Originally Posted by
WHBM
The Sunday afternoon (they all came together) Scandinavian charters into Stansted lasted right through to the start of LCC flights, whose daily operations took their business, in fact they probably peaked in the 1980s just before the new terminal opened, so went into the old (wooden ?) terminal on the other side of the runway. Having five of them on the ramp at once was common, just about every Scandinavian charter company, and major destination there, was represented. They were regarded in Scandinavia as "shopping trips". There was a small amount of such charters also into Newcastle, especially once the Metro Centre opened, and Edinburgh. They ran all year round.
The 'new' terminal at Stansted was opened by the BAA in May 1969 and was a rather modest but modern terminal very similar to the one that was built at Luton during the same period. It was not a 'wooden' terminal and parts of of it still remain as part of the Harrods Executive Terminal.
Prior to the 'new' terminal opening in 1969 the original facilities were based in former WWII Nissan huts.
Those Scandinavian flights operated throughout the day each Sunday with the first arrival of the day being in the morning by Transair using Caravelle/B721 and the last flights of the day around midnight by Conair using B720 and towards the end A300/A320.
Scandinavian airlines that operated these charters were,
Braathens SAFE
Busy Bee
Conair
Lynjeflyg
Mearsk
Premair
SAS
Scanair
Sterling
Transair Sweden