and later owned by the large brewing firm Bass Brewery and InterContinental Hotels Group, was sold and merged into Britannia Airways in 1989, with the Britannia name being retained for the combined airline.
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. In 2003 the airline was renamed First Choice Airways after being bought by First Choice and became their in-house airline.
Following the merger of the travel divisions of TUI Group and First Choice Holidays in September 2007 Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways merged on 1 November 2008. The Thomson Airways name was launched for the combined airline on 1 May 2009.
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 such jetliner 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 the 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 trading 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.
Its airports
Its main hubs
Other airports in its network
Route network according to OpenFlights (open route database). It may not reflect recent schedule changes.
Data from Wikidata (CC0) · summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
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This page was last updated on October 7, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 7). TUI Airways. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways
MLA
“TUI Airways.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 7 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “TUI Airways.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 7, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) TUI Airways. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airline_thomson_airways,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{TUI Airways}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-07},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airline/thomson-airways |title=TUI Airways |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-07 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}Types it operates · 74 aircraft · 5 models
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