Tailwind Airlines (TI, Istanbul Airport) took delivery of its first B737-800 and inducted it into revenue service on July 14, 2023.
TC-TLI (msn 29682) is a 14.3-year-old ex-Oman Air (WY, Muscat) jet is leased from Carlyle Aviation Partners. It was ferried on July 12 from maintenance at Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen to Antalya and operated its first commercial flight two days later to Budapest. It was followed by TC-TLJ (msn 34262), which was delivered from Querétaro via Toronto Pearson and Shannon to Antalya on July 12-14, 2023, although it has yet to be deployed into revenue service.
The Turkish leisure charter specialist told ch-aviation recently that it saw the induction of the -800s as an important step to preserve competitiveness in light of the ever-tight competition in the Turkish leisure market. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Tailwind's in-house fleet comprises five B737-400s. The airline also wet-leases two A321-200s from BBN Airlines Türkiye (B5, Antalya), as well as one B737-700 and one -800 from SkyUp Airlines (PQ, Kyiv Boryspil).