Its possible Icelandair has taken up the round the world trip as TUI couldn't fulfil the requirement due to the max grounding I'm sure

TUI’s chief executive of aviation Kenton Jarvis:
TUI aviation chief Kenton Jarvis on Boeing 737 Max grounding and Thomas Cook’s collapse

Yes all vip work now done. Contract has come to an end. Titan, Tag aviation and a few others now operating them.

Fleet update
 

Its intresting to see the comments by Kenton Jarvis about incoming aircraft.
Jethro's website has been updated today and shows the following

G-FDZG - Return to Lessor MAR 2020 (TBC)
G-OOBC - Returned to Lessor 9th December (to be leased back for 6 month)
G-OOBD - Return to Lessor Soon (to be leased back for 6 month)
G-OOBE - Return to Lessor APR 2020
G-OOBF - Return to Lessor FEB 2020

+ G-FDZE & G-CPEU which left after S19 where are these extra aircraft coming from as the MAX will not fly for Summer ?

There will be leases needed for sure but they must be bringing aircraft in from somewhere surely as they have recruited TCX flight deck crew with them training on the 737 i was just curious as to where these will come from or if aircraft are intended to move to the UK from elsewhere in the TUI group.

I'm sure they will be using all their years of experience of operating a major airline to come up with some alternatives. They've had a lot more time to plan than the original MAX grounding, and they coped then.

Enter Air and AirExplore already been filling in last few days , Smartlynx and Avion who operated a vast amount of aircraft for TCX will be available for lease this summer too but i cannot see the MAX flying until late summer at the earliest.

United have pulled the MAX from their schedules until 4th June now, so they're obviously taking a pessimistic view on when the aircraft will return. There must be a lot of airlines head-scratching over Christmas as to how to cover flights. Looking at other threads, it looks like Ryanair are making deeper cuts already. Interesting to see what TUI have up their sleeves, given the peak holiday booking period is just about to start.

Some good points raised above -
TUI CEO mentioned that if the MAX is not back by the end of APR (We know it will not be) then their financial contingency allows to remove the MAX from their S20 program.

It is extremely hard to try to introduce, or re-introduce a new, or an amended type that will require intense pilot training/SIM time, and the various Crew and Ops manuals to be rewritten) in the midst of a summer Charter flight series as big as TUI's.

I think TUI now have pretty much taken as read that the MAX will be out of the their Summer 2020 flying program - My Tuppence.

Yes indeed, and that United Airlines decision concurs that it is likely improbable that TUI could slip the MAX back into the summer program if any approval of the MAX was in mid-summer.

FYI
You mention ''Peak time is just about to start'' - Yes I agree we have a busy Ski Flight season starting but that flying is at weekends only.
Xmas peak is only a couple of weeks really.
During the week popular winter destinations like Canaries, Egypt, Banjul, and Cape Verde see most of the flying. (Longer routes means the aircraft often will only do one rotation a day, compared to 2 or 3 in the Summer)

The aircraft as you know, are not as busy in the winter historically, and many go off for winter leases (quite normal) to other airlines, so the Peak flying period is MAY-SEPT, with JUL/AUG seeing the most usage.
This type of flying program has always seen the difficulty for Holiday airlines making good use year round of their fleets, and try to make money.

I think he was referring to when Holidays are booked, rather than when the schedule is the busiest.

Merry Christmas!

Ah OK - so you mean the peak ''booking'' time. Yes Tour operators want their summer bookings made and deposits paid as early as possible of course.

Back in the early days when the summer holiday brochures were released there would be queues around the block with holidaymakers trying to get the first and best pickings when they went on sale - usually after the New Year. (showing my age now lol)

Happy Xmas too !!!

Yes I remember those days as well...the mad dash to get the `Free Child` places:hmm: Different times but they were fun

Not sure what the country of registration of the aircraft has to do with anything. And they weren't / aren't always on time and very reliable. Are you possibly overlooking the summer leases on Sunwing equipment in recent years, and going back a little the Irish A320s that Thomson used. The words tinted, rose and glasses come to mind, but not necessarily in that order!

Basically Summer 2019 saw a right old ACMI mish-mash turning up for TUI's flights (and we will see the same for S20) but they got the program covered without too much hoo-hah.

Titan are an established ACMI airline and G- reg'd.
Norwegian are OK, as is Evelop, Air Europa, and Alba Star.

I would be perhaps less than comfy on say Sunwing/Smartwings/avion/freebird/smartlynx/Olympus/ASL/Correndon et al mainly in terms of the reliability of the service and of the comfort, rather than any safety issues.

However, Smartwings have had a huge incident this summer with an engine failure and shutdown on a 737-800NG out of Chania that continued on to home base at Prague.
The aircraft was enroute at FL360 when the #1 engine failed. The crew reported a "maintenance issue" to ATC and requested to descend to FL240. No PAN or emergency call was issued. The crew attempted to restart the engine twice unsuccessfully. The captain decided the nearest suitable aerodrome to be Prague and continued to Prague without informing ATC along the 2:20 hours route after the engine failure until in contact with Prague ATC, when the crew declared a PAN and reported #1 engine had failed. The aircraft landed OK. A failed fuel pump caused the engine to starve, metallic chips were found in the fuel filter. Both parts were shipped for expert examination. An investigation into the occurrence rated a serious incident is continuing.
Previously Sunwing had a major incident taking off out of Belfast.

