The travel group Tui and the Polish charter airline Enter Air are jointly launching a new carrier called Fly 4. However, this will not be traveling on its own account, but will initially be active as an internal wet lease provider for both Tui and Enter Air.

German unions are already watching the project critically because there are fears that it could potentially come at the expense of jobs at the German company Tuifly. The core concern: The new company could have lower labor costs and therefore wet lease operations could potentially be cheaper than operating the business yourself. In the short term, there are no plans for Fly 4 to launch in Germany. The initial focus is on the United Kingdom, where the Tui Group operates the airline Tui Airways.

The first customers of the new company will therefore be the Tui companies based in the United Kingdom and the Polish Enter Air. AOC and operating license have been applied for in Ireland. This means that you are somewhat restricted when it comes to flights from the UK, as as a non-UK carrier you are not allowed to operate some routes. However, Fly 4 can be used very flexibly in the EU area and on many routes that lead into the EU.

Enter Air has a very strong presence in the charter business in Poland and also carries out many orders outside of its home country. Occasionally you also fly from Germany on behalf of the Tui Group. In Switzerland it has a stake in the airline Chair Airlines. This emerged from Germania Flug AG. The Tui Group holds a 4 percent stake in the new Fly 49. The 51 percent majority is in the hands of Enter Air, which also has the say in the new company.

Up to 20 aircraft for ACMI and charter orders

Fly 4 will initially take off with four Boeing 737-800s, which will come from the stocks of the two joint venture partners. The fleet is to be expanded to ten machines within the next three years. However, it is still unclear whether these will be Boeing 737-800s, Max models or aircraft from another manufacturer. It is considered likely that these will be Boeing 737-NG models, but this has not been explicitly confirmed by Fly 4. In any case, the goal is to also be active outside of Enter Air and the Tui Group. The initiators have in mind that Fly 4 should develop into a relevant player in the ACMI and charter flights segment. The aim is to have a fleet consisting of around 20 aircraft.

It won't be easy, because the market in Europe is highly competitive. Numerous providers, mostly with AOCs from the Baltics or Malta, are active and offer low prices to tour operators and larger airlines. The business is seasonal, however, because during the peak times in summer pretty much everything that can fly is in the air, but in winter the providers have one or two problems getting flight orders. It is therefore not surprising that the Avia Solutions Group, which is one of the largest providers in this segment, is setting up a number of carriers outside of Europe in order to be able to benefit from the so-called reverse seasonality.

Experienced manager at the top

It is hardly surprising that Fly 4 will initially be used in the United Kingdom. In this country, the trade unions are considered to be quite strong and the wage level is higher than, for example, in Ireland or Lithuania. At the same time, competition is very fierce, because apart from classic holiday flights, which are marketed by operators, the low-cost segment is also very strong in the UK. This means that package holidays are in direct competition with self-arranged holiday trips, which then include flights from Ryanair, Wizz Air, Easyjet, Jet2 and/or other providers, to a greater extent than in other European countries.

The managing director of Fly 4 is a well-known person in the industry. The CEO is Jochen Schnadt, who in the past was at the helm at BMI Regional, which no longer exists. The manager told Flightglobal, among other things: “We essentially have two anchor customers from day one. From TUI's perspective, we are initially concentrating on serving the British tour operator as a customer. Enter Air is of course very active from Poland, their main base, but they also fly a lot of other things and it depends on how they develop their own commercial partnerships where they might need additional capacity in the future.” Fly 4 is currently assuming that the IAA will issue the AOC and operating license in the first quarter of the current year, so that they can get involved as early as summer 2024.