TUI fly Belgium

If you stand at the fence in Brussels, you keep seeing blue-and-white jets with the TUI smile on the fuselage among the green-and-blue aircraft of Brussels Airlines. At first glance they could just as well come from Hanover. But the Belgian TUI airline has its own codes, its own registration prefix and, with the Embraer E195-E2, an aircraft type that is rare in the group. Here you learn how to reliably recognize TUI fly Belgium and where to catch it best.

TUI fly Belgium at a glance

TUI fly Belgium is the Belgian leisure airline of the TUI Group. The company is headquartered in Zaventem, right at Brussels Airport, and legally is still called TUI Airlines Belgium. It flies vacationers to destinations around the Mediterranean, to the Red Sea, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and North Africa. The group sells most of the seats through package tours, but individual flights can also be booked directly.

There is no hub with connecting flights of the kind Brussels Airlines runs in Brussels. TUI fly Belgium bases its aircraft at several Belgian airports and flies nonstop on vacation from there. The airline belongs to no alliance.

Within the group, TUI fly Belgium is one of several airlines. Together with the German TUIfly, TUI Airways from the UK, TUI fly Netherlands and TUI fly Nordic, it makes up the travel group’s airline family. According to the TUI Group, the group fleet comprises around 125 aircraft.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code TB: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board, in the itinerary and in the airport’s flight schedule.
• ICAO code JAF: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers. The abbreviation dates from the time when the airline was still called Jetairfly.
• Callsign BEAUTY: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

For you as a spotter, the ICAO code is the most important tool. On the tracker you don’t see “TUI” but JAF – and that is exactly how you separate the Belgian company from the German one, which uses the ICAO code TUI. Why flight number and callsign often look different on trackers is explained in the article on the difference between callsign and flight number. How IATA and ICAO codes are structured in general is covered in IATA and ICAO codes explained.

From Jetair via Jetairfly to TUI fly Belgium

The roots lie with a tour operator. Jetair was long one of the big package tour providers in Belgium and belonged to the TUI group. The charter company Sobelair initially served as the in-house airline. After Sobelair ceased operations in early 2004, TUI built its own airline with TUI Airlines Belgium. It started with five Boeing 737-400s.

In November 2005, the airline got the brand name Jetairfly. Under that name it grew considerably over the following years and became unusually versatile for a Belgian leisure airline:

The long-haul excursion was a trademark for a long time: with the Boeing 767-300ER and later the Boeing 787-8, the airline flew to the Caribbean and the USA, among other places. The 767 left in 2022, and in February 2025 TUI fly Belgium announced that it would give up long-haul altogether. For the last 787-8 it named November 2025 as the farewell date. A Dreamliner in TUI colors with an OO- registration is therefore now only a matter for your logbook archive.

The fleet: Boeing 737 and Embraer E195-E2

Since the end of long-haul, the fleet has been more compact. According to 2026 fleet overviews, it looks roughly like this:

Type	Number (approx.)	Seats	Spotter note
Boeing 737-800	8	189	Older part of the fleet, gradually being replaced by the MAX
Boeing 737 MAX 8	7 to 9	n/a	Registrations for example OO-TM…, listed as B38M on trackers
Embraer E195-E2	3	136	A rarity in the TUI group, in service since 2023
More 737 MAX	on order	–	Number and variants differ depending on the source

Together that is around 20 aircraft. The figures vary because older 737-800s are being handed over and new MAXs are arriving – take the table as a snapshot. According to TUI, TUI fly Belgium and TUI fly Netherlands also share a common Benelux fleet, so an aircraft can be based in both countries. According to fleet overviews, the airline retired its former Boeing 737-700 at the end of 2025.

You know the Boeing 737-800 and the Boeing 737 MAX 8 from many European leisure airlines; both come from Boeing. The real specialty is the Embraer E195-E2: with 136 seats it is clearly smaller than the 737 and suits routes where a large jet wouldn’t fill up. It followed the Embraer E190, which Jetairfly flew from 2013 and which left the fleet in 2023.

In between, TUI fly Belgium has repeatedly leased aircraft from other airlines at short notice, including Airbus A320s and Airbus A321s. Such operations usually run via wet lease – what is behind that is explained in the article Wet lease explained. If you see someone else’s aircraft under a TB flight number in summer, that is often the reason.

