Luton-headquartered leisure airlines TUI Airways has, according to data from ch-aviation.com, 70 Boeing jets in its fleet. Most of these are narrowbodies from the 737 family, but widebody aircraft also play a limited role at the airline. The 787 ‘Dreamliner’ is the dominant force in this regard, but, with two aircraft still in service, the older Boeing 767-300ER is also still going strong at TUI Airways.
G-OBYF
TUI Airways’ two remaining 767s have an average age of 24.1 years old, more than double the figure (10.2 years) for the airline’s fleet as a whole. They are by far its oldest aircraft, and, historically speaking, 18 more examples of the type have served the British leisure carrier. The more senior of the remaining pair is G-OBYF.
This aircraft clocks in at 24.44 years old, having been delivered to Britannia Airways in June 1998 under the very same registration. However, it was transferred to Britannia Airways Germany as D-AGYF almost immediately. As the years went by, it flew for new iterations of the company in the UK, Germany, and Sweden.
It has been flying under the TUI brand since November 2016, and began its most recent spell at the UK division in April 2021. Unlike most seven-abreast Boeing 767s, this aircraft’s 328 economy class seats are laid out in an eight-abreast setup. As of July, G-OBYF had accrued 90,193 flight hours across 19,454 cycles.
Photo: Getty Images
G-OBYK
TUI Airways’ other remaining Boeing 767-300ER bears the registration G-OBYK, and it is slightly younger (although still well above the airline’s overall average), at 23.67 years old. It was delivered to First Choice Airways in March 1999, before transferring to Russian carrier Aeroflot in May 2005. Simple Flying looked back at the story of Aeroflot’s Boeing 767 fleet in an article last year.
After more than six years at Russia’s national airline, the aircraft returned to the leisure market by joining TUI Nordic in August 2011. It has since had two spells there, as well as two at the UK division of TUI Airways. The most recent of these commenced just after that of its counterpart, G-OBYF, in May 2021.
G-OBYK also differs in terms of its seating configuration. While it retains the dense eight-abreast economy class layout, it only has 260 of these seats. Meanwhile, the rest of the jet consists of 31 (seven-abreast) extra legroom seats. Despite being younger, it had amassed more hours (98,341) than G-OBYF as of July 2022.
Photo: Getty Images
Where do they fly?
With the Boeing 767 becoming an increasingly rare aircraft type, it may be of interest to European avgeeks to know where TUI Airways deploys these aircraft. According to data from RadarBox.com, both are based in Manchester (MAN), with their most common destination being Tenerife South (TFS). G-OBYF has had 63 movements there in the last year, with G-OBYK racking up 59.
The Greek island of Rhodes also ranks highly – it is second in terms of G-OBYK’s usage (44 flights), and third for G-OBYF). Completing the podium for each aircraft, we have Boa Vista in Cap Verde (second place for G-OBYF with 59 movements in the last year), and Lanzarote (third for G-OBYK with 34 movements in the last year).
What do you make of TUI Airways’ remaining Boeing 767-300ERs? Have you ever flown on either of these high-density widebody aircraft? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
Sources: ch-aviation.com, RadarBox.com
Source: simpleflying.com
