First Choice Airways
First Choice Airways was a British charter airline based in Manchester and is a subsidiary of the tour operator TUI Travel. It was merged with Thomsonfly to today's Thomson Airways 2008.
History
The airline was founded in the first quarter of 1987 and began operating under the name Air2000 with two Boeing 757 on April 1, 1987. A year later, the fleet was doubled and stationed a plane in Glasgow and a subsidiary called Air 2000 Airline Ltd.. founded in Canada. But this was only a few days because she was withdrawn from the Canadian government the license. But you still ventured to the Canada 3000 a new attempt was promptly successful. With it, you took the first time, Airbus. Canada 3000 was the first airline to operate the A330.
In 1988 they took the first long-haul flights to Mombasa in Kenya, an upgrade of the Boeing 757 also targets in the United States from 1989 included in the flight plan. First line flights were from 1992 between London -Gatwick and Paphos in Cyprus flown after he was getting this same year the official license. In 1996, the first led by flights from Dublin, in June 1998 Air UK Leisure has been integrated; ordered by this airline four Airbus A330 -200, however, were canceled again, instead you flottete on a Boeing 767-300. In March 2000, the Company was renamed from air 2000 First Choice Airways.
In February 2005, the company ordered six Boeing 787-8 as launch customer first with GEnx engines from General Electric.
A curious incident occurred on 23 November 2006. After a stopover of a Boeing 757 at the airport of Dakar, the machine could not take off again because the airport fees were not paid. The claim amounted to two million CFA francs (about 3,000 euros ). First, the pilot John Lawrence tried using his credit card to pay the amount, and the first officer had to help out. However, the unredeemed travelers checks were not enough, since it was dark and the runway lights cost extra. In order not to rely on donations from the passengers to have the pilot finally fell back on the drinks Checkout the airline to pay the bill can.
In September 2007, the then parent company First Choice Holidays and the travel division of TUI TUI Travel PLC merged. The two airlines Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways operated since 1 May 2008, a joint fleet, which occurs under the brand Thomson Airways since 1 May 2009. As of 1 November, the own flight operations at Thomson Airways was passed.
Destinations
First Choice Airways flights resulted in touristic areas by: Continental that were about Salzburg or Innsbruck in Austria, Dubrovnik in Croatia or Funchal, Madeira (Portugal). Were intercontinental served in Venezuela as São Salvador in Brazil, Orlando, USA, Cancún in Mexico or Porlamar.
Fleet
As of April 2008, the fleet of First Choice Airways consisted of 24 aircraft with an average age of 10.2 years:
- 04 Airbus A320 -200
- 03 Airbus A321 -200
- 11 Boeing 757-200
- 06 Boeing 767-300