TUI fly Netherlands

If you stand at the Polderbaan at Schiphol, you keep seeing a familiar blue and white among the blue KLM jets and the green-and-white Transavia aircraft: TUI. At first glance it is just “some TUI” – at second glance there is a separate airline behind it, with its own codes, its own callsign and a fleet that is unusual for a leisure airline of its size. Because besides the 737 MAX 8, TUI fly Netherlands also flies the Dreamliner. Here you learn how to reliably recognize the Dutch TUI and where to catch it best.

TUI fly Netherlands at a glance

TUI fly Netherlands is the Dutch leisure airline of the TUI Group. The company is legally called TUI Airlines Nederland and is based in Schiphol-Rijk, a business park on the edge of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The tour operator TUI Nederland sells most of the seats as package tours, but you can also book individual flights without a hotel.

Unlike its German sister TUIfly, TUI fly Netherlands is not limited to short and medium haul. With the Boeing 787-8 it also flies to the Caribbean, Central America and other long-haul destinations. The connections to Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire in particular have a special status in the Netherlands, because the islands belong to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The airline belongs to no alliance. Within the group, together with TUIfly, TUI Airways, TUI fly Belgium and TUI fly Nordic, it makes up the TUI Group’s airline family. According to the group, these five companies fly around 125 aircraft in total – with around ten aircraft, the Dutch one is among the smaller ones.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code OR: appears in the flight number, on the departure board and in the booking confirmation.
• ICAO code TFL: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign ORANGE: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio – fitting the national color of the Netherlands and easy to remember.

That is handy for spotters: neither the IATA nor the ICAO code has anything to do with “TUI”. If a flight with TFL shows up on the tracker, it is the Dutch company – no matter how similar the aircraft looks to its sisters. Why flight number and callsign look different on trackers is explained in the article on the difference between callsign and flight number. You can find the system behind them in IATA and ICAO codes explained.

From HollandExel via Arkefly to TUI

The airline’s roots lie in a bankruptcy. The airline HollandExel – which grew out of Air Holland, founded in 1981 – belonged to the ExelAviation Group, which went bust in 2005. TUI took over flight operations, and in 2005 Arkefly emerged from it, named after the then Dutch tour operator Arke. The first flight under the new name took place on April 21, 2005.

The following years were marked by growth, especially on long-haul:

The 2015 renaming followed a decision by the TUI Group to have all five airlines appear under the TUI name. Legally they remained independent, each with its own air operator certificate. That is exactly why they still have different codes and registrations today.

Between 2019 and 2022, the airline additionally leased Airbus A320s for the summer seasons, and in 2022 leased 737-800s briefly helped out. Such stopgaps are common in leisure traffic – how wet-lease contracts work is explained in the article Wet lease explained.

The fleet: 737 MAX 8 and Dreamliner

The fleet is small but versatile. According to 2026 fleet overviews, it looks roughly like this:

Type	Number (approx.)	Seats	Use	Tracker code
Boeing 737 MAX 8	6	189	Europe, Canary Islands, North Africa, Turkey	B38M
Boeing 787-8	4	around 300, two classes	Long haul	B788
Boeing 737 MAX 10	on order	–	Successor to the MAX 8	B3XM

Together that is around ten aircraft. Treat the table as a snapshot: the number of MAX 10s on order and the delivery schedule differ depending on the source.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the backbone on short and medium haul. The Boeing 787-8 is the shortest Dreamliner version and, at TUI, offers a small area with more comfort in addition to economy. Both come from Boeing. For your logbook from the Arkefly days, the Boeing 767-300ER and the Boeing 737-800 are also interesting – both types have disappeared from the airline’s own fleet today.

737 MAX 8 or 737-800? How to tell the generations apart

Now that the last 737-800s have left the fleet, every current short-haul 737 of TUI fly Netherlands is a MAX 8. On older photos and at vacation airports where sister airlines still use 737-800s, a close look is still worthwhile:

You recognize the MAX 10 mainly by its length: it is the longest version of the 737 family. With the Dreamliner it is simpler – serrated engine trailing edges, strongly upward-curved wings and a cockpit with only four front windows give away the 787 from afar. The guide Identifying aircraft types for beginners gives you more confidence when identifying.

