There is still something OK and comforting about booking a traditional package holiday - All in with your flights/bags/transfers/accommodation/choice of self catering or meals.
Today though here in the UK there is really only TUI and it's brands, with the smaller guys like Sunvil, Inghams, Olympic, Gambia Experience, Newmarket, Mark Warner, and a few more...
Apart from TUI, there are almost no Tour Operators now chartering ''whole plane'' series, let alone from Spain!.
Olympic Holidays ceased chartering their own aircraft for Greece and Cyprus a couple of years ago after the collapse of Small Planet and then Germania. They carried on a while using Enter Air and ASL.
Titan, Enter Air, Volotea, BACF, and Smart Wings have all picked up work from niche UK Operators such as Sunvil, Gambia Experience, Barrhead Travel, Newmarket Holidays and Jersey's FlyDirect.
Inghams is owned by Swiss Hotelplan who used to own Belair (was SR's Balair) Hotelplan Suisse then entered into a cooperation with Germania AG using two A319 aircraft to short and medium-haul destinations with ‘HolidayJet – operated by Germania’ titles were started but is now rebranded as CHair AG, who was not affected by the bankruptcy of its German shareholder Germania Flug in February 2019, and continues operations.
Kuoni who owns Voyages Jules Verne, formed Edelweiss Air in 1995, Kuoni is now owned by a Swedish group
Crystal, Hayes & Jarvis, Sovereign, and Citalia are all now TUI brands part of the Travelopia Group.
You then have specialist upmarket people like Abercrombie & Kent, Audley Travel, Cox & Kings, Scott Dunn etc.
Back to Topic of Spain's charter business that was...
Correct, Thomson's took work from Hispania, Spanair and Air Europa. That work had all dwindled considerably after the collapse of AE's Intasun, which was around the same time as BIA and then Dan Air going under, both of whom also flew alot of work for Intasun and Thomsons.
One by one the Majors took all the Minnows paddling in the pool.
IEA started up in 1987 but was gobbled up by Airtours International after summer 1993.
Amber Airways was founded in 1988 to take over the flight services of the recently liquidated Airways International Cymru. Amber Airways mainly flew to the tourist destinations in Greece and Spain, especially Palma de Mallorca Airport. At the end of November 1988 Amber Airways was taken over by Paramount Airways who then collapsed in Nov.1989.
Horizon Midland's own airline Orion was also lost in 1989 to a take over by Britannia.
In the meantime, the previous management of Orion had formed 'TEA UK' in association with TEA of Belgium. Under the takeover agreement, they were not allowed to base any operations at East Midlands Airport so they choose nearby Birmingham Airport although the airline went on to establish a relatively large presence at East Midlands Airport and Gatwick.
During this period in Spain both Spantax and Hispania had folded soon after each other one saw many small Spanish outfits open up as mentioned in my previous post, either flying as themselves or flying sub charters on behalf of Monarch, BIA, Britannia, or Air Europe.
Aviaco who were to take over the ailing Hispania, was eventually taken fully into Iberia and AO's charter flights ceased.
During its heyday, Aviaco ("AO") was well known for operating holiday charter flights primarily from Palma, Ibiza, Tenerife, and Gerona to almost every provincial airport in the UK and Europe, providing uplift for all major tour operators, such as Thomson, Enterprise, Cosmos, Carousel, Pontinental, and ILG. In fact, ILG's combined operations (Intasun, Lancaster, Global and Sol) signed a deal with AO to operate charters from all UK airports not covered by its own Air Europe brand.
Aviaco (Likewise Spantax too) earned itself a bad reputation; it became known for its old aircraft (DC-8 and DC-9's), mediocre service and huge delays. However, the airline gained something of a cult status amongst travellers, who ultimately saw their Aviaco flight as part of the holiday experience (Really !)
Aviaco often sub-chartered aircraft from IBERIA to provide seasonal added capacity to its DC-9 fleet, which saw weekly forays of Iberia Boeing 727s, A300s and even Boeing 747-200s operating charter services on Aviaco's behalf into airports across Europe that had otherwise only handled 737 and DC9 sized aircraft up to that point.
Still, no one in Spain has lasted the course - Today (well pre-covid-19) Thomson's was still buying in 3rd party airline capacity for regional airport work and Air Europa, Norwegian, Volotea, and also Alba Star ES were doing this.
For Summer 2022 any major post Covid-19 recovery for the holiday business is still walking down unknown paths.
Norwegian have gone, Air Europa is now flying with IAG, Volotea do have some charter worked planned for TUI from at least SOU (and for FlyDirect's JER to PMI TFS and AGP)
Alba Star who were once flying for TUI from EXT EDI NCL MME INV and ABZ, have been seen often at all of the UK regionals in previously ''normal'' summers.
They have done plenty of work for Newmarket Holidays and JetsGo Holidays.
Just have to lament the heady old days of the many Spanish charter jets all lined up at Palma