Originally Posted by
anthbower1234
Hi did AE have a based unit at NCL at any point? Ive seen pics of aircraft on the ground at NCL but cant see anything in regard to a programme. Thanks all!
I love a bit of nostalgia especially around ncl but the answer is no (subject to the last point)
International leisure group (ILG) used Dan Air from NCL mainly. I think this dated back to the early 80’s at least when Airways Holidays used DA.
However, in 88 ILG introduced Florida from
many regional airports incl NCL. It was a great success and from one weekly flight there ended up
being a number of fortnightly flights too so the 757, appeared at least a couple of times each week in the summer.
the first sub-charter that I ever saw was AE733 G-BMTF operating a ski flight from ncl in 87 for Britannia (when they were still friends!). I think they sent another AE 733 the next week and there a pictures on flickrr of this. I think there may have a been a weekly 737-400 in 1989 but nothing significant.
However, as part of a wider move ILG tried to force danair out of business in 1990. The DA 737 -200 that ILG used completed the summer and then left. The winter being covered by Spanish airlines from TFS (no ACE or LPA in those days) and an AE F100 at weekends for the closer routes.
the plan was for Air UK leisure to operate from
ncl for ILG for summer 91 but ILG went bust that winter. Dan air returned the following summer with the biggest based IT programme they has ever had from ncl but sadly their days were numbered too!
A bit more drift but UKL only visited once a week in 91 instead of a based machine but provided a bit more variety than they did in summer 90, G-UKLA in Malaysian colours was based nearly every weekend in 1990 iirc.