Airline Name
First Choice Airways
IATA: DP / ICAO: FCA / Callsign: JETSET
Country of Origin
United Kingdom
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
A320 (A320-200) (8 operated),At INN,
At FNC,
At MAN,
Awaiting the landing Brussels Airlines DH8D before crossing the runway at MAN to Rwy 23L in 2012,
A321 (A321-200) (6 operated),
Hey look, it’s G-OOPE (Goopy
),
At TRN,
Gotta get that sweet December 2012 MAN lineup,
At INN in 2008,
B752 (757-200) (20 operated),
At INN (A regular event during the ski charters in the late 2000s/early 2010s),
At PMI,
And ofc a picture of G-OOBA (What a gooba
B763 (767-300) (7 operated),
At PMI (Top photo here is from 2014),
At MAN in 2013 (No winglets),
Landing at MAN in 2015,
Special liveries,
Original Air 2000 (Tapestry) hybrid,
Red Nose Day 2007 (It has been painted in Red Noses to celebrate Comic Relief and adorns a big red nose on the nose of the aircraft. It was applied in February 2007 and removed by September 2007),
Air 2000 (Including as only the ICAO is different and the livery at the end was the same),
IATA: DP / ICAO: AMM / Callsign: JETSET
A320 (A320-200) (12 operated),
Air 2000 (Tapestry) livery,
A321 (A321-200) (6 operated, 2 others leased from BMI),
Air 2000 (Tapestry) livery,
At INN,
The leased BMI ones,
B752 (757-200) (27 operated),
At INN,
With Air Europa and Thomsonfly at TFS,
Air 2000 (Tapestry) livery,
B763 (767-300) (4 operated),
At LGW (Only one airline in this picture is still around
),
Air 2000 (Tapestry) livery,
The airline was also the European launch customer for the 787-8 with 8 on order before the takeover, due to be delivered in early 2011,
Why should this airline be added?
Air 2000 was founded in 1987 by First Choice PLC, the parent travel company originally named Owners Abroad until 1994 name change founded in 1973 by an ex-Cabbie turned travel agent, and operated flights for the customers of the parent. The airline founded Canada 3000 in 1988 to take advantage of the opposing holiday periods between the UK and Canada with the low season in the UK being the holiday season in Canada, allowing aircraft to be easily transferred across the pond. In 1998, First Choice PLC bought Unijet and took over their in-house airline, Leisure International Airways, fully integrating it into Air 2000 whilst sadly cancelling the order for 2 A330-200s LIA was ordering (Would’ve been ace to see in First Choice’s livery and maybe later in Thomson’s but alas).First Choice Airways officially became the name of the airline as a whole with the Air 2000 brand being slowly painted over by 2006 which is why you see so many hybrids. First Choice then continued operating package holiday’s to destinations across Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and the US until the parent company was merged with TUI AG to form TUI Travel, merging the 2 airlines, First Choice Airways and Thomsonfly, together to form Thomson Airways in 2008. The Airbus fleet was slowly withdrawn from the fleet until 2013 with the 757s and 767s gradually being repainted until the last 767 was painted into Thomson colours in March 2015 bringing an end to one of the last UK package holiday airlines, Thomson being repainted in 2017 to TUI and Monarch and TCX going bust in 2017 and 2019 respectively (I suppose Jet2 can sort of fit that mould but it’s not quite a charter holiday airline in my eyes). First Choice itself still lives on as a website and brand under TUI which UK holiday makers can book with and fly on TUI’s aircraft.
The airline had their main base in London Gatwick with their secondary main base being Manchester. They also had a base at Birmingham with Belfast International, Bristol, East Midlands, Exeter, Glasgow and Stansted all being secondary hubs and Cardiff, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Leeds and Luton being smaller focus cities with Cardiff and Luton being dropped when the merge with TUI happened as they were Thomson bases.
I know a lot of people may see this airline and not think much of it but it’s a real remnant of a time when the travelling public could book a holiday through a travel agent and travel to new, exciting places with their families and it was a special once a year occasion. I also think it had a stunning but simple livery, where TUI has waves that make you think of looking out to sea somewhere in Spain, First Choice’s livery gave you that tropical clear blue waters feel some place warm and exotic and I think it’s a shame to have lost it.
2007 website,
2005 website (destination maps don’t seem to exist),
