First Choice Airways

If you flew from Manchester, Gatwick or Birmingham on a package holiday in the 1990s, you often ended up in a Boeing 757 with “Air 2000” titles. Behind the futuristic-sounding name was the in-house airline of a major British tour operator, which later appeared as First Choice Airways. In 2008 it merged with Thomsonfly – and with it the former Britannia Airways – into today’s TUI Airways. Here you learn how the airline came about, which aircraft defined it and how to recognize it in old photos.

First Choice Airways at a glance

First Choice Airways was a British charter airline with flight operations in Manchester. It was founded in the mid-1980s by the tour operator Owners Abroad, which wanted its own aircraft for its vacationers instead of buying seats from other charter airlines. On April 11, 1987, the first aircraft took off in scheduled service: under the name Air 2000, a Boeing 757-200 flew from Manchester to Málaga. At the start the fleet consisted of exactly two 757s.

Owners Abroad renamed itself First Choice in 1994. The airline kept its name at first; only in 2003/2004 did Air 2000 officially become First Choice Airways. Until the merger with Thomsonfly in 2008 it mainly flew package vacationers to the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean and North America.

You know the principle from other British leisure airlines: tour operator and airline belong together, and the aircraft fill up through the trips sold. Britannia Airways worked this way at Thomson, and so did Airtours International at the Airtours group. The difference from classic scheduled service is explained in the article Charter flights vs. scheduled flights.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code DP: in flight numbers and schedules, mainly on the airline’s scheduled flights.
• ICAO code AMM: Air 2000’s identifier with air traffic control, used until the renaming.
• ICAO code FCA: from 2004 the identifier of First Choice Airways until the merger.
• Callsign JETSET: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio throughout.

The division of labor between the codes is interesting: scheduled flights ran under DP, charter flights under the ICAO identifier. If you go through old schedules or tickets, you will therefore come across both variants. How IATA and ICAO codes relate to each other is covered in the article IATA and ICAO codes explained.

The history in stages

The fleet: a 757 airline with long-haul ambitions

From the start Air 2000 relied on modern twin-engine jets. That set the airline apart from many competitors of the 1980s that still flew older three- and four-engine aircraft. The most important types at a glance:

Type	Period	Use	Spotter note
Boeing 757-200	1987–2008	Backbone on medium-haul, early on also transatlantic	First and largest fleet type
Boeing 767-300ER	from the late 1990s	Long-haul in the Caribbean, Mexico, South America	Partly taken over from Leisure International
Airbus A320	2000s	Shorter holiday routes	One of the airline’s few Airbus types
Airbus A321	2000s	Full Mediterranean flights, at times with a premium cabin	Longest narrowbody in the fleet
Boeing 787-8	ordered from 2005	–	In service only with the successor

Boeing 757-200: the workhorse

The Boeing 757-200 was the ideal holiday jet for Air 2000: enough seats for full vacation flights, strong climb performance on short or hot runways and a range that easily covered the Canary Islands. The airline started with two in 1987, and until the merger in 2008 the 757 remained the most numerous type.

From 1989 Air 2000 even used extended-range aircraft for flights across the Atlantic to the USA. For a twin-engine narrowbody that was remarkable at the time, because such routes require a special approval for long-range flights with two engines. What is behind it is explained in the article on ETOPS.

Boeing 767-300ER: widebody for long-haul trips

At some point the 757 was no longer enough for the growing long-haul programs. In 1997 the airline agreed to lease two Boeing 767-300ERs. With the takeover of Leisure International Airways, two more 767s joined in 1998. Leisure International – earlier operating as Air UK Leisure, the holiday subsidiary of Air UK – had actually planned to replace its 767s with Airbus A330-200s. First Choice scrapped these plans in 1999 and stuck with the 767.

The widebody jets flew destinations you now tend to associate with the 787: the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida and South America. According to common reference works, First Choice was the first British airline to equip its 767s with a cabin in the style of the Boeing 777. How to reliably tell the 757 and 767 apart in photos is shown in the article Telling the Boeing 757 and 767 apart.

