TUI fly

TUI fly is the airline arm of TUI Group, the world's largest integrated tourism business, and exists to fly the group's own holidaymakers rather than to compete for point-to-point traffic. It operates as a family of separately licensed carriers — TUI fly Netherlands, TUI fly Belgium, TUI fly Deutschland, TUI Airways in the UK and TUI fly Nordic — sharing a common brand and a largely Boeing 737 fleet, with 787 Dreamliners on the long-haul leisure routes. Its network is seasonal by design, swinging between the Mediterranean, the Canaries, North Africa and the Caribbean as the holiday calendar turns.

Flying for TUI fly

TUI has historically brought new pilots in through a group-level MPL cadet programme run with partner academies, but that route is not currently open: the 2026 intake was suspended across the group as cadet demand fell, TUI UK confirmed it would not run its 2026 MPL course, and the German programme states that summer 2026 crewing needs were already met, with the next intake to be announced when fleet growth justifies it. For now the airlines recruit type-rated and experienced Boeing 737 first officers and captains, including seasonal contracts for the summer peak. A leisure carrier's hiring tracks its holiday programme, so it is worth watching each national airline's own careers page rather than the group brand.

When the cadet route does reopen, selection follows the pattern TUI has used before: computer-based aptitude and psychometric testing, followed by group exercises, interviews and a simulator assessment, with the online stage doing most of the filtering. Direct-entry candidates face a shorter version built around technical interview and simulator check. Because cadet windows at TUI open at short notice and close quickly, the candidates who get through are usually the ones who trained their aptitude and cognitive test skills before the announcement rather than after it.