Britannia Airways

Infobox Airline
airline = Britannia Airways

logo_size = 180
fleet_size = 47
destinations = Europe
IATA = BY
ICAO = BAL
callsign = BRITANNIA
parent = TUI
company_slogan =
founded = 1 December 1961
headquarters = London Luton Airport, United Kingdom
key_people =
hubs = London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester
secondary_hubs = Birmingham, Newcastle
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer =
lounge =
alliance =
website = http://www.thomsonfly.com

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.

History

The airline was established on December 1 1961 and started operations on 5 May 1962 as Euravia flying ex-Skyways Lockheed Constellations on inclusive tour holidays for Universal Sky Tours. (Rival charter airline Skyways, one of Britain's foremost Independent airlines during the 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 it was taken over by Dan-Air in 1972. ["The Spirit of Dan-Air", Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, pp. 77/8] )

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.

At 23:47 local time on September 14 1999, Britannia Flight BY226A 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. Other causes of the crash have been given as the aircraft was not level enough, not at the right speed, not at the right rate of descent, and the effect of shock or mental incapacitation on the plane's 57-year-old captain at the failure of the runway lights which could have inhibited him from making a decision to abort the landing and go round again, and insufficient information on the intensity of the storm in the area. Upon hitting the ground, the Boeing 757 slid off the runway, and came to rest in three pieces in a field outside the airport boundary. Fifty five people were injured and one man died of a heart attack five days later. [http://www.aaib.gov.uk/sites/aaib/publications/special_bulletins/s1_2000___boeing_757_204__g_byag.cfm]

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
*4 Boeing 767-200
*8 Boeing 767-300

Bibliography

* "British Independent Airlines since 1946". A.C.Merton-Jones. Volume One. Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS. Liverpool, 1976. ISBN 0-902420-07-0.
*

References

External links

* [http://www.thomsonfly.com/en/index.html Thomsonfly.com]
* [http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Britannia_Airways?show=all Fleet]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Britannia%20Airways&distinct_entry=true Photos of Britannia Airways aircraft]