So, Farewell Then, British Midland... (The BMA Nostalgia Thread)
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Location: Finland
Age: 77
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Don't worry - I wonder if all aircraft that have LL as their last two letters are referred to as Limping Lil?
Perhaps they are produced to be the worst performers in the fleet!!
Perhaps they are produced to be the worst performers in the fleet!!
EMA 1-11 t/o limits?
cannot answer that as i joined BMA in 1977 and the 1-11's and 707-321's were long gone...
we were going all Douglas jet by then with G-BFIH and Finnair's YB
dovedale and darleydale (later Merseyside)
ulster came later on with AB
i seem to recall the new LPL DC-9 service we started in 1979 was at first
5 rotations like the MME but i maybe mistaken...
best hot breakfast ever was on the BD331 out of MME
which back then was supplied by the hotel St George near Middleton St George airport MME...
big sausages, mushrooms, smoked bacon and KIDNEYS yum it was delicious
we started Med and Canaries holiday charters on the 3 x 707-320C's with 212 seats in 1982 for 3 or 4 summers plus long haul to LAX, YYZ, YVR also.
G-BMAZ
G-BFLD and LE
no IFE, really tight seating but the pax drank the bars dry, bought all the duty free, fell asleep and never complained!!!
very early one morning we at LHR had a 707 divert into us from Alicante due fog at EMA, when we opened the door on B4 stand the jetty filled with the aroma of Ambre Solaire and the hat racks jammed full of donkeys and sombreros LOL (did we really buy all that tourist tatt back then )
we were going all Douglas jet by then with G-BFIH and Finnair's YB
dovedale and darleydale (later Merseyside)
ulster came later on with AB
i seem to recall the new LPL DC-9 service we started in 1979 was at first
5 rotations like the MME but i maybe mistaken...
best hot breakfast ever was on the BD331 out of MME
which back then was supplied by the hotel St George near Middleton St George airport MME...
big sausages, mushrooms, smoked bacon and KIDNEYS yum it was delicious
we started Med and Canaries holiday charters on the 3 x 707-320C's with 212 seats in 1982 for 3 or 4 summers plus long haul to LAX, YYZ, YVR also.
G-BMAZ
G-BFLD and LE
no IFE, really tight seating but the pax drank the bars dry, bought all the duty free, fell asleep and never complained!!!
very early one morning we at LHR had a 707 divert into us from Alicante due fog at EMA, when we opened the door on B4 stand the jetty filled with the aroma of Ambre Solaire and the hat racks jammed full of donkeys and sombreros LOL (did we really buy all that tourist tatt back then )
Last edited by rog747; 19th Aug 2013 at 15:51.
Thread Starter
Most travel agents couldn't believe that we got 211 on a 707... We told them that one of the galleys had been removed, and this made more space.
My moment of shame when working as casual ground staff at EMA was meeting a Boeing parked on the north edge of the apron, and leading a long line of dawdling punters right across the ramp to arrivals, causing an inbound F27 to give way, rather like a car at a zebra crossing...
My moment of shame when working as casual ground staff at EMA was meeting a Boeing parked on the north edge of the apron, and leading a long line of dawdling punters right across the ramp to arrivals, causing an inbound F27 to give way, rather like a car at a zebra crossing...
midland331
i am sure our paths may have crossed?
if you were at midland in the early 1980's do you remember Mr Bishop considering to obtain DC-9 Super 80's ?
i seem to recall a conversation but due to its length there would be handling issues at Terminal 1 LHR on some stands...
if you were at midland in the early 1980's do you remember Mr Bishop considering to obtain DC-9 Super 80's ?
i seem to recall a conversation but due to its length there would be handling issues at Terminal 1 LHR on some stands...
its official it seems
Well its official -
The following activity took place for BD on Amadeus -
BRITISH MIDLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS on 27 November 2015:
Distribution - Cancelled
Please note that the code BD now has been assigned to new carrier CAMBODIA BAYON AIRLINES
Will always remember when I worked for BMA ops at LHR waiting for our last flight of the day to call up on the R/T then we could all go home ---
(BD340 DC-9 LHR to Tees-side 20.25 departure)
''BD Ops, BD Ops, this is Midland three forty, Alpha Alpha - off at two zero, airborne at two five, Tees-side 10 early with 92 and nil, Goodnight!''
