Trans European Airways (shortened TEA) is a now defunct airline that had its seat in Belgium. The airline was founded by Georges Gutelman in 1971 who had previously operated a company known as TIFA. The airline initially acquired a fleet of Boeing 707 and Boeing 720 aircraft from sources such as TWA. In the early 1970s they became the first airline to order an Airbus and subsequently operated the only A300B2 variant in service - distinguished by its shorter fuselage and lack of slats - until 1990. The aircraft, registered OO-TEF, was named Aline after Gutelman's wife. The airline expanded, operating a second Airbus A300 for a while and started to acquire Boeing 737-200 aircraft. It later acquired Belgian tour operator SunSnacks which it had helped to form in 1976 and create a subsidiary, TEAMCO (Trans European Airways Maintenance Company) to handle maintenance of both its own aircraft and also offer these services to other operators, both civil and military. The airline started to expand rapidly during the late 1980s, forming subsidiaries in the UK, France, Italy and Switzerland but global economic downturn in the early nineties, partly as a result of the Gulf War caused it to go out of business in the late Summer of 1991. Its failure gave rise to European Airlines and Eurobelgian Airlines. The management of the UK subsidiary, who had previously managed Orion went on to form Excalibur. TEA Switzerland continued successfully until being purchased by easyJet in 1997. Georges Gutelman later went on to found CityBird which also failed in the aviation slump following 9/11.
