Originally Posted by
rog747
Cough Ahem - STN early 1970's we must add Lloyd International 707's plus BMA 707's too, both regulars based out of STN, along with the USA Affinity charters of Saturn AFA ONA Universal with their DC-8's
Of course we must not forget the based airline Channel AW with their Trident OneE's and BAC 1-11's followed with the fleet of tired ex Olympic and BEA Comet 4B's that struggled to keep revenues afloat until the demise.
https://www.bishopsstortfordindepend...tures-9056709/
Rog
Although I initially opened this thread about London Stansted Airport during the mid 1970's to the late 1980's and in particular the Scandinavian Invasion on the Sunday I purposely omitted any aircraft or airline's prior to that including those that you have listed which I'm personally aware of.
Due to the fact that London Stansted Airport has a great history in regards to the variety of aircraft seen at the airport prior to the mid 1970's I think that this thread should actually be called London Stansted Airport, History and Nostalgia similar to the popular Luton thread as their is so much to cover.
I appreciate your contribution to this thread and with your expertise and knowledge of the aviation industry from that era I thoroughly welcome your input.
As you have mentioned London Stansted Airport saw many affinity charters from several US carriers during that period plus those from British Midland Airways with their B707's.
Lloyd International of course which were based at the airport with their fleet of Britannias and B707's. Donaldson International Airways Britannia's and B707's. It was Donaldson International Airways who famously flew the first Ugandan refugees into London Stansted Airport from Entebbe after the dictator Idi Amin expelled them from the country after his coup, there is footage of the event on YouTube.
Other than the US airline's that you have already mentioned such as,
AFA American Flyers...DC8
ONA Overseas National Airlines...DC8
Saturn Airways...DC8
Universal Airways...DC8
London Stansted Airport during that period also saw other US airlines on affinity charters such as,
Capitol Airways...DC8
Trans International Airlines...DC8
World Airways...B707/DC8
London Stansted Airport first came to my attention as a 7yo when my grandfather gave me his flight ticket which I used to collect and it was a World Airways flight from New York JFK to London Stansted Airport on a DC8-63 in 1972. I still have it as part of my collection and I can remember asking my grandfather at the time "where is Stansted" never having heard of the airport prior to that.
Regarding American Flyers Airline AFA, their Boeing 727-100's made history by being the first airframe of the type to operate transatlantic flights from mainland USA to London Gatwick and Manchester and also to Frankfurt obviously with a couple of fuel stops.
Saturn Airways absorbed the assets of the defunct Universal Airlines in May 1972.
Saturn Airways was absorbed by Trans International Airlines TIA in December 1976 making Trans International Airlines the largest cargo and affinity charter airline in the world at the time.
Channel Airways although having a base at Southend Airport also used London Stansted Airport as a base for their Trident 1E's which weren't fully capableof using the runway at Southend on IT charters although they had initially used the airport with their Tridents. Although Channel Airways purchased five former BEA DHC-COMET 4's the "clapped out" DHC-Comet 4's purchased from Olympic Airways I believe were never flown by the airline but used for spares instead for the rest of the Comet fleet. A further example was also purchased from the Mexican airline Mexicana for spares. Neither the former BEA or Olympic Airways aircraft wore the full ChannelAirways livery just the airline's titles and and cheat line's from their former operators.
Channel Airways had initially purchased the Comets in 1970 for flying operations on behalf of Lyons Holidays along with winning a very lucrative travel contract by a consortium of three West German tour operators to fly from Berlin Templehof Airport to the Mediterranean.
In January 1971, Channel Airway received UK, US and Canadian permission to operate transatlantic affinity charters. A pair of Boeing 7O7's were to be purchased to commence North Atlantic operations to the USA and Canada later that year which didn't materialise.
Channel Airways failure to enter the transatlantic affinity charter market was followed by an unsuccessful attempt to establish itself as the UK's third scheduled domestic trunk airline in addition to BEA and British Caledonian Airways. Partial approval of an application to the UK Air Licensing Board (ATLB) in early 1971 to fly from London Stansted to Belfast Glasgow Newcastle resulted in the ATLB to provisionally license Channel Airways to fly between London Stansted and Glasgow from May 1972 which was ultimately reversed due to pressure from the state owned BEA.
The airline was successful but soon sold their pair of Tridents to BEA and in return purchased two former American Airlines BAC1-11-400's to add to their existing fleet of 1-11's for IT work. Soon after Channel Airways lost their lucrative Berlin contract to Dan Air and with costs rising the airline found itself in financial difficulties and with no potential buyers and with work drying up for their fleet permanent cessation of operations was followed by the withdrawal of the airline's AOC at the end of March 1973 and the airline ceased trading.
A sad end to what was at the time a very pioneering airline, very similar to the demise of British Eagle Airways which went into liquidation in 1968.