Originally Posted by
STN Ramp Rat
another scheduled service cargo carrier at Stansted that has not been mentioned is MK Cargo with their DC8's and latterly the B747's. they moved to Stansted from Gatwick and If I recall correctly they moved to Manston before they went bust.
I purposely omitted MK Airlines (which was the company's official name) from the list of former pure cargo operators that PREVIOUSLY operated SCHEDULED flights from London Stansted Airport for one particular reason.....MK Airlines was not a fully fledged SCHEDULED cargo airline, it operated on "ad-hoc" schedules along with operations on behalf of other airline's.
MK Airlines Ltd was a cargo airline formed in Accra Ghana in 1990. The airline was founded by Michael C Kruger as MK Air Cargo d'Or. (MK stands for it's founders initials).
MK Airlines was operational between 1990 and 2010 concentrating on freight services to and from Africa and Europe as well as one off flights to North America.
Headquartered and registered in Ghana the airline had a network of cargo flights with hubs at Accra Kotoka International Airport and London Gatwick Airport. Initial operations was with a single DC8. In 1993 the MK Airlines branding was adopted.
Between 1995 and 1996, the headquarters of the airline were located in Nigeria. From 1999 onwards, MK Airlines expanded it's fleet with cargo configured Boeing 747-200. The last of the DC8's were withdrawn from service in 2006.
In September 2006 MK Airlines was issued a new airline license by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority. The airline's headquarters were now based at Hartfield, East Sussex.
In November 2007, plans for a rebranding of the airline as British Global were announced. The company had it's airline code changed to BGB accordingly, but in March 2008 the rebranding was postponed indefinitely.
Due to financial problems MK Airlines had to suspend all flight operations on 10 June 2008 and went into administration. Following a reorganization of the airline's funding, bankruptcy administration could be left until 24 June 2009. Plans for an acquisition of more fuel-efficient aircraft of the Boeing 747-400 could not be realized.
On 09 April 2010, all operations of the company ceased with the surrender of the Air Operators Certificate to the UK CAA on the same day.
During it's lifespan MK Airlines operated the following aircraft
13 Boeing 747-200
6 DC8-50
5 DC8-60/70
IATA code 7G
ICAO code BGB
Callsign BRITISH GLOBAL
Operating bases,
Accra Kotoka International Airport
London Gatwick Airport "from 1990 to 2006"
Manston (Kent International) Airport "from 2006".
Luxembourg Findel International Airport
Ostend-Bruges International Airport
MK Airlines operated from and had headquarters at London Gatwick Airport from the time of it's start up in 1990 up untill the airline moved it's operating base to Manston Kent International Airport in 2006.
London Stansted Airport certainly saw quite a few flights from MK Airlines but the airline was never based at the airport and the flights were ad-hoc charters rather than fully fledged SCHEDULED cargo flights. MK Airlines flights from London Stansted Airport we're mostly flown on behalf of other airlines or operator's such as Astral Aviation, BAWC and Panalpina.
For example in the summer of 2009 BAWC were using MK Airlines on flights between London Stansted Airport and Bahrain under the flight code BAW3599.
After MK Airlines went bankrupt Astral Aviation commenced their own operations between Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and London Stansted Airport.
Another African cargo airline based in Nigeria was Flash Airlines which had a connection with MK Airlines in one way or another.
Flash Airlines was a short lived Nigerian cargo operator with five DC8-55F's operated charter operations in 1985 between Africa and Europe. The first two aircraft were leased from the Intavia Group which was owned by one of founders of MK Airlines.
Flash Airlines went bankrupt in 1989 and we're regular visitors on ad-hoc charters into London Gatwick Airport as well as infrequent visitors to London Stansted Airport.
MK Airlines G-MKBA Boeing 747-2BF at London Stansted Airport on 01 August 2008
MK Airlines DC8-55F TF-MKG at London Stansted Airport during 1999