Summary
- TUI Airways’ final two Boeing 767s are being flown to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen for storage before being became freighters.
- It implies that UK passenger airlines will now not operate 767s.
- Going full circle, TUI’s predecessor, Britannia Airways, began 767 operations within the UK after welcoming a 767-200 in February 1984
UK passenger airlines will end Boeing 767 operations this week as TUI Airways retires the last of its Boeing 767-300ERs. It comes nearly 40 years after Boeing’s first big twinjet arrived within the UK almost 40 years ago. Perhaps inevitably, things haven’t entirely gone to plan with the retirement: one aircraft stays in Palma de Mallorca with a technical issue. Once they have gone, TUI’s widebody fleet will consist solely of rather more fuel-efficient and cost-effective but less characterful 787s.
Goodbye, G-OBYF
Some 25.4 years old, G-OBYF first flew in May 1998 and was delivered to Britannia the next month. I recall seeing it as a teenager on airport trips with my father. The aircraft, which has 328 seats, also operated for Garuda Indonesia and Britannia Airways Germany (as D-AGYF) before getting used by Thomson, Thomsonfly, and eventually TUI.
In accordance with Flightradar24, ‘YF’s last business flight was on October thirty first when Tomjet 2243 arrived back in Manchester from Heraklion at 00:14. In the last few days, it had flown to Palma, Boa Vista (Cape Verde), Sal (Cape Verde), and Antalya. It has gathered 94,000+ flight hours on 20,300+ flights, based on ch-aviation data.
While writing on November 1st, ‘YF is en path to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, on the Asian side of the large city. It seems that it would be stored there while awaiting conversion right into a freighter, continuing the aircraft’s use for years.
Photo: Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock
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Goodbye, Sunshine!
At a mere 24.7 years and likewise with 328 seats, G-OBYK is marginally younger than its sibling. Having first flown in early March 1999, it was delivered to Air 2000 (one other carrier I remember well) later that month as G-OOAL. It later served with First Alternative and had a six-year stint with Aeroflot (VP-BWT) before flying for TUIfly Nordic (SE-RFR) and TUI UK.
Appropriately named Sunshine, given its role to inbound tourist destinations, ‘YK has 102,000+ flight hours, excess of sister ‘YF. Nonetheless, with fewer flights (17,000+), it generally flew longer sectors across its lifetime.
It has an estimated market value of $12.3 million, ch-aviation shows, which uses data from Collateral Verifications. Despite being more intensively used, it’s intriguing that it’s valued barely larger than marginally older ‘YF ($11.4 million).
Photo: Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock
Flightradar24 shows that ‘YK flew from Manchester to Palma on October twenty eighth, where a technical issue rendered it grounded since then, scuppering its end-of-life flying as a passenger aircraft. When it might probably, it would fly to Sabiha Gökçen to affix ‘YF, to also await turning right into a freighter.
What memories do you might have of ‘YF and ‘YK? Share them within the comments section.