Germany’s TUI fly ends B737-700 operations

TUI fly (Germany) (X3, Hanover) has ended B737-700 operations having returned its last aircraft of the type to its lessor on October 20, 2020. D-AHXG (msn 35140) had been out of revenue service since March 22, 2020, and remained stored at Düsseldorf Int’l airport for the entire Summer 2020 season. It was ferried to Abu Dhabi Int’l on return to Castlelake. The 12.5-year-old narrowbody operated exclusively for TUI fly throughout its service life. It had accumulated 31,608 flight hours and 22,795 flight cycles with an average daily utilisation of 7:02 hours per day by the time it was retired by TUI fly, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. The aircraft was the German leisure carrier’s last remaining -700 when COVID-19 struck. Following the retirement of the B737-700, TUI fly (Germany) now operates thirty in-house B737-800s which average 11.3 years. All but one of the aircraft are dry-leased from various lessors.