If it was our lovely Capt Tony Belcher then he always made the call when the flaps went up about Slough
thank you Tony for many years getting home early
THE END
The following activity took place for BD on Amadeus -
BRITISH MIDLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS on 27 November 2015:
Distribution - Cancelled
Please note that the code BD now has been assigned to new carrier CAMBODIA BAYON AIRLINES
Will always remember when I worked for BMA ops at LHR waiting for our last flight of the day to call up on the R/T then we could all go home ---
(BD340 DC-9 LHR to Tees-side 20.25 departure)
''BD Ops, BD Ops, this is Midland three forty, Alpha Alpha - off at two zero, airborne at two five, Tees-side 10 early with 92 and nil, Goodnight!''
If it was our lovely Capt Tony Belcher then he always made the call when the flaps went up about Slough
thank you Tony for many years getting home early
THE END
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Not sure what me response should be but.... awwww.
I know this post went in a while ago, but BMA had got into mainstream holiday charters well before then. The three One-Eleven 500 bought new in 1970 were principally used on such work, for holiday operators like Vistajet. However, this only lasted a few years and I presume was not profitable; they later spent much time leased out to Court Line. They did some scheduled operations around this work. One in the 1972 season was based at Prestwick.
BMA charters
yes indeed quite correct WHBM
and not just the 1-11 500's from 1970 to 1974 (yes 2 were leased to court line then the fleet sold by 4/74 to Brazil in part exchange for HP Heralds)
the viscount fleet too often went down to the Mediterranean from the 1960's right up to about 1981 and previously to that the BMA Argonauts and the DC3's from the Derby Airways days served the Costa's, islands and sunspots in the Med as well.
a DC3 was lost on app letting down to PGP and an Argie was lost at Stockport both on holiday charters.
The DC9's were also used on holiday charters from GLA LPL EMA BHX and MME plus a few from LHR - Lourdes and Jersey was popular as was Pisa and Rimini
the 707-321 fleet did for a while in the early 70's do some ABC affinity charter stuff.
the 3 fan-jet 707-320C fleet were completely refurbished during winter 1981 with a new wide look interior with a new type 1 757 type door fitted aft of the wing in place of the smaller hatch and 211 new seats
these served short and long haul until late 1984 when they were put up for sale and BMA left the charter market for a while
BMA came back into that market with the 737's and very much so with the 320/321 with dedicated charter aircraft until the end.
and not just the 1-11 500's from 1970 to 1974 (yes 2 were leased to court line then the fleet sold by 4/74 to Brazil in part exchange for HP Heralds)
the viscount fleet too often went down to the Mediterranean from the 1960's right up to about 1981 and previously to that the BMA Argonauts and the DC3's from the Derby Airways days served the Costa's, islands and sunspots in the Med as well.
a DC3 was lost on app letting down to PGP and an Argie was lost at Stockport both on holiday charters.
The DC9's were also used on holiday charters from GLA LPL EMA BHX and MME plus a few from LHR - Lourdes and Jersey was popular as was Pisa and Rimini
the 707-321 fleet did for a while in the early 70's do some ABC affinity charter stuff.
the 3 fan-jet 707-320C fleet were completely refurbished during winter 1981 with a new wide look interior with a new type 1 757 type door fitted aft of the wing in place of the smaller hatch and 211 new seats
these served short and long haul until late 1984 when they were put up for sale and BMA left the charter market for a while
BMA came back into that market with the 737's and very much so with the 320/321 with dedicated charter aircraft until the end.
Back in my BA days I was in NBO the day East African went bust. No one quite knew what was happening until this 707 flew in under the guise of Kenya Airways. This 707 turned out to belong to BMA. The rest is as they say is history. The 707's also few for Kuwait for a time and I believe other Middle East carriers.
Last edited by crewmeal; 30th Nov 2015 at 20:41.
Thread Starter
You have to admire Sir Michael Bishop's judgement of the IT market, namely when to dip in and out.
BMA's "Instant Airline" product won them a Queen's Award For Industry. They wet-leased to Sudan Airways, Syrian Arab, and PIA (I think). I seem to recall having a Syrian Arab sick bag to store things in as a teenager. And not vomit.
