Originally Posted by
shamrock7seal
What is TUI's utilisation for the 737 fleet? Forget MAX issues...
Seems that in the winter there are whole days that go by where aircraft are not deployed and the summer season is sometimes not as tight as it could be from observation. Surely a company like this should be putting utilisation at the top in terms of priority?
You’ve asked this before and received a good answer already.
During the summer most aircraft are highly utilised, often flying two or sometimes three return flights per day. Obviously it is to their advantage to have one or two aircraft at a slightly lower utilisation so that they may be used as backup should anything go wrong (TUI cannot simply cancel flights like most airlines).
Of course, during the winter utilisation is obviously lower as demand is also lower. Several 737s and all 767s are leased elsewhere in the winter months and TUI also use this time to carry out significant maintenance on aircraft. However, upon grounding of the MAXs, TUI often struggled to cope even during the winter months so clearly utilisation is not that low with most aircraft probably flying one return flight per day (usually longer flights to Canaries/Cyprus), some will operate two, some none. For an example of lower utilisation in winter months, look at Jet2.