TUI fly Netherlands: Mixed 737 MAX And 787 Long-Haul Fleet

TUI fly Netherlands, legally incorporated as TUI Airlines Nederland B.V., is the Dutch leisure airline of the TUI Group, the largest integrated tourism company in the world. It flies under the IATA code OR, the ICAO code TFL and the radio callsign "Orange." The airline began operations in 2005 as Arkefly, the aviation arm of the long-established Dutch tour operator Arke. It was shortened to Arke in 2013 and rebranded to TUI fly in 2016 as part of a group-wide effort to unify the TUI airline brands across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Unlike a scheduled network carrier such as KLM, TUI fly Netherlands is a leisure and charter operator: its network is built around sun-and-holiday demand rather than business travel or hub connectivity. Its main crew base and operational hub is Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), with commercial flights also offered from Eindhoven, Rotterdam The Hague and Groningen Eelde, though those regional airports are no longer pilot crew bases. The carrier is not a member of any global alliance (SkyTeam, Star Alliance or oneworld); its pilots fly almost entirely within TUI's own point-to-point leisure network.

The airline is deliberately compact. It operates a fleet of roughly 10 aircraft and, according to a 2024 Dutch court judgment involving the airline and the pilots' union, employs approximately 208 pilots. That makes it one of the smaller carriers in the Dutch cockpit labour market, but it sits inside a financially substantial parent: TUI Group reported total revenue of €23.2 billion for its financial year to 30 September 2024, and operates around 134 aircraft across all of its airlines. For a pilot, that combination (a small, tight-knit Dutch operation backed by a diversified pan-European tourism group) is the defining feature of the airline.

TUI fly Netherlands operates an all-Boeing, dual-fleet operation that is unusual for its size: a narrowbody short-haul fleet and a widebody long-haul fleet under a single small AOC. As of 2025 to 2026, independent fleet trackers and TUI's own Dutch corporate pages list a fleet of around 10 aircraft: six Boeing 737 MAX 8 narrowbodies and four Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner widebodies, with an average fleet age of roughly 8.4 years. That is a genuinely modern fleet by European leisure standards.

The fleet has been simplified sharply in recent years. The airline's own Boeing 737-800s were traded in for the more efficient 737 MAX 8, and TUI Netherlands management has publicly confirmed that the single-aisle fleet now consists only of the MAX. The airline still occasionally uses 737-800s during peak summer periods, but these are short-term wet-leases (for example from Go2Sky) flown by external crews, not by TUI fly Netherlands' own pilots. On the widebody side, the airline retired its last Boeing 767-300ER on 3 November 2024 (a farewell flight from Lanzarote and Fuerteventura back to Amsterdam), an event that also ended 767 operations across the entire TUI Group. The 787-8 is now the sole long-haul type.

Fleet data as of late 2025 / early 2026, from Planespotters, TUI corporate information and Dutch aviation press. Numbers change with deliveries, leases and seasonal capacity.

For pilots, the practical picture is clean and current-generation. The MAX 8 brings the latest single-aisle engines, avionics and updated flight-control systems, while the 787-8 offers an advanced widebody flight deck, large displays and integrated electronic flight bags. The passenger cabins across both types share a three-class layout of Deluxe (around 106 cm / 42 inches of legroom), Comfort (at least 78 cm) and Economy (around 71 cm), a configuration relevant to cabin operations though the cockpit workflow is standardised across the operation.

Pilot pay at TUI fly Netherlands is set by the CAO Vliegers TUI fly Nederland 2024–2026, the collective labour agreement negotiated between TUI Airlines Nederland B.V. and the Dutch pilots' union VNV (Vereniging Nederlandse Verkeersvliegers), which is currently in force through 31 January 2026. Unlike carriers that build pay around flight-hour rates, the TUI fly Netherlands CAO uses a fixed, formula-based monthly salary. This makes earnings unusually transparent and predictable, but it also means there is no large variable "block-hour" bonus stacked on top of base pay.

First Officer Pay Scale

The top-of-scale figure is calculated directly from the CAO 2024–2026 maximum and V-factor. Entry and mid-career figures are estimates and depend on age, prior experience and years of service. All figures are gross, before Dutch income tax and social charges.