Airbus A320 and A321: the complement

In the 2000s the Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 complemented the fleet. First Choice at times flew some A321s with a small premium cabin of a few rows, mainly from East Midlands and London Stansted. For spotters that is a nice detail, because the airline flew Boeing and Airbus side by side. If you are unsure about the A320 family, the article Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart helps.

Boeing 787-8: ordered but never flown

In February 2005 First Choice ordered six Boeing 787-8s with options on six more. By March 2007 the order had grown to twelve aircraft. Delays in the 787 program, however, pushed deliveries far back. The order passed to Thomson Airways, which put its first 787 into service in 2013. So a piece of First Choice planning is in TUI Airways’ current 787 fleet. The manufacturer of all the Boeing types mentioned is Boeing.

Bases and destinations

Flight operations were based at Manchester Airport, the group headquarters in Crawley right next to London Gatwick Airport. Together with Birmingham Airport, these airports formed the most important bases. The airline also departed from a long list of British regional airports, such as Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow, London Luton and London Stansted. Dublin added the first base outside Great Britain in 1996.

The route network followed the British vacation taste: Spain with the Balearic and Canary Islands, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey in summer, and in winter also ski destinations such as Salzburg and Innsbruck. On long-haul the airline flew to the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida and Brazil, among others. Part of the long-haul capacity was sold through group-owned brands. First Choice also flew exclusively for Island Cruises, a cruise joint venture with Royal Caribbean.

How to recognize First Choice Airways

In historic photos the airline is easy to identify once you know the two name phases. Until 2003/2004, “Air 2000” stood large on the fuselage; over the years there were two Air 2000 liveries, the second considerably more colorful. With the renaming came liveries with the “First Choice” titles; one of them is known as “Starfish”. You are best off checking the details of individual variants against dated photos.

After the 2008 merger some aircraft kept flying in First Choice colors for a while even though they already belonged to Thomson Airways – mainly aircraft whose retirement was foreseeable anyway. Such transition phases are typical for mergers; more on this in When airlines change their design and Recognizing hybrid and mixed liveries.

Merger with Thomsonfly and the end of the name

In March 2007 First Choice and the TUI group announced that they would combine their British and European tourism businesses. In September 2007 TUI Travel PLC began operations. Suddenly two large British leisure airlines belonged to the same group: First Choice Airways and Thomsonfly, the former Britannia Airways.

The next step was obvious. From May 1, 2008, both airlines flew under a shared air operator’s certificate, and from November 2008 the company bore the name Thomson Airways. In October 2017 it was renamed TUI Airways, which today belongs to the TUI airlines.

The First Choice brand did not disappear right away: TUI continued to use it in the United Kingdom as a travel brand. As an airline name on aircraft, however, it no longer exists. The consolidation affected the whole industry, by the way: almost simultaneously Thomas Cook Airlines and Airtours merged, and later XL Airways and Monarch Airlines disappeared from the market entirely. An overview of the big collapses is given in the article on airline bankruptcies in Europe.

For spotting in Great Britain, it is worth reading the article Spotting in Great Britain beforehand. You can best explore the base of those days today from the Runway Visitor Park in Manchester; you find further tips in the guide Plane spotting in Manchester and for the south under Plane spotting at Gatwick.

Common mix-ups

• Taking Air 2000 and First Choice for two airlines – it is the same company with two names.
• Confusing First Choice with Britannia – both merged into Thomson Airways but had different parent groups until 2007.
• Equating Air 2000 with Canada 3000 – the Canadian airline did arise from an Air 2000 project but was an independent company.
• Taking the travel brand First Choice for an airline – after the merger TUI sold vacations under the name, while the aircraft flew for Thomson Airways, today TUI Airways.
• Taking the 787 for a First Choice type – ordered yes, flown only by the successor.

Conclusion

First Choice Airways, for most of its life known as Air 2000, was one of the big British leisure airlines between 1987 and 2008. It started with two Boeing 757s, flew the 767 as far as the Caribbean and South America, and ordered the Boeing 787 before the merger. With the combination into TUI Travel its independence ended, but the airline lives on in TUI Airways. For spotters it is an exciting chapter of British holiday aviation – and a reason to think briefly of Air 2000 the next time you see a TUI Dreamliner in Manchester.