Two days ago a TUI Fly Belgium B737-8 MAX operated the first commercial MAX flight in Europe since the grounding order was removed.

Today, TUI (UK) B737-8 MAX (G-TUMB) departed MAN for an hours flight up to 40,000ft over Southern Scotland before returning to MAN. This is the first time a MAX has flown in the UK since G-TUMF was brought back from TFS to BHX in September 2020 as far as I can tell. I'm assuming the plan is to have these flying this summer?

Yes, that's the plan. Several are due delivery from Boeing over the next few weeks as well.

If you mean the first time a MAX has operated in UK airspace since September 2020, then there were 2 Icelandair MAXs that transited the UK last Sunday en-route from Lleida back to Keflavik.

Is there anyone that has any knowledge with regards to 757 and 767 operations this summer. info.flightmapper hasn't updated any TUI details yet however the flights are currently on sale. I'm thinking specifically with regards to 757 operations MAN-JSI and 767 operations MAN-CFU/BVC.

Any info greatly appreciated, I understand S21 is to be the final season for 757/767 ops at BY

Is there anyone that has any knowledge with regards to 757 and 767 operations this summer. info.flightmapper hasn't updated any TUI details yet however the flights are currently on sale. I'm thinking specifically with regards to 757 operations MAN-JSI and 767 operations MAN-CFU/BVC.

Any info greatly appreciated, I understand S21 is to be the final season for 757/767 ops at BY

I do not think that there will be many flights operated by 757s this summer as Tui will have all their 737-800 and Maxs in service along with 5 787s operating short/mid haul. I know some crew from 757 bases have had their 787 training pulled forward from later this year to Feb & March. Hopefully someone will be able to give you a more official reply

Next B737-8200
 

G-TUMJ out of BFI on delivery to LGW now.

Assuming there won’t be another lockdown, we’ll all be going on holiday this year and the schedule isn’t up in the air at all does anyone know where the 737 Max’s might be based this summer?

MAN, LGW, BHX, BRS.

All stc obviously.

Just to clarify, TUI’s MAXs are not 8-200s (believe only Ryanair have those). They’re just standard MAX-8s.

Besides Ryanair, VietJet Air is also one of the few customers of the MAX 200 variant with an order of 100 airplanes placed in May 2016......Wikipedia (usual caution advised).

ROC10

Indeed, the current stored TUI UK fleet and those built awaiting the next deliveries are all 737 M-8 (189 seats)
TUI UK were deciding to drop the MAX moniker.

TUI do have a sizeable order for the larger -10 model (>230 seats) which was supposed to be delivered this season, but AFAIK these have not been built yet.

The TUI Group has started re-introducing the Boeing 737 Max to service, with its Belgian carrier TUIfly conducting flights to Malaga and Alicante.
(OO-MAX), a 737 M 8, departed Brussels shortly before 09:45 on 17 February.
At the moment TUI have a very small programme in Belgium with up to two flights a day, with the Max only be used once a week from Brussels.”

MAN-LCA-MAN 24Jun-05Jul

Had my summer flight timings changed again but hardly surprising
Pleasantly surprised to be told TOM2438 OUT and TOM2775 RTN are to be OPS with a 757 instead of the MAX.
RES rang trying to sell the extra leg rooms seats.

rog747

I don't think the first Max 10 has flown yet.

matjr79

I’m assuming you’ve seen a seat map? The 737s also have extra legroom seats.

ROC10

Not seen a seat map.. i had email and then a call off TUI Reservations about my flight times changing.
They advised the system is showing B757 each way.. compared to 3 months ago they said B757 out and B737 back..

Nice to see some extra short haul wide body action from GLA, BRS etc
https://simpleflying.com/tui-uk-widebody-summer-seats/

I'd be extremely surprised to see GLA happen

Can anyone shed any light on the 737 fleet plan? They had 10-12 second hand 738s (G-TUKx series) planned to join last summer which I had the impression were to cover the capacity shortfall caused by the Max grounding. Obviously 2020 didn’t pan out as expected (no kidding!) but several of these 738s still seem to be coming (2 ex TUI Germany examples are at Bristol with UK ids I think). However with the Max ban ending, and new Max’s being delivered, coupled with the summer 2021 uncertainty I would have the the G-TUKx plan would have been scrubbed?

My interpretation is that a lot of those used frames arriving was to help cover the opportunities that would arise out of the TCX collapse. Of course the MAX issue would’ve been a consideration too no doubt.

According to Jethro the acquisition of 2 738NG's have been cancelled.

GrahamK

Not sure why, but we’ll see.

One still at Lasham in full livery, G-TUKC. It arrived 3 days prior to lockdown.

This flying program was published in September and has been largely unchanged since so is definitely subject to change based most likely on what happens on April 12th.

The GLA and BRS 787 flights will depend on whether Cancun and Sanford flights happen, as these are simply gaps in the long haul schedule.

