50 years ago, Jetair (the predecessor of TUI Benelux) was founded

Jetair is celebrating its 50th anniversary!

Exactly 50 years ago, on 19 July 1971, Gerard Brackx created Jetair. During the first 15 years, he used a few coaches from his father-in-law to travel to Lourdes, Spain, and other close-by destinations.

After a phenomenal growth in the 1990s, Jetair became the number one Belgian tour operator in the field of air holidays.

In 1996, the German group TUI AG (short for “Touristik Union International”, the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world) took a 30% stake in the company and five years later, it became a 100% shareholder of Jetair. At the beginning of 2014, Jetair became TUI Benelux and, in October 2016, the brands Jetair, Jetaircenter and Jetairfly were renamed TUI, TUI shops and TUI fly (commercial name of TUI Airlines Belgium, created in 2003 on the ashes of Sobelair).

TUI fly Belgium has operated since March 2004 to more than 105 destinations around Europe, the Red Sea, Caribbean, Canary Islands, US and Africa. Since 2012 it has operated scheduled flights as well as charter services.

Fifty years later, under the inspired leadership of people like Bart Brackx, Elie Bruyninckx, Gunther Hofman and Sofie Vanden Driessche, TUI Benelux continues to be the number one holiday company in Benelux and looks into an even better future once the pandemic is over.