Princess Air 146QC

[peachair732]

Southend based Princess. Any info on them? I know they were amongst the few 146QC operators. I wondered how Princess did on IT charter flights with the 146? routes and how the aircraft performed doing pax day and freight at night. Thanks

[WHBM]

Rather an ambitious operation, tied up financially with Southend travel agent Burstin Travel to operate to the traditional Spanish etc IT points. Started at Easter 1990 with 146 G-BRXT leased from BAe while they were waiting for their two, new, 146QCs to be delivered. G-PRIN came in June 1990, when BRXT went back to BAe, and G-PRCS was to follow the following year, but was never delivered as in the meantime operations ceased shortly after Christmas 1990. So they didn't last a year.

Did some operations for other smaller tour operators as well, so a day's passenger work might be a W Southend-Malaga-Bournemouth and reverse. From Southend this must have been on the limit of the 146s range. If loads didn't end up looking good the pax were put in coaches over to Gatwick and onto someone else's flight. The night-time freight work, as with much of this business, was short/medium term contracts, of which there was a tradition from Southend but it was a market in long term decline there.

Burstin was a local small-town bigwig, originally from Poland, got into travel and hotels, and was a notable Southend council politician of the time. The guys on the aviation side had been with other Southend operators.

[GiveMeABreak]

WHBM,
Somewhat blinkered view. I believe there was a significant financial crisis at the time which also saw the demise of the huge ILG empire (Air Europe). Sure there were others too.

[Phileas Fogg]

GiveMeABreak,

ILG collapsed cos Goodman, rather than announce he had bought another aircraft, would frequently walk in to the commercial department announcing he had bought another airline, multiply this event by several and go figure why ILG collapsed?

[Ballymoss]

frequently

How many airlines was it Harry bought?

Rgds
The Moss:ok:

[WHBM]

I'm getting a bit lost here how the demise of an operator who lasted less than 12 months and had a single aircraft has rolled on to a discussion of the whole International Leisure Group.

Yes, there was a financial downturn at the time, just like there is now. Also along the way there have been various wars, 9/11, the Volcano, SARS, Foot and Mouth, oil price skyrocketing, new aircraft delivered years late, and all sorts of other potential excuses. Yet most carriers have managed to get through all this, and the number of airline failures each year remains small. The majority survive.

Airlines go out of business for one simple reason, that their managements have taken decisions that have led them to run out of cash. As a business you can make losses many times, but you only run out of cash once. And it's the managements No 1 job to prevent that happening, and it's down to them, not the wider world, if they don't achieve this.

[Phileas Fogg]

Ballymoss,

Well I can recall Goodman owning MAMI @ LHR with their Gulfstreams, which he acquired after Gilbert O'Sullivan successfully sued the previous owners, I also recall Air Europe moving from IT operations in to scheduled services and acquiring a fleet of F100's to do so.

Goodman also bought and/or acquired shares in:

Connectair
Guernsey Airlines
Air Espana/Air Europa
Nürnberger Flugdienst
Norway Airlines
Air Europe (Italy)

And perhaps others also and not excluding his attempted purchase of BCal!

[Flap40]

A report into what I believe was the first flight of G-PRIN for Princess Air.

Air Accidents Investigation: BAe 146-200 series, G-PRIN (http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/october_1990/bae_146_200_series__g_prin.cfm?view=screen&)