Airline Name
TEA Belgium(Parent airline)
IATA: HE / ICAO: TEA / Callsign: BELGAIR
TEA Cyprus
,
IATA: - (Likely the same as parent above) / ICAO: TEC / Callsign: TEAK
TEA France
,
IATA: FN / ICAO: TFR / Callsign: TRANSAIRWAYS
TEA Italy
,
IATA: TD / ICAO: TEI / Callsign: ITALTEA
TEA Switzerland
,
IATA: BH / ICAO: TSW / Callsign: TOPSWISS
TEA UK
,
IATA: EQ / ICAO: TUK / Callsign: TEA-STAR
Country of Origin
Belgium
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
TEA Belgium,B732 (737-200) (11 operated),
Previous livery,
Have to point out the MAN photo below
,
B733 (737-300) (14 operated),
A30B (A300B1) (1 operated) (1 of only 2 in the world ever made and the only one operated commercially - It was 3m shorter than subsequent A300 models which make it quite unique, top 2 photos at TFS and PMI),
Previous livery,
A30B (A300B4) (1 operated),
B720 (Boeing 720) (3 operated),
TEA Cyprus,
B733 (737-300) (1 operated),
No photos exist but it served for a year between 1993 and 1994, likely in the same colours as above.
TEA France,
B733 (737-300) (4 operated, 2 leased from TEA Belgium and only 1 of other 2 painted in the TEA colours),
A310 (A310-300) (2 operated),
TEA Italy,
B733 (737-300) (3 operated),
MD82 (McDonnell Douglas MD-82) (1 operated, leased from Meridiana),
TEA Switzerland,
B733 (737-300) (8 operated),
B737 (737-700) (1 operated),
TEA UK,
B732 (737-200 Adv) (3 operated),
B733 (737-300) (4 operated),
Why should this airline be added?
Founded in 1970 by the Belgian tour operator TIFA, this airline operated charter flights to the Mediterranean firstly using its B720 and later A300’s it leased from Airbus. It began to acquire 737-200’s in the late 1970s/early 1980s, the first arriving in 1976, to provide more capacity on their routes and to allow the airline to pick up smaller routes where an A300 wasn’t economical. The B720’s were retired in 1977 and the A300’s began to be offered out for other operations in other countries like working for Air Zaire, Egyptair, charter operations from elsewhere in Europe and Hajj flights from Africa to Saudi.The 737-200’s proved to be a great backbone of the Belgian fleet, providing connections to many destinations in Europe and allowing the airline to really push the boat out and begin to dominate holiday flights from the country. It also allowed the airline to begin setting up subsidiary airlines like TEA UK in 1988, founded from the purchase of the bankrupt Mediterranean Express and based in Birmingham, but it was mainly the 737-300’s the airline began to receive in the late 1980’s that really helped the subsidiaries take off.
TEA France was the first founded in 1987 based from Lille, however it wouldn’t begin operations until 1989 whereupon it received its own 737-300’s and then the first 2 of a 10 aircraft order for new A310’s, the order being
TEA UK received some 737-300’s in 1990 to help expand its fleet, allowing the carrier to expand to East Midlands and to Newcastle.
TEA Italy was founded in December 1990 based out of Treviso operating 3 transferred -300’s on routes into Northern Europe to connect holidaymakers to Italian holiday destinations.
TEA Switzerland which was founded in 1989 with a fleet of 737-300’s which unlike the other subsidiaries, was operating in a different colour scheme.
The airline struggled in 1990 due to the Gulf War and the massive spike in global oil prices before it collapsed in September 1991 after failing to get financial support from the Belgian government (Air Europe had the same fate due to the same issues). TEA UK went down with the mothership, though the management staff (previously having been Orion’s management prior to their takeover by Britannia in 1988) went on to found Excalibur Airways.
The other subsidiaries (Bar TEA Cyprus as that was very short-lived) continued to fly with TEA Italy flying until its demise in 1995. TEA France continued flying until 1992 (Also succumbing to the fuel price issues but a year later) operating its A310’s on longer haul routes in partnership with Euro Air Service, with them reviving the TEA brand in 1995 though this was short lived.
The most successful, however, was TEA Switzerland (TEA Basel prior to 1994) which continued to expand before forming a partnership with easyJet in 1998 and then becoming easyJet Switzerland in 1999, which still flies to this day.
TEA Belgium’s collapse did allow for the formation of 2 new airlines, European Airlines which was made up of former TEA staff until it ended operations in 1995 as the leasing company the aircraft were from decided it wanted to leave the industry so the airline had no fleet. The other airline was Euro Belgian Airlines (EBA) which took up part of the TEA Belgium airline utilising cash from the previous owner as well as the owner of City Hotels. The airline flew until acquired by Virgin Group who rebranded the airline Virgin Express and continued to flourish, becoming the second largest airline in the country after Sabena, until 2001 when Sabena collapsed due to an incident on the 11th of September in the US. Out of the flames was born SN Brussels Airlines who acquired Virgin Express in 2004 and merged the two in 2007 to form Brussels Airlines which flies to this day.
The previous owner of TEA and EBA and the owner of City Hotels would come together again to form a new airline, CityBird, however, that collapsed due to the drop in demand during the aforementioned incident in the US in September 2001.
It should be added as it was an intrinsic part of both Belgian and European history, featuring in the Operation Moses evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel as well as 2 parts of the airline still existing to this day as parts of 2 major European carriers. It would thus be great to remember the impact the airline had through having it memorialised in the game.
I had this ready to go, just needed a final bit of editing and @Aron_fvg’s suggestion came through so apologies, if you have anything to add, please pop it below
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Another cracking video from Expo Aviation on the airline,