BMA's fleet were all very much bespoke-painted, to the extent that some of the "nines" show quite different characteristics of the font. Ernie Robey, the painter seemed to be quite able to master other liveries, too.
BMA's "Instant Airline" product won them a Queen's Award For Industry. They wet-leased to Sudan Airways, Syrian Arab, and PIA (I think). I seem to recall having a Syrian Arab sick bag to store things in as a teenager. And not vomit.
BMA's fleet were all very much bespoke-painted, to the extent that some of the "nines" show quite different characteristics of the font. Ernie Robey, the painter seemed to be quite able to master other liveries, too.
Some of them seemed to have Finnish or US registrations for years; were there any special crewing requirements as a result ?
Out of the Five dc9s BMA operated between 1976 and 1983 (they never operated more than three at a time) only one came from finnai operated from 1977 to 79 and only two wore US registrationsr One pending British certification of the type and one on a short summer lease in 1978
Following on from Midland's post, Bill Gunston's book "Diamond Flight" suggests that the 707s were operated by Air Algerie, Air Inter, Bangladesh Biman, DETA, East African, Gulf Air, Iraq, Kuwait, Libyan Arab, Malaysian, Nigeria, PIA,Tunis Air and Zambia in addition to those mentioned. No wonder he got an award!.Apparently Ernie Robey only had 36 hours to do a repaint.
BMA DC-9 fleet
re: post from Bean
Out of the Five DC9's BMA operated between 1976 and 1983 (they never operated more than three at a time) only one came from finnair operated from 1977 to 79 and only two wore US registrations One pending British certification of the type and one on a short summer lease in 1978.
some small corrections and the full BMA DC9 history to 1985 below.......
BMA crewed during the finnair leases whether painted up in BMA colours or not -
BMA Flight deck and cabin crews flew the ship and we carried a finnair engineer spanner around all day on the jump seat - he was based at LPL or MME depending on where that a/c based for that period.
OH-LYC & LYD were both leased from FINNAIR in their colours and then painted in full BMA colours 1983 but neither got a UK regn
OH-LYA & LYB were twice leased in Finnair and then in full BMA colours 1977-79 returned, and then eventually became G-BMAH/G-BMAI in 1983
(LYB was allocated regn G-BGWP in 1979 but ntu)
we leased N48075 (from Southern, ex KLM PH-DNF) in full BMA colours in 1978 whilst BMA's first DC-9, N65358 (obtained in 1976) was in Amsterdam for some certification work prior to allocation of its British regn G-BFIH (then G-BMAA in 1980)
G-BMAB and G-BMAC both came from TWA in 1979/80
G-BMAC was then leased for 9 months in 1982 to Best Airlines in the USA
G-BMAG came from KLM in 1982 ex PH-DNB
during my time with BMA at LHR 1977-1985
G-BMAA/B/C G/H/I
all six baby 9's were operating together by 1982/3
PLUS two DC 9-32 came along as well in early 1984 (built for East African)
G-BMAK/BMAM
the names then were:
Darley dale
Dove dale (always on BMA's first DC9)
Ulster
Merseyside
some other short DC9 leases included Martinair DC9-33RC PH-MAO 1981 and PH-MAX
KLM DC9-15 PH-DNC Dec 1984
in winter 1982/3 G-AXCP Dan Air 1-11 401 was leased for a few months to fly the MME-LHR route with BMA titles
Out of the Five DC9's BMA operated between 1976 and 1983 (they never operated more than three at a time) only one came from finnair operated from 1977 to 79 and only two wore US registrations One pending British certification of the type and one on a short summer lease in 1978.
some small corrections and the full BMA DC9 history to 1985 below.......
BMA crewed during the finnair leases whether painted up in BMA colours or not -
BMA Flight deck and cabin crews flew the ship and we carried a finnair engineer spanner around all day on the jump seat - he was based at LPL or MME depending on where that a/c based for that period.