Sunwing are practically a Canadian version of TUI, they even share aircraft.
BA had the 777 crash and the A319 engine cowling incident. Would you rule them out if they were an option for TUI to charter?

The fact that every one of these Airlines are regulated by CAA should instil confidence.

TUI have had time to prepare for this. They wouldnt have sat back and waited for the grounding to be extended without having a backup plan, especially given the volume of expansion that's been announced. Last summer was very last minute.

Just returned from a week's holiday with TUI to Fuerteventura. Out 0n 25.12 and returned on 01.01 (BHX-FUE) really pleased to travel on a 757 both ways, been a long time since I've been in one, and how comfortable it was in extra legroom seats in row 11 immediately left after boarding. It reminded me of what a lovely a/c it is, shame it's going.

Ryanair say they will not now see their MAX's in service before OCT, MOL speaking to the Press on Friday. It’s possible we’ll only get the first jets in October 2020.
O’Leary has previously said it would not take orders in July or August because it is the airline’s busiest time of the year.

Implications for TUI UK will be likely the same for them, Thus I cannot see any return to service in the main for TUI until for the following summer in 2021.
TUI would not need new MAX deliveries to be introduced during the winter 20-21 season.
They have 6 already grounded in UK/EU, plus a handful of brand new ones parked up at Boeing.
TUI also had a large MAX -10 order that was due to start for S20

Is it weather related at Chambery today or ATC (or both) ROC10?

We always had trouble using that airport many years ago, but the SKI tour operators want to go there for the easy access to the slopes, except when it all goes Pete Tong and the posh skiers all get very grumpy :(

The majority of the time CMF works for the ski resorts it serves. There is the occasional issue with weather that causes delays and diversions, but generally this doesn't happen that often. As an Airline/Tour Operator, you don't plan where you fly based on potential bad weather and a few days of disruption over the whole season. You go to the most convenient Airport that works and deal with disruption on the day. Generally TUI preplan diversions (LYS mainly) based on bad weather forecasts at CMF and operate straight there meaning transfers are better organised and delays reduced.

CMF is notorious for weather issues. It's location in the mountains is as already stated advantageous for skiers but the approach and departure to the airport is complex and airlines require approved crews to operate it.
Because the weather minima are so high here, it does result in more than the average level of days where weather is below limits. I have a vague recollection that Jet2 pulled out of CMF due to the levels of weather disruption being experienced there.
Finally ROC10, don't take FR24 as gospel at CMF - it is frequently wrong. There are for example Titan operations I have noted going in and out which are not listed at all which may be additions or have replaced the listed TUI ops but not been updated.

TUI post booking service
 

A first world problem I know but having recently booked a TUI holiday with a flight from Manchester to Cancun I've tried to update my booking using their app to include Champagne and Chocolates on the way out. I'm finding I just get and error message on their app, they are not contactable by phone and the TUI stores is unable to help. Not a big deal I know but you would think airlines would want customers to pay for those little extras.

Try messaging them on Facebook? They've always responded to my queries that way.

Thanks. Will do.

Does anyone have any news on where TUI are going to acquire aircraft to make up the numbers required for their expanded Summer 2020 season?
There seems to be more aircraft leaving than arriving, and it is quite obvious the the MAX issues will not be resolved for the start of the season.

Aircraft leaving the fleet over winter going to other companies is quite normal, and has worked like that for many charter airlines (like AE AMM, and Britannia) over the years, with those planes usually returning back off leases for the start of the next summer season,
However - with more TUI 757's and some older 738's being retired and no announcements as yet of any ACMI leases being arranged it seems TUI is still working hard to procure enough hardware to fulfil their S20 series.
For my tuppence - The MAX is unlikely to return for all or any of the S20 season, and their 9 or so grounded 737-8's were due to be joined by the new larger MAX-10 series for S20.
The-10 has a pax capacity similar to the 757.
Titan have placed many of their a/c already with Jet2 for S20, and Smartlynx are also been working now with Jet2.

Don't forget though TUI UK are up two 789's on last summer with G-TUIN/O being delivered a couple of months ago.

This frees up some 788's to do some short haul flying, like the 767's have done for years. This will increase capacity at bases like MAN and LGW. This obviously won't account for all of the extra lift needed. But up gauging a route from say a 738 to a 788, frees a 738 to operate somewhere else whilst also increasing capacity on the original route.

AFAIK both 767's were due to be gone from the UK by now too, but YG will return to operate alongside YH at MAN all summer.

Will there be any spare capacity from other TUI airlines? Rather than having to outsource is there any flexibility within the group to get spare a/c across. I'm thinking the extra two 767's in Scandi for example.