Thomson Airways are the largest charter airline in the world today. They were formed in May 2008 with the coming together of the two market leaders in the UK charter industry, Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways. Thomson Airways currently flies a fleet of 73 aircraft to destinations all over the globe (as at 1 st Nov 2008). Founded as Euravia in 1962 then Britannia Airways, Thomsonfly had over 40 years experience in the holiday flights market. Air2000 started operations in 1987 with just 2 aircraft. Re branded as First Choice Airways in March 2004, they too established themselves as a solid and respected brand in a tough industry. In March 2007 TUI AG and First Choice PLC merged to create a new heavyweight in the European tourism market. TUI Travel PLC was created and in May 2008 the two airlines started operating under one AOC (Air Operator’s Certificate) as Thomson Airways. Thomson Airways have now centralised their operations to Hanover Germany in line with the rest of the airlines under the TUI umbrella and in 2010 they will become the European launch customer for the new Boeing 787 “Dreamliner”. Thomson Virtual was founded by a small group of flight simulator enthusiasts in 2006, mirroring the operations of Thomsonfly. In May 2008, to reflect the merger between Thomson and First choice, First Choice operations with Airbus aircraft were introduced into the operation. Now with the creation of Thomson Airways we now have a very diverse fleet of both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. We are steadily growing and constantly striving to become one of biggest airlines in the VA world. The website has now had a facelift and we have moved over to the phpVMS platform to provide scalability and limitless future expansion.

Base: UK
Founder(s): Mark Grant, Andy Keeney, Ryan Souter, James White
Website: Thomson Virtual Airline
Yesterday's Score: 0

Awards