TUI fly Belgium

Last updated

TUI fly Belgium
TUIfly Logo 2016.svg
TUI (Jetairfly) Boeing 737-8 MAX.jpg
IATA ICAO Call sign
TBJAFBEAUTY
Founded13 November 2003;21 years ago (2003-11-13)
(as Jetairfly)
Commenced operations23 November 2005;19 years ago (2005-11-23)
Operating bases
Fleet size25
Destinations134
Parent company TUI Group
Headquarters Zaventem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium
Key peopleElie Bruyninckx (President)
Website www.tuifly.be

TUI fly Belgium, [1] [2] legally incorporated as TUI Airlines Belgium nv and formerly branded Jetairfly, [2] is a Belgian scheduled and charter airline with its registered office at Brussels Airport. [3]

Contents

The airline is a subsidiary of the TUI Group. Its sister companies include TUI fly Netherlands, TUI fly Deutschland (Germany), TUI Airways (United Kingdom) and TUI fly Nordic (Sweden).

History

TUI fly Belgium head office in Ostend Het hoofdkantoor van de Jetairfly - Ostend (2009).jpg
TUI fly Belgium head office in Ostend

The airline was established as Sunrise in 2002 as a home carrier for tour operator Jetair, part of the tourism group TUI AG and re-established as TUI Airlines Belgium on 13 November 2003. [4] The original plans were to operate two aircraft, but after charter company Sobelair (home carrier for Jetair) ceased its operations, started its operations with 5 Boeing 737-400. On 23 November 2005, the airline was renamed Jetairfly as part of the rebranding around the trade name Jetair.

In January 2012, Jetairfly announced that Jet4you, a low-cost Moroccan carrier and also a subsidiary of the TUI AG Group, would be fully integrated in Jetairfly. The merger was complete in April 2012. [5] In March 2012, Jetairfly officially became a full scheduled airline, while previously many of their flights were conducted as charter flights. As a result, all flights can be booked in both directions even by non-EU citizens. [6]

In the beginning of 2013, Jetairfly was the first leisure airline worldwide to introduce the Embraer 190 in its fleet. In the autumn of 2013, the new office building and maintenance hangar "Jetairport" was inaugurated at Brussels Airport. In December 2013, Jetairfly was the first and only Belgian airline to introduce the brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. [7]

On 14 November 2014, Jetairfly sealed a wet-lease deal to provide up to four aircraft with crew to operate on behalf of ECAir, the flag carrier of the Republic of the Congo, from mid-2015 on. [8] [9]

In 2015, it was the first and only Belgian airline with an ISO 14001 certification for their focus on sustainability and reducing their ecological footprint. [10] [11]

On 13 May 2015, it was announced by the TUI Group that all five of TUI's airline subsidiaries will be named TUI fly, [12] whilst keeping their separate Air Operator's Certificate, taking over three years to complete. [13] On 19 October 2016, Jetairfly received the new brand name TUI fly Belgium with the legal name still being TUI Airlines Belgium NV [3] as the second airline within the TUI group which underwent the name change. [2]

In February 2025, TUIfly Belgium announced it would terminate all long-haul operations and phase out its remaining sole Boeing 787-8 by November 2025. [14] [15] In 2024, the airline already relocated one aircraft of the same type to sister company TUI fly Netherlands, stating that such a small long-haul fleet is no longer commercially viable. [16]

Destinations

TUI fly Belgium has a network of 180 routes to more than 100 airports in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Caribbean, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Africa and the United States. The airline's home base is Brussels Airport, but flights are also operated from eight other bases: Liège Airport, Ostend–Bruges International Airport, Antwerp Airport, Lille Airport in France, Mohammed V International Airport Casablanca and Marrakesh Menara Airport in Morocco. [17]

Fleet

Current fleet

As of January 2025, TUI fly Belgium operates the following aircraft: [18]

TUI fly Belgium fleet
AircraftIn serviceOrdersPassengersNotes
PYTotal
Boeing 737-700 2148148To be retired and replaced by Boeing 737 MAX. [19]
Boeing 737-800 9189189
Boeing 737 MAX 8 69 [20] To replace 737-700 and -800. [20]
Boeing 737 MAX 10 4 [20] TBA
Boeing 787-8 125280305To be phased out in November 2025. [14]
Embraer E195-E2 [21] 3136136
Total2113