Gatwick will almost certainly end up having more 787 flights as the schedule was drawn up on the basis they’d need to use the slots, including four lines of flying coming back from Norwegian. Now that the slot rules have been waived, and especially if certain destinations remain off limits, I could see more 787 flights to the core destinations in Greece and Turkey in place of multiple 737 frequencies as well as responding to last minute demand spikes on certain routes if we have a similar summer to last.

With the loss of Norwegian and an increase in easyJet based aircraft, it’ll be interesting to see if TUI end up moving to the South Terminal at Gatwick long term.

I suspect it's also a good way of maintaining seat capacity at MAN and BHX especially where it's arguably more competitive against Jet2. Does this mean all 787 ops are being consolidated at five UK airports or will they still be positioning in for long-haul from DSA, NCL and EDI too?

Unless NS has a change of heart, holiday flights from Scotland wont be happening this summer I suspect

New Max 8 G-TUMH being delivered from Boeing Field, landing at LGW at approx.10.35 this morning.

GrahamK

on the basing of the Max’s I thought the original plan last year was for gla and edi to be two of the first bases. Made sense to have the most efficient aircraft flying from the furthest bases. But the fact that they aren’t planned to be based there this year would suggest that this could well be true. Busy summer for Newcastle unless border controls are brought in!!

FRatSTN

As long as they can operate to CUN and SFB, I’d imagine they’d still be flying in to these bases to operate. The short haul gaps just allow 787s to be permanently based at BRS, GLA and BHX (extra aircraft) with fewer expensive positioning flights.

GBYAJ

Is it confirmed they aren’t basing any MAXs at EDI/GLA (if flights are allowed)?

It would definitely seem to make sense to base them at the likes of EDI/GLA/NCL/MAN/DSA in priority to other bases and like you say, the original plans for S19 were MAN/GLA/EDI.

Today saw 3 TUI 737s flown to BRS for storage. Presumably they had a good deal on storage costs?

ROC10

They are to be based at MAN/LGW/BHX/BRS initially.

Does anyone know if they are planning (again) to disband TUI fly Nordic? It would appear, from Planespotters/Jethros websites that much of their very small fleet is due to transfer to TUI UK.

Looks like 2 x MAX, 1 x 738, 2 x 763, which would leave them with 3 x 738, unless those are going elsewhere.

Bit strange considering they only transferred two UK 738s over there and already one is transferring back in June.

TUI UK and Nordic do, or at least did until Brexit possibly ended that, share a virtual AOC. So although they both have their own AOC, their management structures are identical - UK post holders also hold the same post on Nordic AOC. So it’s 2 airlines with the same people as AOC post managers. Been so for quite a while. This is because of the huge amount of cross-utilisation of aircraft between the regions. Lots of G- reg 787s in Winter in Nordic and SE- reg 767s in the UK in Summer, flown by UK pilots.

So although it looks like 767 SE-RFS is “moving” to the UK this summer as G-OBYK, in reality it was here last summer as well. But post Brexit UK pilots can’t fly an SE- registered aircraft anymore.

So the capacity loss for the Nordic low season isn’t as dramatic as it looks, just people don’t normally notice as registrations didn’t always change until now.

As to the 737s, they’ve moved frequently between airlines, and sometimes back again... Mainly UK/Germany/Nordic. At least 1 Max already delivered this year ended up in the UK instead of the Netherlands. There are still 8 more Max aircraft due for delivery imminently, and these could end up with Nordic, or free up other aircraft to move around the group. Plus 3 second hand 737-800s could easily be diverted.

I think all European airlines, and indeed most in the world, are taking a very fluid approach to fleet planning in 2021 due to huge uncertainty.

despite all the TUI optimism, I see they're curting various Caribbean routes including some Varadero and St Lucia

The travel trade is built on optimism with a bit of realism having to be faced from time to time

VickersVicount

Neither Varadero or St Lucia are being cut. In fact Varadero is going up to twice a week from Manchester next Summer. If you’re talking about LGW-VRA or MAN-UVF, these were only opened back in November when they were more or less the only destinations available to fly to and were never going to be permanent.

Today is the day that I have been able to select the seats on my flight to Cyprus in July, I knew it was planned to be operated by a 787 and the seating plan confirmed this a being a 787-800.

I was a little surprised to find rows 31-37 available as these have previously been designated as extra space seats, Does anyone know have they changed the configuration for the aircraft operating shorthaul ? It looks like the premium cabin is still at the front with 2-3-2

The Premium cabin is a great option for short haul. Regular short haul service offering I believe, but the seats are so much better and all for the price of extra legroom.

Nice result scoring the 787.
Still having fun and games with my booking.. one minute a 757, next a 738, next a flight number change and cancelled my return flight.
Any info on TOM2438 24Jun MAN-LCA TOM2775/05Jul LCA-MAN?

G-TUMF repairs?
 

Just seen a few photos of G-TUMF outside the ex MAEL hangar at BHX (I believe it's STS now?) It seems to have had absolutely loads of tiny repairs to the fusalage, Missing an engine cowl, damaged/replaced cockpit window and a bag covering the leading edge of the tail. Anyone know anything? It was the one stored in TFS for months if that could be something to do with it?