TUI fly Deutschland, formerly TUIfly, is a German leisure airline owned by the travel and tourism company TUI Group. It is headquartered at Hannover Airport with bases at several other German airports. TUI fly Deutschland is part of the TUI Airlinesairline unit of TUI.
History
Formation
The airline was formed in 2007 by the merger of Hapag Lloyd Flug and Hapag Lloyd Express as a branch of TUI Travel. The airline codes of its predecessor are still in use, and the former callsignYELLOWCAB remained in use until it was changed to TUIJET on 24 September 2010. In the second quarter of 2007, the load factor was at about 79%, after about 92% in the year before. Subsequently, the company closed its Leipzig/Halle and Bremen bases. On 29 January 2008, plans were announced to merge TUIfly with Eurowings and Germanwings into a joint and independent holding company, but were withdrawn as talks turned out to be unsuccessful. TUI Travel confirmed on 27 March 2009 that it had sealed a strategic partnership with Air Berlin that would see TUI Travel take a 20% stake in Air Berlin, and Air Berlin 20% in TUI fly Germany. Due to regulatory matters, this was changed to 9.9%. Air Berlin will also wet-lease 17 aircraft from TUI fly and take over all of TUI fly Germany's city connections. TUI will focus on serving the charter market with 21 aircraft of the remaining fleet. From 25 October 2009, all German domestic flights previously operated by TUI fly Germany were taken over by Air Berlin, as well as all flights to Austria, Italy and Croatia. Most of these flights are still operated by TUI fly Germany aircraft, but are marketed by Air Berlin.
Development since 2013
In December 2013, TUI fly Deutschland abandoned their distinctive yellow livery, and replaced it by the new blue design already introduced at TUI fly Netherlands, TUI fly Belgium and TUI Airways. The first plane in the new colours arrived in Hannover on 17 February 2014. The livery has been updated once again, as of 2016, with new revised titles shortened from "TUIfly" to "TUI". In September 2014, TUI fly Deutschland decided to relocate their operations at Zweibrücken Airport to nearby Saarbrücken Airport as Zweibrücken Airport faced bankruptcy and an uncertain future. In January 2016, TUI fly Deutschland also announced it would leave Hamburg Airport entirely due to the increasing competition from low-cost carriers. The summer seasonal routes have not resumed, and all remaining destinations were cancelled by March 2016. In September 2016 plans were announced to merge TUI fly Deutschland with the leisure operations of Air Berlin - which were partially operated by TUI fly Germany - as well as Air Berlin's entire Austrian subsidiary Niki. On 5 October 2016, TUI fly Deutschland confirmed to be in talks with Air Berlin and Etihad Airways to create a new holding company for leisure operations. The new company was planned to serve important holiday destinations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In June 2017 TUI Group and Etihad Aviation Group announced that they wouldn't continue their negotiations about the planned joint venture. In July 2018, the airline announced it would close its base at Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport by October 2018. TUI Group has 70 737 MAXs on order for the group. The order consists of 18 MAX 10 aircraft, with the remaining variants unspecified as of June 2017. In January 2019, it has been stated that TUI fly Deutschland will receive 25 of these 737 MAX until 2023. After the demise of Germania in early 2019, TUI fly Deutschland announced it would base aircraft at Nuremberg Airport to take over several leisure destinations. In November 2019, it was announced that the airline would operate its own long-haul flights to destinations in the Caribbean and in Mexico, similar to its sister airlines. Initially, the airline will take on 2 Boeing 787 aircraft to operate these flights with plans to increase this number to 5 in the future. These flights are planned to begin in the Winter 2020/21 season, with scheduled and charter services to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, and Barbados.
Operations
TUI fly Deutschland offers both charter and scheduled flights with about 60% of all seats sold directly, 30% as a part of a TUI holiday package and 10% by other agencies. TUI fly Deutschland itself offers drinks, snacks, and meals on flights to and from Cape Verde, Egypt, Greece, Israel, southern Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain including the Canary Islands, and Tunisia. Hot meals are served on the longest flights, including those to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Egypt, and Madeira.
Destinations
Fleet
, the TUI fly Deutschland fleet consists of the following aircraft:
