Having had family dispersed across Europe when I was growing up, there are numerous photos of me standing in front of either Britannia or British Airways as a youngster, and this constant travelling on both airlines was definitely the reason that I became hooked on the airline industry & latterly wanted to work in it.

The company has always been respected for being at the top of the charter airline game, with a stunning livery, smart uniforms & generally fantastic service for a charter.

It is incredibly sad to see a brand which is so well-respected in the industry being replaced by this new "dot-com-era" name, however it would be wrong to think it's completely a bad idea. Britannia is essentially known as a charter airline, which puts off a lot of the new consumers who are arranging their own holidays, who would rather book with a "whizz-bang-dot-com" company. There are in reality few people who will choose a holiday because it's operated by "Britannia" and these people who do insist on flying with the company will be told by their travel agents that the airline has changed its name, like "Lunn Poly" has become "Thomson travel shop." This alignement of brands is the future, and hopefully the BY boys & girls will uphold the strong tradition of the Britannia brand under our new name, which whilst the "fly.com" is a bit yuck, we still have the proud name "Thomson" which is respected in the travel industry.

Speaking of uniform, i still have the britannia cabin crew scarf i bought before the TUI uniform, pretty glad i bought it now! at least i can hold on to a few memories, posters from Britannia they sent me and bits and bobs from the airline

RIP the Lady in the Wheelchair
 

Very sad day for aviation in general..

I spent 10 happy years in engineering at LTN from 1980.. From boy to man you could say. My wife is also an ex BAL girl and still happily married with 3 kids living in OZ..
If it was not for Bernard Pinchin (ex Bristol Britannia Flight Eng) and the other training guys I would not be where I am today.. All the staff from the cleaners and up to the mgmt levels of all depts were many of the best in their field.. I have many many fond memories of my time there.
Some really great people went into making BAL the best charter airline in the world...
:mad: Thomson Holidays for allowing the demise of this once great icon and :mad: TUI for not recognising the value and heritage of the brand.....

RIP the old lady..... Gone but never forgotten

Shaun Grady.....

Yeah, fine change the brand etc but why can't they keep the Britannia callsign? That won't confuse the public as hardly any of the public listen in to the RTF and those that do are unlikely to be confused. As has already been mentioned, Flybe have stuck with 'Jersey'. First Choice have stuck with 'Jetset' as well. Call the airline thomsonfly. Keep the callsign Britannia...

Thanks to Buster the Bear for the splendid picture of the Euravia Constellations [and the wooden sheds!].
Thanks also to 22/04 for the information about the gliders. [It seems that what appeared to be a somewhat unlikely recollection may in fact be right!].

Yeah, the new TUI scheme is rubbish and it's sad to see the Britannia name go. :uhoh:

Much as I'm no major fan of TUI/Thomson, I happen to find the new colour scheme very appealing. It is modern, clean cut and exactly what appeals to todays corporate customer.

Yes - sad to see BY go all the same.

Really? People actually like the TUI scheme? :confused::ooh:

No but they saved an aweful lot of money in paint. Now if they would put 2 "grinners" on the tail and move the dots that would be popular