E195-E2 or 737? How to tell the types apart

In the same design, Embraer and Boeing quickly look similar in photos. A few features help you:

To tell the 737-800 from the 737 MAX 8, the engines are your best clue: the MAX has serrated trailing edges on the nacelle and split winglets with one tip pointing up and one down. On the tracker, B738 stands for the 737-800 and B38M for the MAX 8. If you want to get more confident in general, the guide Identifying aircraft types for beginners can help.

How to recognize TUI fly Belgium

Since 2016, the airline has flown in the TUI Group’s group design: blue-and-white paint, the smile logo and the “TUI” titles on the fuselage. That is exactly what makes assigning them tricky, because TUIfly, TUI Airways, TUI fly Netherlands and TUI fly Nordic look almost exactly the same. In the Canary Islands or on Mallorca they often stand right next to each other.

Here is how you separate the TUI airlines:

Airline	Country	Registration prefix	Typical types
TUI fly Belgium	Belgium	OO-	737-800, 737 MAX 8, E195-E2
TUIfly	Germany	D-	737-800, 737 MAX 8
TUI Airways	United Kingdom	G-	737, Boeing 787
TUI fly Netherlands	Netherlands	PH-	737, Boeing 787
TUI fly Nordic	Sweden	SE-	737

Two rules of thumb help: an Embraer in TUI colors is practically always TUI fly Belgium, and a Dreamliner in TUI colors no longer belongs to the Belgian fleet today. On the 737, the registration decides. How to read registrations and which prefix belongs to which country is explained in the articles Understanding aircraft registrations and Aircraft country codes.

Special liveries

According to fleet overviews, the 737-800 OO-JAF – matching the ICAO code – carried an advertising livery for the hotel brand “Family Life” for years, and OO-JPT flew in RIU colors for a few months in 2018. Such designs come and go. Check whether a livery is still current before a targeted trip; you can find tips in the article Finding special liveries.

Spotting TUI fly Belgium: the bases

Your best chances are at the Belgian bases. The aircraft spend the night there and take off in the morning for the first wave, returning in the afternoon and evening.

• Brussels-Zaventem: home base and by far the largest location. From the Steenokkerzeel spotter zone you have good chances of getting the blue-and-white jets in your viewfinder next to Brussels Airlines.
• Ostend-Bruges: small airport on the coast with modest traffic – ideal for photographing the leisure jets without a crowd.
• Liège: known as a cargo hub. TUI fly Belgium used the airport as a base at times; the flight schedule shows whether leisure flights currently depart there. How to tell the freighters apart is covered in the article Identifying cargo aircraft.
• Antwerp: small city airport close to the city center. There are reports of the base ending at Antwerp – check the current flight schedule before you visit.

You also regularly meet TUI fly Belgium at vacation destinations – for example in Mallorca at Palma Airport or on Lanzarote, where from the Playa Honda beach you photograph approaches over the water. There the Belgians often stand next to TUIfly, Transavia, Corendon, SunExpress and Condor. If you’re planning a Europe trip, the overview of the best spotting spots in Europe helps.

Before you set off, it is worth checking wind and runways: which side of the airport offers the better shots depends on the runway direction in use at the airport. If you are new, Plane spotting for beginners helps you get started.

Common mix-ups

• Taking every blue-and-white TUI 737 for TUIfly – the Belgians also fly 737s in the same design. The registration decides.
• Assuming the ICAO code “TUI” for all TUI airlines – the Belgian company uses JAF.
• Assigning a TUI Embraer to another group airline – the E195-E2s carry Belgian OO- registrations.
• Assigning a current TUI Dreamliner to the Belgian fleet – long-haul has been discontinued.
• Taking Jetairfly for a separate airline – it is the former name of the same company.
• Confusing TUI fly Belgium with Brussels Airlines – Brussels Airlines is the network carrier from the Lufthansa Group, with completely different paint.

Conclusion

TUI fly Belgium is more than just the Belgian copy of TUIfly. As Jetairfly, the airline brought Embraer jets and the Dreamliner to Belgium, was at the front of the group with the 737 MAX and today flies the E195-E2, a type rare in the group. For spotters that means: ignore the paint, check the registration and the ICAO code – then every sighting ends up with the right airline.