Fleet modernisation

TUI Group has 70 737 MAXs on order for the group. [22] The order consists of 18 MAX 10 aircraft, [23] with the remaining variants unspecified as of June 2017. In 2018, TUI fly Belgium was set to receive a total of four new MAX aircraft. Over the next four years, they were scheduled to receive a total of 15 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and four Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft. [20] Deliveries of the new aircraft to the TUI Group commenced in January 2018 with the first aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, delivered to TUI fly Belgium. [24] In 2025, the airline announced it would phase out its sole remaining long-haul aircraft, a single Boeing 787-8 within the same year. [14]

Former fleet

A TUI fly Belgium Boeing 787-8 which is to be phased-out in 2025. Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner OO-JDL "Diamond" - Tui - 32140317807.jpg
A TUI fly Belgium Boeing 787-8 which is to be phased-out in 2025.
A former TUI fly Belgium Embraer 190 in 2019. These have been replaced by the Embraer E195-E2. Antwerp JetAirFly ERJ Embraer 190STD OO-JEB 2019 12 (cropped).jpg
A former TUI fly Belgium Embraer 190 in 2019. These have been replaced by the Embraer E195-E2.

TUI fly Belgium has previously operated the following aircraft:[ citation needed ]

TUI fly Belgium former fleet
AircraftTotalIntroducedRetiredNotes
Airbus A320-200 320182018leased from Orange2Fly
420182019leased from SmartLynx Airlines Estonia
120212021
Airbus A321-200 120192019leased from SmartLynx Airlines
Airbus A330-200 120182018Leased from AirTanker Services
Boeing 737-400 720052012
Boeing 737-500 120072012
Boeing 767-300ER 420082022
Boeing 787-8 120182024relocated to TUI fly Netherlands [16]
Embraer 190 420132023
Fokker 100 120052008

Service

Short- and medium-haul

On short-and medium haul flights, there are three types of service offered on all Economy Class aircraft:

Long-haul

Boeing 767
Boeing 787 [26]

On all long-haul flights there is AVOD for every passenger.

See also

References

  1. "Cheap flight tickets | Book a flight with TUI fly". tuifly.be.
  2. 1 2 3 ch-aviation.com – Jetairfly rebrands as TUIfly Belgium 21 October 2016
  3. 1 2 "Company information | TUI fly". tuifly.be.
  4. "TUI Airlines Belgium". Airline History. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  5. "Marokkaanse Jet4you gaat op in Belgische Jetairfly" (in Dutch). Nieuwsblad.be. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  6. "Jetairfly" (PDF). 22 March 2012.
  7. Flightsim.to (4 October 2020). "PMDG 737-800 TUI BE | OO-JAA 2018 for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS". Flightsim.to. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  8. "Congo's ECAIR adds first Jetairfly B737 to fleet". Ch-aviation.com. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  9. "Belgium's Jetairfly Seals Wet-Lease Deal With ECAir". Aerosmart.com. 15 January 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  10. "Jetairfly, the first Belgian airline with ISO 14001 certification". 20 March 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  11. "Jetairfly ecological footprint" . Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  12. "Name change TUIfly will become TUI fly". March 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  13. "TUI Group to rebrand five airlines as 'TUI'" . Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 TUIFLY BELGIUM DISCONTINUES LONG-HAUL SERVICE IN NW25 retrieved 12 February 2025
  15. "TUI fly to End Long-Haul Operations from Brussels". airwaysmag.com. 10 February 2025.
  16. 1 2 aerotelegraph.com (German) 11 February 2025
  17. "Jetairfly annonce une base à Lille" (in French). air-journal.fr. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  18. "Our fleet | TUI fly". tuifly.be.
  19. "TUI Group to simplify fleet, mulls more B737 MAX 10s". ch-aviation.com. 25 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  20. 1 2 3 4 "TUI fly krijgt naast B737 MAX8 ook vier MAX10's in de vloot (Dutch)". flightlevel.be. 21 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  21. "Belgium's TUI fly takes first E195-E2". ch-aviation.com. 9 May 2023.
  22. Boeing 737 Orders & Deliveries
  23. "Paris: Leisure Group TUI converts 18 orders to 737 Max 10". Flightglobal.com. 19 June 2017.
  24. "TUI Group announce selection of 18 Boeing 737 MAX 10s". aviation24.be. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  25. Spinnae, David (2 December 2010). "Jetairfly breidt uit : nieuwe lijn, verhoogde vluchtfrequenties, vlootuitbreiding met de nieuwste technologie" (in Dutch). Flightlevel. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  26. "Home". JetairFly Dreamliner. Retrieved 29 July 2015.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to TUI fly Belgium at Wikimedia Commons