Everything about Britannia Airways totally explained
Britannia Airways was the largest
charter airline in the
United Kingdom, rebranded as
Thomsonfly in 2005. Its main bases were
London Gatwick,
London Luton,
Birmingham,
Manchester and
Newcastle.
History
The airline was established on
December 1 1961 and started operations on
5 May 1962 as
Euravia flying ex-Skyways
Lockheed Constellations on
inclusive tour holidays for Universal Sky Tours. (Rival charter airline Skyways, one of
Britain's foremost Independent airlines during the early 1960s, had been taken over by Euravia in
1962. The Skyways takeover didn't include Skyways Coach-Air, a Skyways associate, established in the early 1950s by Eric Rylands to operate low-fare coach-air services between
London and several
European capital cities. Following Euravia's acquisition of Skyways, Skyways Coach-Air remained independent until it was taken over by
Dan-Air in
1972.)
The name Britannia Airways was adopted on
August 16 1964 to coincide with re-equipping with the
Bristol Britannia turboprop airliner.
In
1965 Britannia became part of
Thomson, itself part of the
Canadian-owned International Thomson Organisation.
Britannia began to re-equip with
Boeing 737-200 in
1968, the first European charter operator of the type. Britannia was also the first European airline to fly the
Boeing 767. In August
1988 Britannia's immediate parent company, the Thomson Travel Group, purchased Horizon Travel and its airline,
Orion Airways, which was integrated into Britannia.
In
1997 Britannia formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Britannia GmbH, based in
Germany to operate long and short-haul flights from airports in Germany,
Switzerland and
Austria for German tour operators, but this was closed in March
2001.
At the start of
1998 the Thomson Travel Group acquired the Scandinavian holiday operation, Fritidsresor Group, and its airline Blue Scandinavia, now renamed
Britannia Nordic.
At 23:47 local time on
September 14 1999,
Britannia Flight BY226A crashed on approach to
Girona Airport, Spain whilst landing in poor weather conditions. Torrential rain, and the extinguishing of runway lights hindered the landing of the aeroplane, which bounced and then landed with its nose pointing down on its second attempt. Other causes of the crash have been given as the aircraft wasn't level enough, not at the right speed, not at the right rate of descent, and the effect of shock or mental incapacitation on the plane's 57-year-old captain at the failure of the runway lights which could have inhibited him from making a decision to abort the landing and go round again, and insufficient information on the intensity of the storm in the area. Upon hitting the ground, the
Boeing 757 slid off the runway, and came to rest in three pieces in a field outside the airport boundary. Fifty five people were injured and one man died of a heart attack five days later. [http://www.aaib.gov.uk/sites/aaib/publications/special_bulletins/s1_2000
g_byag.cfm]
In
2000 Thomson Travel Group and Britannia Airways were acquired by
Preussag AG (TUI Group) of Germany. As part of a wider reorganisation of TUI's UK operations in September
2004 it was announced that Britannia would be rebranded as
Thomsonfly. This airline's aircraft carried the Thomson colours and logo, and Thomsonfly became the trading name of Britannia Airways. On
1 November,
2005 the company's legal name changed from Britannia Airways Limited to
Thomsonfly Limited.
Britannia Airways was featured in the first series of the
ITV fly on the wall Docusoap
Airline show and is being replayed on the
Sky Three and
Sky Real Lives channels of
BSkyB.
Services
Britannia Airways operated services to the following international scheduled destinations (at January
2005):
Accra,
Alicante,
Barbados,
Cancún,
Faro,
Fuerteventura,
Funchal,
Geneva,
Goa,
Heraklion,
Hurghada,
Lanzarote,
Las Palmas,
Luxor,
Lyon,
Málaga,
Male,
Malta,
Mombasa,
Monastir,
Montego Bay,
Natal,
Orlando,
Palma de Mallorca,
Paphos,
Plovdiv,
Puerto Plata,
Punta Cana,
Reus,
Salzburg,
Santa Cruz de la Palma,
Sharm el Sheikh,
Sofia,
St Lucia,
Sydney,
Tenerife,
Toulouse,
Turin,
Varadero and
Verona.
Fleet
At the time of rebranding, the Britannia Airways fleet consisted of the following aircraft:
Bibliography
British Independent Airlines since 1946. A.C.Merton-Jones. Volume One. Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS. Liverpool, 1976. ISBN 0-902420-07-0.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Britannia Airways'.
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