Thomson Airways (BY, London Luton (LTN)) has set July 8 as its planned launch date for B787-8 operations with inaugural Dreamliner flights to include Cancún International (CUN) and Orlando Sanford International (SFB). The development comes after Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration recently released a fix for the aircraft's problematic battery which had seen all 787s, including its production line, grounded the world-over since mid January. The UK charter operator had originally planned to take delivery of its first of eight 787s in late February this year with flights to have begun in May.

Thomson Airways (BY, London Luton (LTN)) has retired the only remaining A321-200 G-OOPE (c/n 852) from scheduled service on March 27. This marks the end of its Airbus narrowbody operations originally added to the fleet as part of the merger with First Choice Airways (DP, Manchester Ringway International (MAN)). Thomson now operates an all-Boeing fleet including B737-800s, B757-200s and B767-300(ER)s.

Thomson Airways (BY, London Luton (LTN)) has announced that it has activated its contingency plans to switch passengers scheduled to fly on its first two B787-8s from East Midlands (EMA), Glasgow Abbotsinch International (GLA), London Gatwick (LGW) and Manchester Ringway International (MAN) to Cancún International (CUN) and Orlando Sanford International (SFB) in May and June to flights operating with B767-300(ER) equipment. Thomson says it still did not get any indication of a potential delivery date of its B787-8s as a result of the worldwide grounding of the aircraft type. As part of its plans, Thomson will also get additional capacity from sister carrier Jetairfly (TB, Brussels National Zaventem (BRU)) that will operate some of the flights with its two B767-300(ER)s on behalf of Thomson Airways.

Thomson Airways (BY, London Luton (LTN)) has announced that it has been advised by Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare International (ORD)) that the delivery of its first B787-8s would be delayed until the investigations into the battery problems with the B787-8s have been completed. It had planned to take delivery of its first B787-8 next month and to start using the aircraft on long-haul services from various UK airports to Cancún International (CUN) and Orlando Sanford International (SFB) from May onwards. Thomson has now said it would be putting a contingency plan in place to operate the services with "alternative" aircraft without providing details of the plan yet. Norwegian (DY, Oslo Gardermoen (OSL)) had already announced some weeks ago that it would have what it called a "Plan B" in place to serve all long-haul flights potentially impacted by B787-8 delivery delays.

Thomson Airways (BY, London Luton (LTN)) parent TUI Travel, that also controls leisure carriers Arke Fly (OR, Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)), Corsair International (SS, Paris Orly (ORY)), Jetairfly (TB, Brussels National Zaventem (BRU)), TUIfly (Germany) (X3, Hanover (HAJ)) and TUIfly Nordic (6B, Stockholm Arlanda (ARN)), has started evaluating proposals from both Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac (TLS)) and Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare International (ORD)) for the B737 MAX and A320neo aircraft with a view of potentially ordering up to 60 narrowbody aircraft from one of the suppliers according to a report by Reuters. The aircraft would then be delivered to several of its subsidiaries similar to previous TUI Travel orders for B737-800s and B787-8s.