Nouvelair

When an A320 with a Tunisian registration taxis to the runway at German airports in summer, chances are good it is a Nouvelair. The private leisure airline from Monastir is not among the big names in European airspace – and that is exactly what makes it interesting for spotters. The fleet is small, the operations are seasonal, and if you want every aircraft in your logbook, you need a bit of patience. This page shows you where Nouvelair comes from, what it flies and how to recognize it reliably.

Nouvelair at a glance

Nouvelair is a private Tunisian leisure airline with its headquarters and main base in Monastir; the company is formally registered in Tunis. Its core business is flights connecting European cities with Tunisia’s vacation regions – often on behalf of tour operators, partly also as scheduled flights with freely bookable tickets.

In the Tunisian market, Nouvelair is the best-known alternative to the state-owned Tunisair. While Tunisair, as the flag carrier, operates a broader network with connections to Africa and the Middle East, Nouvelair clearly concentrates on tourism. That is also reflected in its bases: Monastir is the main base, joined by Tunis-Carthage and Djerba-Zarzis. All three lie where vacationers want to go.

Nouvelair has no alliance. For frequent flyers there is its own bonus program, Jasmin, but it makes no difference for you as a spotter. More important: Nouvelair is an airline with a manageable fleet – and thus one you can actually collect completely.

Codes and callsigns

• IATA code BJ: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board, the ticket and in schedules.
• ICAO code LBT: shows up in the air traffic control flight plan and on many flight trackers.
• Callsign NOUVELAIR: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

At first glance, the ICAO code LBT seems to have nothing to do with today’s name. That is true: it dates from the time when the airline was still called Air Liberté Tunisie. Codes are not automatically reassigned when a company is renamed, so the old origin lives on in the abbreviation. The guide to IATA and ICAO codes explains how the two code systems work in general.

History: from Air Liberté Tunisie to Nouvelair

The story begins in October 1989. Back then, Tunisian entrepreneur Aziz Miled founded a Tunisian subsidiary together with the French charter airline Air Liberté: Air Liberté Tunisie. It began flight operations on March 21, 1990 – with a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 that came from the French parent.

Miled was no stranger to the Tunisian tourism industry. His company Tunisian Travel Service (TTS), founded in 1968, had started as an incoming agency for vacationers of a German tour operator. After a restructuring, the TTS Group took the majority of the airline in 1995, and the new name Nouvelair followed in 1996.

From 1998, Nouvelair gradually switched to Airbus. The fleet then consisted of A320s and the longer A321; in early 2007 the last MD-83s left the company. In fall 2008, Nouvelair merged with the Tunisian Karthago Airlines, with which it had been cooperating for several years.

The 2011 revolution hit the airline hard. Passenger numbers dropped by almost 40 percent, the fleet was reduced, and some aircraft were leased out to other airlines. In 2014, Nouvelair sold two A320s to the German Germania. At the same time, Nouvelair tried to broaden its base: since 2013 it has offered regular scheduled flights, first between Tunis and Paris.

The fleet: pure A320 family

Today, the Nouvelair fleet is as uniform as at many leisure airlines. According to fleet overviews from August 2025, it looks like this:

Type	Number	Seats	Spotter note
Airbus A320-200 (ceo)	14	177–180	Workhorse of the fleet, on average just under 17 years old; two examples with sharklets
Airbus A320neo	2	186	Youngest aircraft, recognizable by the large engines
Airbus A321	historic	–	Formerly in service, no longer in the fleet today
McDonnell Douglas MD-83	historic	–	First aircraft type, in service until 2007

The number is a snapshot: at a small leisure airline, leases, sales or additionally chartered aircraft change the fleet quickly. According to the overviews, at least one A320 came on lease from another company. Especially in peak season, a flight with a BJ flight number may also be operated by another airline’s aircraft – a classic wet lease.

The older aircraft are A320-214s with CFM56 engines, while the new A320neos have new-generation engines. Both come from Airbus. That is exactly where the most important difference for spotters lies: the engine generation.

