12-Year-Old TUI Airways 787-8 To Be Scrapped For Parts

A TUI Airways Boeing 787-8 will visit be scrapped after just 12 years in service. Originally delivered to Thomson Airways in August 2013, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner registered G-TUID (named Angel of the Sky) was mostly used to operate holiday flights across Europe, parts of the Middle East, as well as the Caribbean.

Now due for its D Check, or a heavy maintenance visit, G-TUID would have to be taken apart for complete inspection and overhaul, requiring the aircraft to be grounded for around four to six weeks depending on how much work is required.

However, this airplane has found itself in a bit of a pickle as TUI Airways has decided instead to scrap the aircraft for its parts and retire the frame rather than go through with its scheduled maintenance service.

Given that the 787 features a carbon composite frame, it actually is more resistant to wear and tear and does not fatigue as much compared to older frames built with aluminum alloys. Once proper ultrasound and thermography techniques are used to assess the fuselage and other critical surfaces, these newer frames tend to be cheaper to maintain in the long run and “should” perform better than their aluminum counterparts.

So why is a relatively young 787 already being taken out of service? It all comes down to economics. Airlines are still dealing with globally constrained supply chains, resulting in various engine and aircraft part prices skyrocketing. TUI Airways determined that the various salvageable parts on this 787 are simply worth more on their own rather than paying to have this 787 go through its scheduled round of servicing.  

For TUI, the 787-9 also has better seat-mile efficiency, so they felt it was better to just scrap this 787-8 for parts for the rest of its other -8 Dreamliner fleet. The leisure carrier still has confidence in the Dreamliner though, and will take on OO-JDL, another Boeing 787-8, from sister company TUI fly Belgium which will transition to solely operating narrowbodies.

Once OO-JDL joins the UK arm of TUI, they will once again operate eight 787-8s and five 787-9s.

G-TUID, an Orix Aviation lease, was flown to Cotswold Airport in Kemble, Gloucestershire and will be parted out and scrapped by Air Salvage International. Here’s a video of it landing and towed to the hangar at Kemble.

This isn’t the first time that 787s have seen an early retirement. In 2023, two Norwegian Long Haul 787-8s were scrapped at Prestwick after the carrier ceased operations in 2021. As this was during the pandemic, spare part prices increased dramatically as supply chains were affected by various government closures and restrictions. These two jets suffered a similar fate like TUI’s 787, simply because it more cost effective to scrap them for parts rather than put then through a D Check.   

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