How to recognize TUI fly Netherlands

The aircraft wear the TUI Group’s group design: blue-and-white paint, the smile logo and the “TUI” titles on the fuselage. All five TUI airlines share exactly this look, and besides the Dutch one, TUI Airways, for example, also operates both 737s and Dreamliners. Which sister airline currently has a 787 in its fleet changes, because the group moves aircraft between the companies. At vacation airports they often stand right next to each other.

Here is how you separate the TUI airlines from one another:

Airline	Country	Registration prefix
TUI fly Netherlands	Netherlands	PH-
TUIfly	Germany	D-
TUI Airways	United Kingdom	G-
TUI fly Belgium	Belgium	OO-
TUI fly Nordic	Sweden	SE-

The registration decides. A TUI Dreamliner at Schiphol is often a Dutch one, but you can only be sure with the PH- prefix on the fuselage. 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

With around ten aircraft the fleet is small, and most of the aircraft wear the standard livery. That is exactly why it is worth keeping photos from the Arke and Arkefly days – those liveries no longer fly. How to track down current special liveries in the TUI family is explained in the article Finding special liveries.

Spotting TUI fly Netherlands

Schiphol

Your best chances are in Amsterdam. Schiphol is the main base, and the Dreamliners depart from here for the long-haul destinations. A classic is the spotter spot at the Polderbaan, where you get landings and takeoffs up close in front of your lens – provided the runway is in use. Which runway is currently used depends on the wind; the article on the runway direction in use at the airport helps with planning.

At Schiphol you meet TUI fly Netherlands among the big names: KLM, KLM Cityhopper, Transavia and the freighter Martinair. If you are specifically looking for TUI’s 787, don’t confuse it with KLM’s Dreamliners – blue dominates there too, but KLM wears a completely different design with its own logo and the “KLM” titles.

Eindhoven and Rotterdam

At the two smaller bases, TUI fly Netherlands flies mainly the 737 MAX 8. The sites are manageable; early-morning departures and returnees in the afternoon and evening make up most of the TUI movements here. Check the flight schedule before your visit, because the offering varies strongly with the season.

At the vacation destinations

You also meet the airline regularly in the south – for example in Mallorca at Palma Airport or on Lanzarote, where from the Playa Honda beach you photograph approaches over the water. There the PH- aircraft often stand next to TUIfly, Corendon Airlines, SunExpress and Jet2. A note for Caribbean fans: the airline flew to Sint Maarten only from December 2007 to November 2008, so you would look for it at Maho Beach in vain today. You can find more ideas for trips in the best spotting spots in Europe.

Before you set off, it is worth looking at the light: how you plan the sun position for your photo spot decides which side of the runway is well lit. If you are new, Plane spotting for beginners helps you get started.

Common mix-ups

• Taking every TUI Dreamliner for TUI fly Netherlands – other TUI airlines such as TUI Airways also fly the 787. The PH- registration decides.
• Confusing the Dutch TUI with TUIfly – the German company flies with D- registrations and has no long-haul jets.
• Equating “TUI” in the name with the code – TUI fly Netherlands uses OR and TFL, not TUI.
• Mixing up TUI Dreamliners and KLM Dreamliners – both blue, but completely different paint and airline.
• Taking Arkefly for another airline – it is the direct predecessor of TUI fly Netherlands.
• Looking for the 767 – it left the fleet in November 2024.

Conclusion

TUI fly Netherlands is the small but versatile leisure airline of the TUI Group in the Netherlands. The bankrupt HollandExel became Arkefly in 2005 and ten years later the first airline with the unified TUI name. Today it flies the 737 MAX 8 to southern Europe and the Dreamliner to the Caribbean. For spotters, the appeal lies in picking it out of the sea of blue-and-white TUI jets – and for that, the PH- registration, the ICAO code TFL and an open ear for “ORANGE” on the radio are enough.