Britannia Airways was the largest charter airline in the United Kingdom, rebranded as Thomsonfly in 2005. Its main bases were London Gatwick (LGW), London Luton (LTN), Birmingham (BHX), Manchester (MAN) and Newcastle (NCL).

Code Data

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• IATA Code: BY
• ICAO Code: BAL
• Call sign: Britannia (all 757/767 and 737 charter flights) / Thomson (737 scheduled flights)

History

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The airline was established on 1 December 1961 and started operations on 5 May 1962 as Euravia flying ex-El Al Lockheed Constellations on inclusive tour holidays for Universal Sky Tours. The name Britannia was adopted on 16 August 1964 to coincide with re-equipping with the Bristol Britannia turboprop airliner. In 1965 Britannia became part of Thomson, itself part of the International Thomson Organisation.

Britannia began to re-equip with Boeing 737-200 in 1968, the first European operator of the type. Britannia was also the first European airline to fly the Boeing 767. In August 1988 Britannia's immediate parent company, the Thomson Travel Group, purchased Horizon Travel and its airline, Orion Airways, which was integrated into Britannia.

In 1997 Britannia formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Britannia GmbH, based in Germany to operate long and short-haul flights from airports in Germany, Switzerland and Austria for German tour operators, but this was closed in March 2001.

At the start of 1998 the Thomson Travel Group acquired the Scandinavian holiday operation, Fritidsresor Group, and its airline Blue Scandinavia, now renamed Britannia Nordic.

In 2000 Thomson Travel Group and Britannia Airways were acquired by Preussag AG (TUI Group) of Germany. As part of a wider reorganisation of TUI's UK operations in September 2004 it was announced that Britannia would be rebranded as Thomsonfly. This airline's planes carried the Thomson colours and logo, but its aircraft were owned and operated by Britannia Airways. In effect Thomsonfly was a trading name of Britannia.

As of 31st October 2005, Britannia Airways Ltd ceased to exist, with Thomsonfly becoming the legal name of the company. The aircraft are no longer 'operated by Britannia Airways' but actually operated legally by Thomsonfly.

Services

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Britannia Airways operated services to the following international scheduled destinations (at January 2005): Accra, Alicante, Barbados, Cancún, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Geneva, Goa, Heraklion Hurghada, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Luxor, Lyon, Málaga, Male, Malta, Mombasa, Monastir, Montego Bay, Orlando, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Plovdiv, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Salzburg, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Sharm el Sheikh, Sofia, St Lucia, Sydney, Tenerife, Toulouse, Turin, Varadero and Verona.

Fleet

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At the time of rebranding, the Britannia Airways fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

• 4 Boeing 737-500
• 5 Boeing 737-300
• 1 Boeing 737-800
• 18 Boeing 757-200
• 4 Boeing 767-200
• 9 Boeing 767-300

External links

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• Thomsonfly.com
• Britannia Airways Fleet Detail
• Britannia Airways Passenger Opinions
• Photos of Britannia Airways aircraft

Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom

Britannia Airways | Britannia Airways | Britannia Airways | Britannia Airways