TUI Trains Eye on Transition to Boeing 737 Max and 787 Fleets

The Europe-wide fleet harmonization is part of a wider move to integrate the group’s five airlines in a “virtual” airline.

A TUI Boeing 737 Max 8 airliner undergoes de-icing. — TUI's narrowbody fleet is entirely based on the Boeing 737 Max 8 airliner. (Photo: TUI)

By Cathy Buyck • Contributor - Europe

January 17, 2023

TUI continues to plan for a full roll-over of its widebody fleet to Boeing 787s and its narrowbody fleet to Boeing 737 Max jetliners, though the progress of the Germany-based tourism group’s fleet renewal has slowed due to the Max grounding, Covid-19, and Boeing’s struggle to deliver a steady stream of new aircraft. “For us, right now, it is important that the Max 10 gets certified and enters into service,” Marco Ciomperlik, chief airline officer of TUI Group, told AIN. “But our main focus is of course to make further progress on the Max 8 deliveries.”

The Max 8 and Max 10 will constitute the group’s narrowbody fleet across its five airline subsidiaries, consisting of TUI Airways in the UK, TUI fly Belgium, TUI fly Netherlands, TUI fly Germany, and Sweden-based TUI fly Nordic. The carriers operate from around 30 bases in Europe and fly customers to the group’s more than 400 hotels and 16 cruise ships in all major holiday destinations around the globe. Only a small part of capacity is sold on a seat-only basis, mainly by TUI fly Belgium. The TUI Group served 16.7 million customers in the financial year ending September 30, 2022, up 212 percent year-on-year, of which most flew on TUI Airline’s own airplanes. Load factor averaged well above 90 percent.

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