A320ceo or A320neo? How to tell them apart

At Nouvelair the question is especially tricky because two of the older A320s have been retrofitted with sharklets. The upward-curving wingtips that many know as a neo feature therefore give nothing away here. Rely on other details.

If you photograph the aircraft from the side, the engine shape is the surest feature. Even easier is cross-checking by registration: once you have the registration, any fleet list shows whether it is a ceo or a neo. On trackers the type code helps – more on this in the article ICAO type codes explained. You will find more details in the guide A320neo or ceo? and in the overview of winglets and sharklets.

How to recognize Nouvelair

The most striking feature is the “nouvelair” titles on the fuselage, which you can read even from a greater distance. Added to that is the Tunisian registration: all Nouvelair aircraft carry a registration with the prefix TS-, at Nouvelair typically in the TS-IN… series – for example TS-INP. Among the guests at German airports, TS- registrations are rare enough that they stand out immediately. The article Understanding aircraft registrations explains how registrations are structured in general.

Because Nouvelair operates only one aircraft type, identification at the spot is usually easy: A320 plus TS- registration plus Nouvelair titles. The main risk of confusion is with Tunisair, which also flies A320s with TS- registrations. The name on the fuselage and the code on the tracker – TAR for Tunisair, LBT for Nouvelair – reliably separate the two.

Spotting Nouvelair in Germany

Nouvelair connects Tunisia with many German cities. Depending on the season, the schedule includes Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart and Berlin, among others. Many of these flights run on behalf of tour operators – the difference between charter and scheduled is explained in the article Charter flight vs. scheduled flight.

For you, that means Nouvelair is not a year-round guest with a fixed rhythm but mainly a summer and vacation airline. In the months with lots of vacation traffic, your chances rise significantly, especially at the start of school holidays. The guide to the start of vacations when spotting shows how to make good use of such days.

In vacation traffic you often meet Nouvelair alongside German providers such as Condor, TUIfly or Sundair. The comparatively rare Tunisian registration sets it apart from this field – a good reason to look more closely at flights to Monastir, Djerba or Tunis. Nouvelair is also strongly represented in France, for example at Paris Orly, Lyon, Marseille and Nice.

Because many Nouvelair flights operate only once or twice a week, planning pays off. Check beforehand whether the flight takes place at a time of day with good light, and check the runway direction in use. For early-morning or late-evening departures, the sun position planner can decide whether you get a usable photo at all.

Nouvelair in the news

In September 2025, Nouvelair made headlines in Nice: an A320 on flight BJ586 from Tunis came close on approach to an easyJet A320 lined up for takeoff on the same runway. The Nouvelair crew went around and landed safely shortly afterward. The French investigation authority BEA classified the event as a serious incident and opened an investigation. For spotters, this is mainly an example of how important a look at the flight tracker and radio can be when something unusual happens at the spot.

Common mix-ups

• Assuming every TS- A320 is a Nouvelair – Tunisair also flies the A320 family with Tunisian registrations.
• Thinking LBT is a typo – the ICAO code dates from the time as Air Liberté Tunisie and is correct.
• Taking sharklets as a sure neo feature – two older Nouvelair A320s have been retrofitted.
• Equating the BJ flight number with the operating aircraft – in peak season, a chartered-in aircraft may fly.
• Thinking Nouvelair is a Tunisair subsidiary – Nouvelair is private and belongs to the TTS Group.
• Expecting an A321 in your logbook – the A321 is history at Nouvelair; today only the A320 flies.

Conclusion

Nouvelair is a small but rewarding airline for your logbook. Its roots lie with the French Air Liberté; today it flies as a private Tunisian leisure airline with an all-A320 fleet between Europe and the Mediterranean vacation spots. If you watch for flights to Tunisia at German airports in summer, look at registrations and engines and separate the few neos from the older ceos, you can actually collect the manageable fleet completely over a few seasons.