Charter airline of Germany
TUI fly Deutschland
,
[1]
formerly
TUIfly
, is a German leisure
airline
owned by the travel and tourism company
TUI Group
. It is headquartered at
Hannover Airport
[2]
with bases at several other German airports. TUI fly Deutschland is part of
TUI Group's
airline unit.
History
[
edit
]
Formation
[
edit
]
The airline was formed in 2007 by the merger of
Hapag Lloyd Flug
and
Hapag Lloyd Express
as a branch of
TUI Travel
. The
airline codes
of its predecessor are still in use, and the
callsign
YELLOWCAB
was used until it was changed to
TUIJET
on 24 September 2010.
[
citation needed
]
In the second quarter of 2007, the load factor was at about 79%, compared to about 92% the year before. The company closed its
Leipzig/Halle
and
Bremen
bases. On 29 January 2008, plans were announced to merge TUIfly with
Eurowings
and
Germanwings
(
Lufthansa
low-cost subsidiaries) to form a joint and independent holding company, but the talks were ultimately unsuccessful.
[3]
TUI Travel confirmed on 27 March 2009 that it had signed a strategic partnership with
Air Berlin
that would see TUI Travel take a 20% stake in
Air Berlin
, and Air Berlin 20% in TUI fly Germany. Due to regulatory concerns, this was changed to 9.9%.
[4]
Air Berlin was also to wet-lease 17 aircraft from TUI fly and take over all of TUI fly Germany's city connections. TUI was to focus on serving the charter market with 21 aircraft.
[5]
From 25 October 2009 onwards, all German domestic flights previously operated by TUI fly Germany were operated by Air Berlin, as well as all flights to Austria, Italy and Croatia.
[6]
Most of these flights were still operated by TUI fly Germany aircraft, but were marketed by Air Berlin.
Development since 2013
[
edit
]
In December 2013, TUI fly Deutschland abandoned its distinctive yellow livery and replaced it with a blue design which had already been introduced at
TUI fly Netherlands
,
TUI fly Belgium
and
TUI Airways
. The first plane in the new colors arrived in
Hannover
on 17 February 2014.
[7]
The livery was updated in 2016, with titles shortened from "TUIfly" to "TUI".
[8]
[9]
In September 2014, TUI fly Deutschland decided to relocate their operations at
Zweibrucken Airport
to nearby
Saarbrucken Airport
as Zweibrucken Airport faced bankruptcy and an uncertain future.
[10]
In January 2016, TUI fly Deutschland also announced it would leave
Hamburg Airport
entirely due to the increasing competition from low-cost carriers. The summer seasonal routes did not resume, and all remaining routes ended by March 2016.
[11]
In September 2016 plans were announced to merge TUI fly Deutschland with [[Air Berlin]|Air Berlin's]] leisure operations - which were partially operated by TUI fly Germany - as well as Air Berlin's entire Austrian subsidiary
Niki
.
[12]
On 5 October 2016, TUI fly Deutschland confirmed it was in talks with
Air Berlin
and
Etihad Airways
to create a new holding company for leisure operations. The new company was planned to serve important holiday destinations from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
[13]
In June 2017 TUI Group and Etihad Aviation Group announced that joint venture negotiations had ended.
[14]
In July 2018, the airline announced it would close its base at
Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport
by October 2018.
[15]
TUI Group
has 70
737 MAXs
on order.
[16]
The order consists of 18
MAX 10
aircraft,
[17]
with the remaining variants unspecified as of June 2017.
[17]
[16]
In January 2019, it was announced that TUI fly Deutschland would receive 25 of these 737 MAX by 2023.
[18]
After the demise of
Germania
in early 2019, TUI fly Deutschland announced it would base aircraft at
Nuremberg Airport
to fly to several leisure destinations.
[19]
In November 2019, it was announced that the airline planned to operate its long-haul flights to destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico, similar to its sister airlines. Initially, the airline was to have taken on two
Boeing 787s
to operate these flights with plans to increase the number in the future. The flights were originally planned to begin in the Winter 2020/21 season, with scheduled and charter services to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, and Barbados.
[20]
The plans were shelved for the foreseeable future in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
[21]
In October 2020, TUI fly Deutschland retired their last of their 20
Boeing 737-700s
.
[22]
Several of them had been operated on a long-term
wetlease
basis on behalf of now defunct
Air Berlin
. In December 2020, the airline announced a major downsizing in operations with a reduction from over 30 to 17 aircraft while also terminating all services from Cologne/Bonn, Basel/Mulhouse, Paderborn/Lippstadt and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden.
[23]
Operations
[
edit
]
TUI fly Deutschland offers both
charter
and scheduled flights with about 60% of all seats sold directly, 30% as a part of a TUI holiday package, and 10% by other agencies. TUI fly Deutschland itself offers drinks, snacks, and meals on flights to and from Cape Verde, Egypt, Greece, Israel, southern Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain including the Canary Islands, and Tunisia. Hot meals are served on the longest flights, including those to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Egypt, and Madeira.
[24]
Destinations
[
edit
]
TUI fly Deutschland operates from several German airports to leisure destinations mainly around the Mediterranean, such as Spain and Greece. The airline does not operate long-haul flights contrary with the other
TUI Airlines
. As of April 2024
[update]
, TUI fly serves the following destinations:
[25]
Fleet
[
edit
]
Current fleet
[
edit
]
As of January 2024
[update]
, the TUI fly Deutschland fleet consists of the following aircraft:
[26]
Former fleet
[
edit
]
TUI fly Deutschland formerly operated the following aircraft:
[26]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
TUIfly
at Wikimedia Commons
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52°27′29″N
9°42′28″E
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52.45806°N 9.70778°E
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52.45806; 9.70778