TUI Group is planning to simplify the fleet of its six airline units to just two Boeing families, the B737 MAX and the B787, by the early 2020s, the board member for aviation David Burling has told Air Transport World. The group is also mulling swapping some of its orders for B737-8s for larger B737-10s.
"More than likely, the MAX 10s will go up [from the current order of twenty] because of supply constraints at airports like London Gatwick, Düsseldorf, and Amsterdam Schiphol, where we are unlikely to get more slots, so we will need to use a bigger variant," Burling said.
The group is currently expecting the first B737 MAX 10 to deliver in late 2020. Besides the twenty units of the type it has on order with lessors, it has also ordered fifty-two B737 MAX 8s, some of which can be converted.
By that time, the leisure group intends to be well into its process of fleet simplification.
First, its remaining eight B737-700s (of which three are operated by TUI fly (Germany) and five by TUI fly (Belgium)) are due to leave the fleet in 2019. The B757s and B767s will be retired in the early 2020s. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the group currently operates fourteen B757-200s (in its British unit TUI Airways), and six B767-300(ER)s (in the UK, Belgium, and at TUI fly (Netherlands)).
Following the retirement of the older types, the group's fleet will include solely narrowbody B737-800s, B737 MAX 8s, and B737 MAX 10s, as well as widebody B787-8s and B787-9s. The B737-800s, of which the group currently operates 101, will likely retire at some point during the 2020s.
