From the very beginning Britannia was formed to bring new standards of service and reliability to holiday air travel. The airline's founder, Ted Langton, owned a leading tour operation, Universal Sky Tours. He was dismayed at the number of charter airlines that were going out of business and letting him and his customers down.
So, in 1962, he formed a new airline based at Luton Airport operating three Lockheed Constellations aircraft bought from the Israeli airline El Al. The airline was know as Euravia for its first two years of operations, becoming Britannia Airways in 1964 as it began to re-equip with more modern Bristol Britannia turboprops.
In 1965 Britannia and sister tour operation Universal Sky Tours became part of the International Thomson Organisation (now called the Thomson Travel Group) which purchased a number of holiday related businesses.


During the 1960's Britannia introduced a number of innovations to the growing holiday air charter business. The airline was the first to offer its holiday passengers hot meals. Another first was assigned seating for passengers that avoided the unseemly rush to the aircraft so that passengers could get the best seats!


In 1968 Britannia entered the jet age to become the first European operator of the Boeing 737-200. The aircraft brought new standards of speed and comfort to holiday flights serving the airline well until the retirement of the last of the type in 1994. During 2000, Britannia has reintroduced the Boeing 737, the 'Next Generation' -800 type.

• Civilian airline, international
• Civilian charter airline