I'm keeping this to just the first era of Wide Body's flying mainly to only the Med and the Canaries
All started in 1971,
with BOAC, Condor, KLM, SAS/Scanair and Sabena who all began using their 747's mainly at weekends to the main holiday Sun Spots.
Aer Lingus were to join them.
BOAC only did 2 summers LHR to Palma.
Condor's pair of 747's (Fritz and Max) were sold in 1979, and new DC-10's replaced them, also to be used on Condor's short haul IT's.
By 1973 Laker had their first DC-10's, and Court Line and LTU both had their new Tristars.
Laker's Skytrain approval would be some years away so the DC-10's were used on the IT's.
Court Line folded summer 1974. Their pair of 400 seaters sat and languished for a few years before CX picked them up.
LTU became a major short haul IT L1011 operator, with the -500 series joining in 1980.
Finnair and Martinair both were very early DC-10 30 operators and soon joined the holiday charter flight scene.
Balair and Condor followed with DC-10's in 1979.
A300
A310
TEA Belgium were an early A300B1 operator from 1974 and flew 2 A300 examples.
In 1975 Germanair ordered 2 new A300B4, Hapag Lloyd would take them over in 1979 and order some more new from Airbus.
Transavia flew the A300B2 in 1976.
Condor would operate the A300B4 from 1979 onwards.
Laker obtained in 1981 3 new A300's but the airline soon folded in early 1982.
SAS passed in 1983 to Scanair their A300B4 fleet, who in turn sold them all to Conair in 1987.
In 1985 Karair Finland obtained 2 new A300B4's (one was a new and painted order for Luxair but NTU 1984)
Luxair then went on to fly a single ex SQ A300B4 from 1985.
Condor, Hapag Lloyd, Martinair and Balair would all obtain new A310's from 1985 onwards.
In the late 1980's Dan Air and Orion both flew the A300 leased from Hapag Lloyd and LH, but the types use was fairly short-lived with both airlines.
BA from 1976 had a growing Tristar fleet which were often seen at PMI FAO ATH LCA LPA and Tenerife
Charter associate British Airtours KT, took over some L1011's from the parent Co. starting in 1982.
KT also flew a brand new 747-236 for summer 1984 only.
From 1986 KT then leased from BA G-BMGS a 747-283B.
Both KT's 747's were occasionally used to PMI TFS and FAO
When Laker folded, BCAL quickly set up with Rank, a dedicated BCAL Charter operation with 2 ex Laker DC-10 10's for summer 1982.
Britannia in 1984 took delivery of their first new new 767-200's with 273 seats.
Braathens also got a pair of new 762's at the same time, but these were soon seen as too big for them and were sold in 1986.
Around the late 1980's some old and rather dodgy 747-100's were leased to Airtours International and Air Europe from Lion Air (Cargolux), Orion Air USA, and Tower Air.
These were mainly used on the long haul charters but were also seen at Palma FAO and TFS etc.
The newer era -
Monarch ordered four new A300-600R's for delivery from 1990.
These would also see use on far flung flights to Goa, Male, Mombasa, MCO and more.
MON/OM had cancelled an order for new 767-300.
In Dec 1991 LTU took the first of 4 new MD-11, and in Dec 1994 LTU took their first of 7 new A330-300 - both types with over 400 seats, German people movers.
LTU Sud had already obtained new 767-300's.
Lauda got his 767-300's also in the late 1980's, and these would always be seen on Med charter flights.
In 1993 Leisure International got 2 new 767-300ER's but these were usually only seen flying to MCO and the Caribbean.
That's it for the pivotal years...
You could add in a whole chapter, book and verse of the later Charter and ACMI Tristar operators seen at PMI, LGW & MAN such as -
Air Ops, ECU Air, Air Atlanta, Blue Scandinavia, Time Air Sweden, Nordic East/European, Novair, Peach Air, Aer Turas/TBG, Classic AW, Air Scandic, Air Madeira, Euro Atlantic, Globe Jet/Privilege Jet airlines/Rollins Air, Air Luxor, Yes Air, Luz Air, plus little known Atlanta and International AW,
and of course Caledonian Airways 1988, and then under new ownership in 1995.
747 at Palma re-born for Summer 2021
Such is the huge demand by Germans for holidays abroad Lufthansa are deploying their 747-8's on Palma flights in July 2021 and also August every Saturday from FRA.
This will be the first time in over 40 years that regular holiday flights by German 747's will fly again to Palma.
Lufthansa will use the A350 from MUC to Palma on Saturdays.
Shame us Brits cannot hitch a 747 ride but we are banned from currently entering Germany.
They will join the wide body A330 of SunClass Airlines (was Thomas Cook Scandinavia, formerly Premiair > Scanair & Conair DK) call sign is still Viking,
plus Edelweiss A340's, Neos 787, and possibly TUI (though likely not TUI UK) 787 and 767.
Last edited by rog747; 16th Jun 2021 at 13:16.