There seems to have been quite some liaison between BA (overall) and Air Europe at its start, a bit surprising for an otherwise direct competitor. 757s, even when brand new, went back and forth between them, and one was permanently on the Heathrow-Manchester Shuttle about 1983 in Air Europe colours. New 757s wholly for Air Europe had the BA -236 model number. Once Intasun had occupied their share of Air Europe capacity, the rest was principally handled by KT, particularly from Gatwick.
Originally Posted by
Krystal n chips
As "RN " has been mentioned, "SY " may warrant a mention. The complete belly skin was replaced due to significant corrosion problems, which was a major undertaking, allied to which I understand Boeing monitored the aircraft due to the high hrs / cycles it had accumulated..
I think that was a normal approach by Boeing, to keep up with the hardest-used earliest example of a type for advance warning of issues. Britannia 737s fell into this categories, but I seem to recall reading that they were just pipped by Braathens in Norway, who also had early versions.
In passing, I was always a bit surprised that it was the European holiday flight operators that were so positioned. Sure, from May to September they were in constant operation, but that was only for four months of the year, and the intense three rotations a day was also commonly just at weekends, as can be seen in the examples given above. No night flights in winter - in fact, also as described above, a good proportion of the crews were stood down in winter.
OK to use brand new aircraft for this constant operation, but Airtours Comets and 707s were well used, as was the whole of the Dan-Air fleet, yet run in the same manner.