OH-LYC & LYD were both leased from FINNAIR in their colours and then painted in full BMA colours 1983 but neither got a UK regn
OH-LYA & LYB were twice leased in Finnair and then in full BMA colours 1977-79 returned, and then eventually became G-BMAH/G-BMAI in 1983
(LYB was allocated regn G-BGWP in 1979 but ntu)
we leased N48075 (from Southern, ex KLM PH-DNF) in full BMA colours in 1978 whilst BMA's first DC-9, N65358 (obtained in 1976) was in Amsterdam for some certification work prior to allocation of its British regn G-BFIH (then G-BMAA in 1980)
G-BMAB and G-BMAC both came from TWA in 1979/80
G-BMAC was then leased for 9 months in 1982 to Best Airlines in the USA
G-BMAG came from KLM in 1982 ex PH-DNB
during my time with BMA at LHR 1977-1985
G-BMAA/B/C G/H/I
all six baby 9's were operating together by 1982/3
PLUS two DC 9-32 came along as well in early 1984 (built for East African)
G-BMAK/BMAM
the names then were:
Darley dale
Dove dale (always on BMA's first DC9)
Ulster
Merseyside
some other short DC9 leases included Martinair DC9-33RC PH-MAO 1981 and PH-MAX
KLM DC9-15 PH-DNC Dec 1984
in winter 1982/3 G-AXCP Dan Air 1-11 401 was leased for a few months to fly the MME-LHR route with BMA titles
Last edited by rog747; 1st Dec 2015 at 13:57.
707 leases - THE 'INSTANT AIRLINE' CONCEPT
re post from VictorGolf
Following on from Midland's post, Bill Gunston's book "Diamond Flight" suggests that the 707s were operated by Air Algerie, Air Inter, Bangladesh Biman, DETA/LAM, East African, Gulf Air, Iraqi, Kuwait, Libyan Arab, Malaysian, Nigeria, PIA, Tunis Air and Zambia in addition to those mentioned. No wonder he got an award!
Apparently Ernie Robey only had 36 hours to do a repaint.
to add to the above list we leased also to....
Ariana
Britannia
El Al
BCAL
Syrian
Somali
eagle air
air Rwanda
Zaire aero
Sudan blue Nile service (was the very first 707 leasing contract 1972)
Kenya AW start up for the new airline 1977
THE FIRST HIJACKING
In 1977 BMA also experienced its first hijacking whilst on the lease business – needless to say in the Middle East, on a flight from Beirut to Kuwait. By Palestinians. In this case the situation was resolved without the aircraft being blown up or anybody murdered.
707 FLEET first operated from 1970 until 1984
Boeing 707-321 G-AYBJ*, G-AYVE*, G-AYVG, G-AYXR, G-AZWA & G-BAEL
Boeing 707-324C G-AZJM
Boeing 707-373C N370WA
Boeing 707-338C G-BFLD* & G-BFLE*
Boeing 707-321C N448M/N448 became G-BMAZ*
*painted in full BMA colours for own charter services
Following on from Midland's post, Bill Gunston's book "Diamond Flight" suggests that the 707s were operated by Air Algerie, Air Inter, Bangladesh Biman, DETA/LAM, East African, Gulf Air, Iraqi, Kuwait, Libyan Arab, Malaysian, Nigeria, PIA, Tunis Air and Zambia in addition to those mentioned. No wonder he got an award!
Apparently Ernie Robey only had 36 hours to do a repaint.
to add to the above list we leased also to....
Ariana
Britannia
El Al
BCAL
Syrian
Somali
eagle air
air Rwanda
Zaire aero
Sudan blue Nile service (was the very first 707 leasing contract 1972)
Kenya AW start up for the new airline 1977
THE FIRST HIJACKING
In 1977 BMA also experienced its first hijacking whilst on the lease business – needless to say in the Middle East, on a flight from Beirut to Kuwait. By Palestinians. In this case the situation was resolved without the aircraft being blown up or anybody murdered.
707 FLEET first operated from 1970 until 1984
Boeing 707-321 G-AYBJ*, G-AYVE*, G-AYVG, G-AYXR, G-AZWA & G-BAEL
Boeing 707-324C G-AZJM
Boeing 707-373C N370WA
Boeing 707-338C G-BFLD* & G-BFLE*
Boeing 707-321C N448M/N448 became G-BMAZ*
*painted in full BMA colours for own charter services
Last edited by rog747; 1st Dec 2015 at 13:58.
In 1977 BMA also experienced its first hijacking whilst on the lease business – needless to say in the Middle East, on a flight from Beirut to Kuwait. By Palestinians. In this case the situation was resolved without the aircraft being blown up or anybody murdered.