G-TUMF,
They say a picture paints a thousand words;

I have no further information, but I suspect whatever work is being done, Boeing is getting the invoice. The aircraft had only been delivered new a couple of weeks before the worldwide grounding, and hasn’t flown a revenue flight since. So it’s impossible to believe the work is due to damage during flight. More likely to be mainly paint defect warranty work plus assorted other issues as a result of long term storage.

Long term storage in not exactly an ideal location.

I am led to believe that due to the corrosion caused by parking outside next to the sea in TFS, it did need several skin/rivets/joints replacements and has been in the hanger being worked on since it arrived back in the UK

Although I'm sure the schedules are constantly changing, does anyone know which routes the MAN based TUI 787s will be used on presuming a restart is allowed on May 17th?

Thanks in advance.

MAN-LCA-MAN day 7 is one route confirmed in Jun/Jul

G-TAWF
 

Anyone know why G-TAWF has been flying back and forth BHX-NCL the last few days? Training NCL based crew?

Sunwing
 

I think I know the answer to this, but are Sunwing still due this year? I'm guessing not with the MAX and transfered 737s in the fleet?

Nope, No Sunwing this year.
The 737s are planned to fly over 300 non revenue sectors to get the pilots back into training, as the 737s have done no flights since late October last year.(except for the odd delivery)

Just out of interest, without Sunwing I assume that dispite the reduced schedule at NWI this summer with flights operating Mon, Tues, Fri and Sat to the 3 destinations, the schedule shows that the aircraft will still be originating at NWI so assume just a regular TUI aircraft based for this summer?

That will almost certain change to W-patterns (or be scrapped) once there’s more certainty over the flying schedule. Same for ABZ and BFS.

Smudge's Lot

I am not sure if this was what you saying but I had heard a few weeks ago that in early May Tui were going to be using their 737s on the Royal Mail sectors and that Tui had been trying to get ad hoc work for the PL football teams

Hi all

Can anyone shed a little light on 2 particular aircraft TUI were due to receive last year.

G-TUKB 37740 According to my records this is still stored in Amman as LZ-DAD. Is this no longer expected to operated for TUI?

G-TUKF 33605 I believe this to be stored by TUI at St Athan. What is the plan for this aircraft? Staying or leaving TUI?

G-TUKC now sports full Aero Mexico colours at Lasham.

It’s kinda looking like they’ll no longer be taking any of the second-hand 738s (other than the transfers from Germany), despite some of them already having been painted in TUI colours.

It does, however, look like TUI UK will be taking several MAXs that were due for other group airlines, as well as acquiring two from TUI Nordic which are 2 years old.

Anyone know what aircraft TUI will be using from the 17th? Various or will it just be the 737/787s?

It will be 737 aircraft used from CWL

TUI are only from 4 airports from 17.05.21 - BHX, BRS, MAN & LGW

yeah CWL has been all 737 since W13 i believe. I was on one of the last TOM 757 flights from CWL. I was referring more to LGW & MAN that have a mix of all the fleet.

The 787 will do long and short haul from LGW,MANBHX and BRS. 737 aircraft will operate from these bases as well.

BHX5DME

More from June onwards I read today.

Buster the Bear

repainted at Norwich where it arrived on the 29/4 in full TUI livery, departed via a test flight over Ireland to Lasham 7/5
wonder how many others will loose the TUI livery if not being used

I saw a Euro based ? Dutch TUI 787 with TUI titles on the underside of fuselage. Is that new and do any UK aircraft have it? wonder if 737s would get it too. Seems to be all the fashion.

LGW 757/787 to PMI/MAh
 

Are there any flights operated by 757/787 this July from 12/7-17/7 from LGW-MAH and LGW-PMI

Out of curiosity are the rumours of early redundancy packages true for winter 22?

Seems a lot more ‘consolidation’ amongst the 5 TUI airlines planned. I don’t think i’d realised they weren’t fully ‘as one’ anyway. Looks like LTN to gain more in the flight ops part of the European operation.

Not sure how it has been across the board but have been hearing some of the outbound pax numbers have been very poor over the last couple of weeks with 737s being used instead of 787s and some flights only having 7-80 pax

I know travel restrictions have caused problems but with a strong late booking market i am surprised the numbers are not higher during these peak times, it looks like many pax have moved their holidays to 2022.

I've read that UK tour operators have difficulties securing hotel rooms since hotels, if they have a choice, prefer EU guests which are less likely to cancel due to changing travel restrictions. Normally, the British are very welcome since they are willing to pay more than e.g. Germans.

From people I've spoken to (some of which have their same holidays every year) they just aren't prepared to risk getting caught out by the government's dart board technique of imposing restrictions. They aren't bothered about getting pcr tests but they won't risk getting stuck in hotel quarantine. Considering most of the popular destinations are currently Amber it's too much a risk. If the government imposed say a 7 day notice period before imposing Red restrictions I think it would do wonders for the leisure travel industry.

Having read the same things I’d also throw in that I’m double vaccinated and did so with the full intention of going abroad on holiday this year. However I’m not prepared to take a test 2 days before return in a foreign country and potentially be stuck there for another 2 weeks with 2 kids. I know a few people who are taking their lap tops and can afford to stay (and will be working from home anyway) so are happy to take the risk. But this won’t be many.

I was looking at the holidays available last week and noted on the TUI that you had to book at least 1 week in advance to order all the tests which effectively removes the v late bookings.

the PM talks about saving summer holidays but unfortunately it’s too late for that unless they do it this week and we all book for the next three weeks!

40% reduction in manpower.

https://apple.news/Au8UWffJRSF6_1FY6OHTH2Q

The relevant paragraph in case the link doesn’t work:A further advantage will be brought in by the fleet usage, particularly for spare aircraft whose management will be deployed where and when necessary, a move expected to reduce delays by approximately 25%. On the personnel side, the new organization will permit workforce reductions of approximately 40%.

taken from an article in Airways Magazine.

https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/tui-...five-airlines/

737 James #106
Tuesday max 800 flight LGW JTR had over 100 empty seats. Not sure how long the airlines can live with these loads in what should be peak season.

I was thinking the same and remember approximately 70-80% have payed for these flights / Holidays well over a year ago 😬

It is quite worrying how low some of the pax numbers are at present, with Three PFO flights yesterday only have 80-72-101 onboard long flights would prove very costly per head although savings made on ground agent costs with such low numbers.

It not just Tui that are finding this as I believe Jet2 are finding similar and they have more seat only revenue

Recently back from Chania. We booked flights with Ryanair and booked the hotel directly but the hotel was one used by Tui and Jet2. Only one British family in there and hardly any English heard during our stay on Crete. Mainly Scandinavian guests along with Germans, French and Dutch. Having said that our flight from BHX to Chania was virtually full and our flight to Berlin from Chania with Easyjet yesterday was also full.

Lets keep in mind that the direction of travel is improving albeit we would like it to be improving quicker. In 3 months we have gone from no foreign holidays to holidays within Europe without quarantine for the double jabbed with testing. I think within the next couple of months its likely much of the testing requirements will go for shorthaul and quarantine dropped for much of long haul. We need to keep reminding ourselves where we have come from and what we have had to deal with and well done to the airlines and their employees for making it work. This was never going to be easy. It's a slow process but the vaccines are working and we will get there.

Very well said, DomyDom. A lot of posters here seem to have their glasses half empty. The fact that people are now able to take a holiday, safely due to the protection of being fully-vaccinated, is something to celebrate. There are still some restrictions in place, yes, and these won’t suit everyone’s circumstances just yet. But it’s a start.

I think thats a fair assessment, the travel restart is bound to be a slow start and grow over time. How many people will have already booked their staycations, or made plans to holiday in the UK? particularly in the school holidays. While the retired can often go at the drop of a hat, that is not always the case, with volunteering commitments, granny daycare, part-time jobs etc. The 18-25 market are predominantly not vaccinated + 2 weeks for the purposes of travel and the majority in-between have commitments that requite at least a few days/weeks to plan.

The majority who want to travel this summer have probably already booked with easyJet, Ryanair or BA as flight-only. TUI simply were not offering anything at the time, so the market is quite slim, but will recover. I think confidence will return now the green list is enlarged and amber list destinations become more stable. The risk of mandatory hotel quarantine is very unappealing, but embarking on a 2 week holiday to a green list destination makes that possibility vanishingly small.

The bottom line at present with leisure travel is fairly simple - don't even think about it if you're not prepared / able to isolate at home on your return, whether you're vaccinated on not. That's not because people should be particularly afraid of catching or coming into contact with Covid-19, but because UK government policy on foreign travel simply makes it too risky.

At the moment the travel industry probably has the worst of both worlds, operating again on the plus side, but from a negative standpoint operating half empty aircraft and given the wafer thin margins that the package and leisure airline industries operate losing money on bookings hand over fist. I am guessing that often, given that some of the loads mentioned above are the norm across the network, not flying at all may actually be more sensible from the balance sheet point of view.

The travel industry is asking for furlough to be extended after September, recognising that demand is subdued, people aren't as desperate to travel as they thought. Just as I read that nightclubs are cutting back their hours, fortunately reducing virus spread. Fortunately for the government, the public are quite cautious.

You only have to glance at any "Have Your Say" thread relating to an article on foreign travel on the BBC News website to see that many, many people would still rather the population were kept imprisoned on these Islands; especially it seems among the older (largely vaccinated) age groups so trying to operate airlines and inclusive tour holidays at present, despite all the hype must be very difficult to do profitably at present, though were TUI, for example, to decide the best course of action financially were to shut down for the rest of Summer 2021 and Winter 2021/22 the result would probably losing market share to those that didn't permanently, with possibly even worse consequences for their business and employee prospects.

I was researching the possibility of taking a driving holiday this Autumn, but looking at the requirements, particularly for non EU/EEA citizens, it is an absolute minefield, with Belgium banning UK citizens completely, the Dutch not overly keen and most demanding passenger locator forms making driving through numerous countries such a hassle that frankly it's better not to even think about it at the moment. Things may change later this year, but I'm not confident.