Boeing 737-200 'Holiday Jets'
 

In the 1970s and '80s, which European airlines flew these to the Mediterranean and other holiday areas ? I can think of (in no particular order):

Britannia Airways
Dan Air
Monarch Airlines
Maersk
Orion Airways
Aer Lingus
Braathens
Air Europe
Condor
Spantax
Hispania
British Airtours
Hapag Lloyd
Transavia
Trans European Airways
Aviogenex
TAP Air Portugal
Air Atlantis
Luxair
Mey Air
Air Malta
Air UK Leisure

Any more ?

quite comprehensive already!

Airways International Cymru
IEA
amber airways
paramount (following take over of amber)

Thankyou BYAJ. I'd forgotten about Cymru and Amberair. I knew IEA had a small fleet of -200s but not sure if they were around in the 1980s.

That's a fairly comprehensive list of European 737 operators in to which I'd add BA, Olympic, Lufthansa, Air France and Sabena, though whether they fully fit your holiday criteria I'm not sure!

Maybe not Sabena but certainly Sobelair, their charter associate. Should also mention Caledonian, British Airtours' successor. I don't know if Air France and Lufthansa ever involved themselves with this sort of business, likely leaving it to the likes of Air Charter, Euralair and Condor.

I did fly on an Olympic 732 to Heraklion in 1990...but only from Athens. I don't know if this fleet ventured beyond the south east Mediterranean.

You could add Pan Am and Air Berlin, both of whom operated from Berlin. I certainly saw Pan Am 737s at Palma, operating charters at weekends. French operator Euralair acquired several early 737-200s and I imagine flew holiday charters.

Sabre Airways & Busy Bee?

Orion's 737s were _300s not 200s

They had both.

Yes you are right sorry. Was thinking when Britannia took over the Brownies they came with just 300s I seem to remember ?

Which Britannia got rid of smartish

And A300s !

Thankyou for your continuing contributions all. It seems like anyone who had a 732 was fair game for this market, unless they specifically chose to exclude themselves. Pan Am at Palma alongside Dan Air and Spantax isn't easy to picture.

I recall multiple Pan Am 737s at Palma from Berlin on a Saturday as well. The internal German flights reduced notably at weekends and having the aircraft to hand at Berlin slotted in nicely. For some reason the German market never went for the UK tradition of fully overnight flights (depart 11pm, Med destination in the small hours, back at 6am), and so they did mass departures on the nose of 6am when their airports opened (of course, by the time the UK 8am departures were coached to the beach, all the sunbeds were gone ... :) )..

Regarding the charter "offshoots" of mainstream scheduled carriers, these often used mainline aircraft and crews, the charter arm being more for marketing. I certainly went on "Austrian Air Transport" on a 'student charter' (a whole separate topic of the era in itself), Gatwick to Vienna, and everything was just a straightforward Austrian Airlines DC9, operating in marginal time. BEA/British Airtours was a bit of an exception to this, although off-season a lot of their capacity went the other way and could be seen at Heathrow on schedules.

I trust Boeing was very grateful to Britannia for many years for leading the way with the 732, although it was another ten years before another British charter airline - Air Europe - was to order the type. Dan Air, Monarch and British Airtours were still flying Comets, 1-11s, Boeing 720s and 707s and Orion was still a couple more years away.

Speaking of airline charter arms, I flew to and from Ljubljana in 1986 with Air Yugoslavia. We were on a 727 both ways and, apart from the 'JR' prefix and the 'Yugair' RT callsign, it was JAT Yugoslav Airlines. Obviously, some airlines decided to put a little more distance between themselves and their charter cousins, e.g. Lufthansa with Condor and Sabena with Sobelair.

Peach Air ?

Just thought of another, Ambassador Airways who had two which transferred to Sabre after their demise.

Aviogenex?

The topic was B737/200s not A300 or B737/300s which Britannia inherited from the Brownies after the take over. (Yes take over not merger) despite the outrageous merging of seniority .

The original list seemed to cover most. Surprising there are so few really. Some of the later ones that i mentioned only had 1 732. Tried hard think of others but 737-300’s and Md83’s were popular by 85 onwards.

Similar experience with JAT, only ref to Air Yugoslavia was at Dbv airport. Even the crew said it was a “YAT flight” in between cigs…….

Air Belgium - 1 732, 1 733 IIRC!