Hunting-Clan

[Jamesair]

Does anyone have any details of the route network operated by Hunting-Clan out of NCL?

[jabberwok]

In late 1952 they obtained licenses for Amsterdam, Basle, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Hamburg, Luxembourg, London, Manchester, Oslo, Paris and Stockholm. The London service started on 15th May 1953. The Oslo service carried on to Stockholm, the Hamburg route continued to Copenhagen and the Amsterdam service continued to Dusseldorf. The above plus the Glasgow - Newcastle - Paris service were operating by April 1954.

In March 1954 they relocated their London service from Bovingdon to Northolt. By June Stockholm was dropped and the route revised to NCL - Oslo - Stavangar. By October 1954 the Northolt operation began to shift to Heathrow. A NCL - Belfast service started early in 1955.

Poor pax figures at NCL saw the Manchester and Glasgow routes transferred to Dragon by June 1955. Dragon Herons also took over the Copenhagen - Hamburg route. By November 1955 Dragon Airways were handed the whole Northern Route structure of Hunting.

Although Hunting had a vested interest in Dragon (as did Elder Dempster and Tyne Tees Shipping Company) they had no further contact with this network.

[Jamesair]

Your detailed reply is much appreciated. In the back of my mind I have a Brussels - Zurich route....do you know if this was just proposed or was it ever operated?

[jabberwok]

Not that I can see. Hunting was also involved in a huge amount of ad-hoc charter, regular charter and contract work, none of which I have any firm details on other than the African connections.

[WHBM]

There's a big writeup on Hunting-Clan in Tony Merton-Jones' book "History of British Independent Airlines", out of print now but half-price copies still available from a well-known aviation hobby and book shop in West Drayton.

[Jamesair]

thanks...I'll investigate that.....I know the shop you mean.

[jabberwok]

Heh, heh. Great minds...

It was from Volume II of the said work that I was quoting from.. :)

[WHBM]

Jabberwok, sounds like you have the 1970s original of the book, in 4 volumes. It was reprinted a few years ago in one hardback volume, which is a more convenient format. Sure quite a number here have one or the other, and a greedy few may have both :) I've used it to help answer many a question here on AH&N.

Jamesair, give Janet in the shop my regards. It's the shop who are also the publishers of the book.

[jabberwok]

Yep - I bought the set when they first came out. It's been a truly excellent reference source, worth every penny.

[WHBM]

I'm told that Tony M-J (also "Propliner" editor) hopes to do a follow-up volume to cover 1975 to the present date in a few years time, after he retires. The more recent reprint still covers only up to 1975 (it is the original text unaltered) but has new, colour photographs.

[southender]

I too have Tony M-J's British Independent Airlines book and am an avid follower of Propliner.

IMHO T M-J deserves some recognition for his efforts to record the great era of real airliners for future generations to pore over.

Where does his information come from???? The level of detail he has, down to individual flights, times and crew names is just incredible.

I also support the shop in West Drayton whenever I can as there are few commercial outlets available now with worthwhile publications for us old boys.

Cheers

Southender