Britannia Airways was the UK's largest charter airline. In September 2004 the airline's owner, TUI, announced plans to rebrand Britannia "Thomsonfly", the name of its new low-cost airline.
History
Britannia Airways began operations in 1962 as Euravia flying ex-El Al Lockheed Constellations. The name Britannia was adopted in 1964 to coincide with the introduction of the Bristol Britannia turboprop airliner. In 1965 Britannia became part of Thomson .
Britannia began to re-equip with Boeing 737-200 in 1968, the first European operator of the type. Britannia was also the first European airline to fly the Boeing 767. Orion Airways was acquired by Thomson in 1988 and merged with Britannia.
In 2000 Thomson was taken over by the German firm Preussag . Preussag's holiday interests were concentrated to the holding company TUI Group from January 2000. All aircraft are still currently operated by Britannia Airways of Britain.
Rebranding
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 planes carried the Thomson colours and logo, but its aircraft were owned and operated by Britannia Airways. In effect Thomsonfly was a trading name of Britannia.
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