note

Euravia was founded on December 1, 1961 by Ted Langston, owner of the tour operator Universal Sky Tours. It began operations in May 1962 using a Lockheed Constellation on a charter between Manchester and Palma de Mallorca. Five more Constellations were soon acquired, along with a pair of Avro York freighters. In December 1964, it changed its name to Britannia Airways, and began a fleet upgrade with Bristol Britannias. In April 1965, the Tomson organization took over Universal Sky Tours and Britannia Airways. Additional tour operators were acquired and integrated into the Thomson Travel Group. Thomson acquired Orion Airways and merged it into Britannia in 1989. Thomson Travel was acquired by Preussag, owner of TUI AG, in May 2000. In May 2005, Britannia was rebranded as ThomsonFly. In September 2007, TUI Travel acquired First Choice Holidays PLC, resulting in the merger of ThomsonFly and First Choice Airways on May 1, 2008, becoming the world's largest charter airline. On November 1, its name was changed to Thomson Airways. On October 2, 2017, Thomson was renamed TUI Airways, so as to align itself with the TUI airlines based in other countries.

founded - demised (age)

December 1 1961 - present  (64years)

headquarters

Wigmore Lane LU2 9TN, Luton

web

www.tui.co.uk/

base airports

EGGW Luton London	home base
EGCC Ringway International Manchester	Main hub
EGKK Gatwick London	hub
EGGW Luton London	maintenance
GCTS Reina Sofia Tenerife Sur	Winter base

related operators

First Choice Airways	merged 2008
Eagle Air Transport	predecessor
ArkeFly	sister co.
TUIfly Nordic	sister co.
TUIfly GmbH	sister co.
Corsair International	sister co.
Jet4you	sister co.
JetairFly	sister co.