Britannia Airways
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| Founded | 1 December 1961 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1 November 2005 (rebranded as Thomsonfly) |
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| Operating bases |
Birmingham International Airport Gatwick Airport Glasgow International Airport London Luton Airport Manchester Airport Newcastle Airport |
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| Fleet size | 47 | ||||||
| Destinations | 42 | ||||||
| Parent company | TUI | ||||||
| Headquarters | London Luton Airport, United Kingdom | ||||||
Britannia Airways was the largest charter airline in the United Kingdom. It was rebranded "Thomsonfly" in 2005. Its main bases were Gatwick, London Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. It was headquartered on the grounds of the Britannia House in Luton, Bedfordshire.
The airline was established on 1 December 1961 by Ted Langton and started operations on 5 May 1962 as Euravia (London) flying Lockheed Constellations on inclusive tour holidays for Universal Sky Tours.
Rival charter airline Skyways, one of Britain's foremost independent airlines during the 1950s and early 1960s, had been taken over by Euravia in 1962. The Skyways takeover did not include Skyways Coach-Air, a Skyways associate, established in the early 1950s by Eric Rylands to operate low-fare coach-air services between London and several European capital cities. Following Euravia's acquisition of Skyways, Skyways Coach-Air remained independent until its successor Skyways International was taken over by Dan-Air in 1972. Euravia also took on Skyways PanAm engine contract at London Heathrow using ex Skyways Avro York aircraft. One aircraft was on permanent stanby at Heathrow ready to fly a spare engine to rescue any PanAm Boeing 707 aircraft with engine problems. Rescue flights were flown as far afield as Singapore and Hong Kong. The other Yorks were used for adhoc freighting until 1965 when the last aircraft G-AGNV was flown from Luton to Staverton Gloucester to be an exhibit at the now defunct Skyfame museum. This aircraft is now in the RAF museum at RAF Cosford.
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