TUI Airways- 400 Flights & 1 Loose End!
TUI Airways UK is one of the UK's oldest airlines, the airline has been around since 1962 ferrying British holiday makers across Sunny destinations around Spain, Greece, Italy and further afield into Florida & the Caribbean across various brand identities from Euravia (1962-1964), Britannia Airways (1964-2004), Thomsonfly (2004-2008), Thomson Airways (2008-2017) and currently in the form of TUI Airways UK since 2017.
The airline is owned by the Thomson Holiday Group which has for decades itself being owned by the German based TUI Group, hence the name & brand changes since the turn of the 21st Century for the airline as Thomson Holidays & later the TUI Group wanted to consolidate their image and brand across the board.
The airline is also one of the longest running Boeing customers in the UK having flown the Boeing 737 across several models since the 1970s and from 1982-2024 they operated both the Boeing 757-200 & Boeing 767 before becoming the UK launch-customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The airline has expanded through mergers, most notably taking over Orion Airways in 1989 and First Choice Airways in 2008.
The airline has outlived its other long-term competitors Thomas Cook Airlines/MyTravel Airways, XL Airways and Monarch Airlines who disappeared in the 2000s & 2010s, but remains a firmly competing against newer low-cost carriers Jet2 and easyJet!
TUI Airways was one of the last major UK Airline's I had yet to fly on… since 2000 I had flown on British Airways, GB Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Flybe, Monarch, Loganair, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook UK- but a flight on TUI Airways (and Thomson Airways before) alluded me. With Monarch Airlines & Thomas Cook having gone into the history books in 2017 & 2019, one of my plans for the 2020s was to finally tick off TUI Airways- and with my 400th Flight on the horizon and something needing planning, I opted to make it official!
I shopped around for a one-way flight on the TUI website, which was easier said than done as TUI Airways is quite expensive for stand alone flights compare to Wizzair, Ryanair & easyJet… but eventually I came across a £77 flight with TUI Airways from London Gatwick to Malaga Airport in late June 2025, so that settled it- My 400th Flight would also become my 1st Flight with TUI!!!
Flying from London Gatwick
I travelled to London Gatwick on a National Express Coach, service NX205 which runs from various towns in Dorset through to London Gatwick and London Heathrow. The Terminals at London Gatwick are the final stops. This service ceased to run a few days after I took this service as they de-coupled the LHR & LGW Airport service into two separate routes- the LHR stops are now served on NX35 which goes to Central London, the LGW stops are now the end of NX206 which goes via Southampton & Portsmouth.
I got off at the South Terminal, whilst most TUI Airways flights go from the North Terminal, a small number now appear to fly from the South Terminal which are the flights listed as "BY" often operated by partner airlines, whist "TOM" Flights operate from the North Terminal. There is a small TUI Airways check in desk to be found amongst the large easyJet presence.
I proceeded up through security and I passed through in a good 10 minutes, I must have either been just ahead of the main morning rush or I had just missed it and was passing through the tail end.
The South Terminal sees the most airline diversity at London Gatwick, the majority of the flights that morning were British Airways Euroflyer, easyJet & Wizzair with a few odd flights peppered in, including a few TUI Airways flights. My flight was the third departure from the South Terminal that morning.
On the way to my Gate, I stopped to marvel at this Lego Boeing 747-100 & Space Shuttle display! Looks pretty spectacular!
I didn't have to go too far down the corridor from the Duty Free area to find my TUI Airways flight to Malaga, it was at Gate 14 which is quite near, so I wasn't complaining.
Let's get my 400th Flight underway!
TUI Airways by Ascend Airways! (LGW-AGP)
Toady we're flying on an Ascend Airways Boeing 737-8MAX, registered G-WEAH. This aircraft is 3 years old, it was due to be delivered originally to Blue Air of Romania but it was NTU, likely due to the airline closing down. It entered service with Corendon Airlines in Türkiye from June 2022 to January 2024 with a few short lease outs to SpiceJet in India. In March 2024 it was acquired by Ascend Airways who use it for ACMI Services, hence why you see it here operating for TUI Airways!
Oddly enough when I booked this flight, TUI Airways made no mention this was going to be operated by a third party- so I was for a while expecting to be flying on a proper TUI Airways aircraft until about a week before my flight when I noticed on Flight Radar that the flight was being operated by Ascend Airways, not an issue for me as I was quite excited to fly an ACMI Airline as well, but I'll fly some proper "TUI Metal" in the future!
Boarding was pretty uneventful, priority was given to those with very young children/infants and those with disabilities before a general boarding took place. I pre-reserved a seat for this flight, selecting Seat 12F, which offered a great view of the massive Boeing 737-MAX engine!
TUI Airways provided the bulk of reading material with the inflight café, inflight magazine and shop whilst the safety card was the only Ascend Airways branded paperwork. A modern and sleek Boeing Sky Interior was used for the aircraft's cabin. The seats would not look out of place for a TUI flight, but I am informed that these seats are for Ascend Airways and not what you'd find on a Boeing 737 of TUI Airways, however I did notice and appreciate the sight of this USB charging port!