Captain Pay Scale

Top annual totals of roughly €217,000 gross represent the ceiling of the published CAO scale, before profit-related payments and before the additional net allowances described below. Long-tenure Captains reach this cap and then progress only through allowances and holiday pay.

On top of the base salary, the CAO adds several defined elements. Every pilot accrues an 8% holiday allowance (vakantietoeslag), paid annually with the May salary. There is a fixed net allowance of €96.95 per month covering uniform upkeep, professional literature, parking and similar incidental costs, paid equally to Captains and First Officers. Multi-fleet flyers who are line-checked on a second type receive a structural supplement equal to one twelfth of their monthly salary. Commuting is reimbursed on a net monthly scale: €68.96 for a one-way home-to-base distance of 10 to 15 km, €96.54 for 15 to 20 km, and €137.92 for 20 km or more (no reimbursement under 10 km).

Rostering at TUI fly Netherlands operates within EASA Flight Time Limitations (FTL), Dutch labour law and the CAO, with oversight by the Dutch regulator, the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT). EASA FTL sets the hard ceilings that every European airline must respect: a maximum of 900 flight hours per calendar year, no more than 100 flight hours in any rolling 28 days, and minimum rest and days-free-of-duty requirements. Within those limits, the airline builds its own schedule.

The most distinctive feature the airline promotes to pilots is its five-weekly roster cycle. Published widebody vacancies describe a predictable, transparent five-week rhythm and explicitly market work-life balance as a selling point. A repeating cycle gives pilots medium-term visibility of working and off days, which is valuable for planning family life, and stands in contrast to the more reactive month-by-month bidding at some carriers.

Illustrative only. TUI fly Netherlands publishes a five-weekly roster cycle; the exact working pattern varies by fleet, season and seniority. Short-haul duties often contain two to four sectors per day.

The two fleets create two very different lifestyles. On the 737 MAX 8, a pilot flies short and medium sectors to Mediterranean, Canary Islands, North African and Atlantic-island destinations, frequently two to four legs a day with quick turnarounds, early starts and same-day returns to Amsterdam. Fatigue here is driven by early reporting and repetitive duty, not time zones. On the 787-8, duty days stretch to eight to ten hours of flying each way to the Caribbean or Mexico, with overnight layovers and genuine time-zone shifts, but far fewer take-offs and landings. Multi-fleet flyers experience both.

Because TUI fly Netherlands employs pilots under Dutch social law and a detailed CAO, the benefits package is comprehensive and heavily protective, in the tradition of the Dutch employment model. It also carries a distinctive advantage that few airlines can match: the pilot works for a company that also owns hotels, resorts and holidays, and those products come at a discount.

The loss-of-licence and occupational disability cover is one of the most important protections for any professional pilot, whose entire career depends on retaining a Class 1 medical. Under the CAO, a pilot who becomes medically unfit receives 100% of gross salary during the first year of incapacity and 70% during the second. From two years after the first day of sickness until retirement at age 65, the loss-of-licence insurance pays 70% of the last earned annual wage. The CAO even permits a pilot on that benefit to earn up to €20,000 gross per year from other work without any reduction, encouraging retraining while keeping the safety net intact.

Career progression at TUI fly Netherlands is built on a seniority system embedded in the CAO. Years of service and function feed directly into both salary (through the D and E components) and into bidding rights for leave, rotations and fleet assignment. In a company of only around 208 pilots, that seniority list is short, which cuts both ways: individual movements matter a great deal, and a single wave of retirements or a fleet change can noticeably shift upgrade prospects.

The realistic path is: join as a type-rated First Officer (on the 737 MAX 8 or, with the right rating, the 787), accrue seniority, and upgrade to Captain from within. TUI fly Netherlands does not publish a fixed upgrade timeline, and command timing depends on growth, retirements and command vacancies. Across comparable European leisure operators, First Officer to Captain typically falls somewhere in the region of 8 to 12 years, but at a carrier this small the figure is genuinely variable and should be treated as an indication rather than a promise.

TUI fly Netherlands recruits mainly experienced, type-rated pilots and advertises its cockpit vacancies through the TUI Group careers portal. This is not primarily an ab-initio airline: the published requirements are aimed at pilots who already hold the licences, ratings and legal right to work needed to step onto the line with minimal conversion. The clearest example is the recurring "B787 Type Rated Pilot Netherlands" vacancy, which spells out the standard the airline expects.

