Dan Air's purchase of 3 ex JAL 727-100's saw extensive Mods required by the CAA, and DA's choice to increase pax seating from 131 to a max of 154 by the fitting of 2 rear aft Type A doors (similar location as on 727-200)
Entry into DA service was summer 1973, with 2 more ex JAL door modified 727's following in 1974.
3 more unmodified a/c came on strength by 1977 (1 from Burma and 2 from Delta)
The 727 for DA became their mainstream charter aircraft, with the 189 seat -200 series being added from 1980.
Hapag Lloyd also from 1973 obtained a fleet of ex ANA JAL and TDA 727-100's but had no exit door mods made.
Prior to DA getting the 727 onto the UK registerboth BMA and Court Line had considered the 727 (-100 and -200 series respectively)
I cannot recall where BMA's were to be obtained from but they were not new.
Court Line went with the Tristar.
Both Channel Airways and BKS/Northeast in 1968 had each ordered a pair of 123-139 seat HS Trident One E-140 aircraft but they were the only carriers to use these on IT routes.
Channel did fly theirs from STN to the Canary Islands.
The only other carriers before DA that had been using 727's for IT charterswere Condor (obtained through LH from 1966) and Transair Sweden (3 new 727-100 in 1969)
But Wardair, TIA, AFA and World from 1966 had all used their 727-100's on Transatlantic Affinity charters to LGW.
By the early 70's most package holiday charter airlines in the UK and Germany had gone with the 1-11 or Britannia AW with the 737-200, which at the time both types were not optimal for longer routes to the Canaries and the Greek Islands, but they certainly did often fly down there, either with a reduced payload or with a tech stop.
Hence the likes of Laker, BEA Airtours, Caledonian & Monarch now all having Boeing 707 or 720B's for the longer flights.
Dan Air had been using Comets on their longer IT routes so now the 727 would take these over - using less fuel and carry more pax.
The 737-200ADV with much improved engines came along in 1973/74.
Around late 1979 British Airtours, Britannia, Air Europe, Monarch and Orion all were starting to order new 737-200ADV, 130 seats, 2 crew, with long enough range to see off any 727-100.
In Europe many other charter airlines were also buying the 737-200.
Hence no one else apart from Dan Air ever considered buying 727's in the UK - even Dan Air was to start to build up a 737-200 fleet.
German airlines were not allowed to fly German tourists from Berlin so many UK charter airlines from the 1960's, including DA had a base at TXL, plus Modern Air's CV990's (followed by Aeroamerica 707/720/1-11 and Air Berlin USA 707/737) flew IT's from there too until Reunification.
Other countries at the time were mainly using cast off's, or leases/purchases from within their in-house or affiliated State airlines, these such as Sobelair, Scanair, Luxair, Balair, Condor,
Air Charter Intl, SAM, Martinair Holland who used mainly Caravelle DC-8 DC-9 707 727
LTU in 1973 entered the wide body era with new a Tristar, and Condor had both of their 747's in service by then.
Other airlines to use their new 747's on regular or seasonal IT charter flights were Aer Lingus, BOAC, KLM, Sabena and SAS/Scanair
The Spanish charter airlines were using mainly older jet fleets -
Air Spain TAE & Aviaco all had DC-8's, with TAE Aviaco & Transeurorpa all also using Caravelles and TAE a sole 1-11
Spantax had a jet fleet of CV-990A's, with secondhand DC-8 and DC-9 being added in 1973/74 plus a DC-10 in 1978
In Scandinavia -
Transair Sweden had 3 new 727-100's in 1969 which had the range to the Canary Islands - these flew for Scanair
Scanair used Caravelle DC-8 727 and 747
Sterling had a large fleet of Super 10B3 Caravelles including in 1971 the new Super Star 12 series seating 131-140 passengers, with their first 3 HGW 727-200ADV's added from 1973.
Conair of Scandinavia obtained ex EAL 720-025's in 1971
Karair and Spear Air both had DC-8's in 1972 & Finnair used their own DC-8's frequently on IT charters (and it's DC-10's from 1975)
Nordic Package holidays then was very successful with Tjaereborg (owned by Sterling) and Spies (owner of CONAIR) and VINGRessor who was owned by Scanair...
The popular Yugoslavia holiday charter markets for UK & Germany saw Inex Adria and JAT operate new DC-9's and Aviogenex new Tu-134A's.
Monarch purchased cheaply in 1971 from Northwest 3 x 720B's with a service life expectancy of 5-7 years - MON/OM had these modified to enable 170 seats with adding an extra pair of over-wing exits. A few more were added in subsequent years, along with 707-120B's.
Also in 1971 BEA Airtours obtained a growing fleet of ex BOAC RR 707-420's which KT used mainly on IT holiday charters.
A Question was asked above -
''Don't think Monarch had a trans-Atlantic operation when they bought the 720 - I think they got them cos they were cheap. Remember we are going back to the days of affinity/ABC charters etc. The 720 doesn't really have that sort of range...''
Monarch did operate Caribbean charters at first mainly to St Lucia with the 720B and used the Azores for tech stops.
Subsequently, in 1981 a 707-355C was leased from BCAL enabling non-stop flights to the Caribbean which for Monarch did become quite a money earner in later years.
I may have possible gone off on a ''post lock-down Covid boredom tangent'' but I think I have outlined maybe why the 727 never saw early service on IT flights in the UK.
It must be said that later on we saw the 727-200 series on much more IT work with Dan Air, Sterling, Condor, Hapag Lloyd, Air Atlantis, Air Colombus, JAT, Aviogenex
Dan Air never ventured much further than Tel Aviv or Banjul with their 727's
but Sterling did plenty of long haul with theirs - Mombasa, Colombo Malé International Airport, Hulhulé Maldives, Fort Lauderdale Miami YYZ were some of the places they flew to.
Last edited by rog747; 21st Aug 2020 at 13:47.