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| Founded | 1 December 1961 | |||
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| Hubs | London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester | |||
| Secondary hubs | Birmingham, Newcastle | |||
| Fleet size | 47 | |||
| Destinations | Europe | |||
| Parent company | TUI | |||
| Headquarters | London Luton Airport, United Kingdom | |||
| Key people | ||||
| Website | http://www.thomsonfly.com | |||
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Thomsonfly. (Discuss) |
Britannia Airways was the largest charter airline in the United Kingdom, rebranded as Thomsonfly in 2005. Its main bases were London Gatwick, London Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. It was headquartered in Luton, Bedfordshire.[1]
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History
The airline was established on December 1, 1961 and started operations on 5 May 1962 as Euravia (London) flying Lockheed Constellations on inclusive tour holidays for Universal Sky Tours. (Rival charter airline Skyways, one of Britain's foremost independent airlines during the 1950s and early 1960s, had been taken over by Euravia in 1962. The Skyways takeover did not include Skyways Coach-Air, a Skyways associate, established in the early 1950s by Eric Rylands to operate low-fare coach-air services between London and several European capital cities. Following Euravia's acquisition of Skyways, Skyways Coach-Air remained independent until its successor Skyways International was taken over by Dan-Air in 1972.[2])
The name Britannia Airways was adopted on August 16, 1964 to coincide with re-equipping with the Bristol Britannia turboprop airliner.
In 1965 Britannia became part of Thomson, itself part of the Canadian-owned International Thomson Organisation.
Britannia began to re-equip with Boeing 737-200 in 1968, the first European charter 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 aircraft carried the Thomson colours and logo, and Thomsonfly became the trading name of Britannia Airways. On 1 November 2005 the company's legal name changed from Britannia Airways Limited to Thomsonfly Limited.
Britannia Airways was featured in the first series of the ITV fly on the wall Docusoap Airline show and is being replayed on the Sky3 and Sky Real Lives channels of BSkyB.
Services
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, Natal, Orlando, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Plovdiv, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana,Reus, Salzburg, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Sharm el Sheikh, Sofia, St Lucia, Sydney, Tenerife, Toulouse, Turin, Varadero and Verona.
Fleet
At the time of rebranding, the Britannia Airways fleet consisted of the following aircraft:
- 4 Boeing 737-500
- 9 Boeing 737-300
- 4 Boeing 737-800
- 18 Boeing 757-200
- 2 Boeing 767-200
- 8 Boeing 767-300
Incidents and accidents
Britannia Airways only suffered 2 accidents during their operations (1961-2005): [3]
- On 1 September 1966, Britannia Airways Flight 105, a Bristol 175 Britannia, crashed on landing at Ljubljana, Slovenia due to pilot error after a flight from Luton, England. Of the 117 onboard 98 died. [4][5]
- On 14 September 1999, Britannia Airways Flight 226A, a Boeing 757-200, crashed on approach to Girona Airport, Spain whilst landing in poor weather conditions. Torrential rain, and the extinguishing of runway lights hindered the landing of the aeroplane, which bounced and then landed with its nose pointing down on its second attempt. Fifty five people were injured out of 245 passengers and crew. [6]
Bibliography
- British Independent Airlines since 1946. A.C.Merton-Jones. Volume One. Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS. Liverpool, 1976. ISBN 0-902420-07-0.
- Simons, Graham M. (1993). The Spirit of Dan-Air. Peterborough, UK: GMS Enterprises. ISBN 1-870384-20-2.
References
- ^ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 30 March 1985. 63." Retrieved on 17 June 2009.
- ^ The Spirit of Dan-Air, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, pp. 77/8
- ^ Britannia Airways incidents and accidents
- ^ Britannia Airways Flight 105
- ^ "Altimeter Setting in Doubt at Ljubljana - Jugoslav report criticises crew and airline" Flight International 12 September 1968, p.397 (PDF file), continued, p.398
- ^ Britannia Airways FLight 226
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Britannia Airways |
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