Core Pilot Requirements

The selection process is not published stage-by-stage, but the profile of requirements tells you what it verifies. Because candidates arrive licensed and, for the widebody role, already type-rated, the emphasis falls on confirming competence, experience and regulatory compliance: document and licence checks, a simulator assessment testing handling, procedures and crew resource management, and an interview probing motivation, judgement and fit with TUI's operating culture. A valid Class 1 medical and completed base training are prerequisites, not things the airline provides for you at this stage.

What the Selection Typically Involves

The 787-8 is what makes TUI fly Netherlands stand out among Dutch leisure carriers: it is the reason a pilot here can hold a long-haul widebody and still fly for a compact company. The Dreamliner network is anchored in the Dutch Caribbean and Mexico, the sun destinations that dominate Dutch holiday demand. TUI even named one of its Dreamliners after Curaçao, and reporting from Caribbean Journal confirms the Amsterdam–Curaçao long-haul is flown on the 787-8. The five destinations below are the core of the widebody layover programme; exact frequencies and seasonality vary.

The most useful comparison for a pilot weighing TUI fly Netherlands is against its closest Dutch peers competing for the same crews: Transavia (the Air France-KLM leisure and low-cost carrier) and Corendon Dutch Airlines (an independent Dutch leisure operator). The radar below rates the three across five metrics. Scores are editorial estimates based on publicly available data, CAO documents and industry benchmarks.

Key Takeaways from the Comparison

Fleet variety is TUI fly Netherlands' clearest edge. It is the only one of the three that offers genuine long-haul widebody flying, with four Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners alongside a modern 737 MAX 8 narrowbody fleet (average age around 8.4 years). Transavia flies short-haul only, on the Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A321neo, and Corendon operates an all-737 fleet (737-800 and 737 MAX 9). For a pilot who wants both short-haul and long-haul on one licence at a Dutch employer, TUI is close to unique.

Salaries are broadly comparable, with different structures. Transavia's published CAO scale runs to roughly €20,000 gross per month at the very top of the largest-aircraft Captain band, and experienced First Officers start around €6,461 to €7,552 gross per month, on a fixed all-in salary with no flight pay. TUI fly Netherlands tops out near €16,700 gross per month for Captains and about €11,200 for Senior First Officers, also on a fixed salary. Corendon's cited base pay (First Officers roughly €3,590 to €6,900, Captains roughly €6,500 to €11,200) is lower but adds block-hour pay on top. Net of everything, the three sit in a similar mid-range, below KLM mainline.

Job security narrowly favours Transavia. Transavia's backing by the Air France-KLM group and its larger pilot body give it a slight edge on stability, though TUI Group's €23.2 billion scale and diversification across hotels, cruises and tour operating make TUI fly Netherlands a solid employer too. Corendon, as a smaller independent, scores lower on this axis. All three are exposed to the cyclicality of leisure demand.

Benefits and work-life are strengths across the Dutch carriers, and TUI's travel perks stand out. Dutch labour law gives all three strong loss-of-licence, sick-pay and pension protections. TUI's edge is the holiday-discount ecosystem and a predictable five-weekly roster; Transavia is prized for short-haul lifestyle and home nights, while its higher utilisation and tight turnarounds are the trade-off.

Cockpit labour relations at TUI fly Netherlands are dominated by the VNV (Vereniging Nederlandse Verkeersvliegers), the Dutch airline pilots' association and trade union. VNV describes itself as a genuine union pursuing above-average employment conditions for airline pilots, and it represents cockpit crew across most of the Dutch industry, including KLM, Transavia, Martinair, easyJet Netherlands and TUI fly. A 2024 Dutch court judgment involving the airline recorded that TUI fly employs around 208 pilots and that roughly 90% of them are VNV members, a very high density that gives the union a strong mandate at the negotiating table.

How Pilot Conditions Are Set

The current agreement, the CAO Vliegers TUI fly Nederland 2024–2026, runs through 31 January 2026 and codifies the salary formula, allowances, pension arrangement, loss-of-licence cover and rostering rules discussed throughout this guide. Its most visible recent outcome was the 7% increase to the V-factor on 1 July 2024, a general pay rise applied uniformly across all ranks and seniority steps, negotiated against a backdrop of sector-wide inflation pressure that has driven similar increases at other Dutch carriers.

Recent Context & Disputes