We pushed back on time, as we taxied over to Runway 26L for take off, I noticed the part of the South Terminal we were departing was dominated by BA Euroflyer Airbus A320/A321. A few Wizzair Airbus A321 broke up the dominance of Chatham Dockyard tailfins, and I also spotted further down the pier two Vueling Airbus A320s & a Norse Atlantic Boeing 787 Dreamliner, we followed an easyJet Airbus A321neo who was cleared to go ahead of us.
We didn't have long to wait as it was mainly arrivals at that time of the day, so we quickly took a slot and rocketed off down the runway and lifted off into a lovely morning South of London, lifting past the Gatwick Aviation Museum. As we rolled down the runway I noticed a TUI Airways Boeing 737-800 preparing to take off on its own flight somewhere nicer.
As we climbed out and began to head on course for Malaga, I spotted Dunsfold Aerodrome, you can see the British Airways Landor Boeing 747-400 parked up as well as various other vintage aircraft including an ex-RAF Vickers VC-10 & another Boeing 747-400 of British Airways which is used by Aces High Media as a film prop.
I eventually settled in for the nearly 2.5hr flight down to one of my favourite destinations in Spain. As we crossed over the English Channel and towards Brittany, France as well as the Bay of Biscay, it got very noticeably cloudier.
I started having a browse through the Shop and Café inflight magazines, I opted to enjoy breakfast on the plane for the courtesy of my Flight Review video and for this Flight Report, plus I wanted to see how the TUI inflight café fared up against its competition. There was a decent meal deal offering for £9.50p (<b style="">€10.90/US$12.65), if you were due to fly a longer TUI flight (like down to the Canary Islands) you could also pre-order a hot meal, but this wasn't doable on my 2.5hr flight to Malaga… I also noticed some model planes were being offered, more on that later!
I opted to go with the £9.50p Meal Deal and went with the combination of a Croque Toastie, an English Breakfast Tea and a Twirl chocolate bar. It was quite filling and enjoyable for this 2.5hr flight!
I needed to visit the loo on the flight, so I also took the time to do a quick "Loo Review" for the flight report, pretty standard for a European configured Boeing 737-MAX. A small air freshener was provided as well. It was very small but modern compare to some of the older Boeing 737s I had flown in 2025… I also grabbed a cabin shot showing the whole cabin of the Boeing 737-MAX we were on, as you can see it was a pretty full flight despite being 3 weeks ahead of the school holidays starting, probably the "DINK" customers trying to get a good holiday in before the kids are released from school!
The crew began the Duty Free service in the last third of the flight. I opted to make a purchase… I don't waste my money on perfume/cologne, tax free alcoholic spirits, fancy watches or cigarettes… I chose to waste mine on Airplane Models! I opted to buy a TUI Boeing 737-8MAX model to represent my 400th Flight!
Eventually our flight began to descend into Malaga, we flew out over the sea during our descent just East of Malaga city before turning on final approach into Malaga Airport. As I was on the right hand side, I could see the Port of Malaga as we over flew the city.
We lined up for our final approach and landed into Malaga Airport on Runway 31, passing the VIP aircraft area as well as the Malaga Aviation Museum where I would be going once I cleared immigration.
Malaga Airport is the third busiest airport in Spain, behind Madrid & Barcelona, and is the main gateway for the Costa del Sol region as well as an alternative airport for the Peninsular of Gibraltar, aside from Malaga itself- the airport also serves two other popular tourist hotspots, Marbella & Torremolinos.
We pulled up in the non-Schengen Area of Malaga Airport, Terminal 2, which is often dominated by TUI Airways, Wizzair, easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and their multiple UK services. We pulled up next to a TUI Boeing 737-800 that had come in from Manchester as well as an easyJet A320. We appeared to be just ahead of what was to become a major rush as various UK and Irish flights were due to land in the same time frame!
A quick look at the seats I briefly mentioned earlier, I thought these were standard TUI Boeing 737-8MAX seats, but they are only found on the Ascend Airways aircraft, not sure if these were inherited from Corendon- who previously flew the plane, but TUI branded head covers were on each seat. I did find them quite comfortable for the 2.5hr flight from Gatwick to Malaga, but I don't know how good they'd be on a 4hr flight to the Canary Islands or Greece?
As you can see, avoid Seat 12A on the Ascend Airways Boeing 737-MAX as there is no window at that seat!
I was allowed a very quick visit to the flight deck of this Boeing 737-MAX as I hadn't seen one before, this was only my second time flying a Boeing 737-MAX. After thanking the crew for a nice flight and wishing them a safe journey back to London Gatwick, I left the aircraft to make my way over to the passport control so I could enter Malaga, I grabbed one last look at the Boeing 737 poking through the buildings from its gate, spying the arrivals board- I noticed it was going to be a busy morning at Malaga Airport, so I got a move on!
