Air Afrique bought separately a couple of late-model Caravelles as well, might have even been part of the same order, the two companies were notably intertwined and quite a proportion of the Air Afrique ops and flight deck staff were UTA personnel on secondment, along with loaning of substitute aircraft. Air Afrique heavy maintenance was all done in Paris. There was interlocking minority ownership by UTA (and Air France) in Air Afrique, the same as both had part ownership of French internal airline Air Inter as well. It was very much an "old boys" closed shop, French style, said to be co-ordinated behind the scenes by the longstanding No 1 customer of UTA, the French Foreign Affairs ministry's ex-Colonial department at Quai d'Orsay in Paris.
Thanks for that information. Yes, the whole French commercial (airline) aviation industry back then had a very closed circuit feel to it. I flew regularly on just about all the offerings and the cross-pollination of companies was noticeable, all supported with government aid financed by the taxes of the French people (and me at the time). Certainly domestically you could fly to an amazing array of places that today are only available by TGV. As you say, UTA was basically an extension of the French Foreign Affairs ministry. Air France was caught out bugging First Class passengers conversations to gain commercial advantages in the 90's!
G-AYSL. Sierra Lima, or as it was apparently universally known at BA/Airtours, "Spread Legs". An early onetime Pan Am aircraft, Dan-Air got it secondhand in 1971 and ran it themselves, but leased it to BA mainline in 1978 (when they seemed very short of aircraft, and were also using as much spare Airtours capacity on mainline routes as they were able) and to Airtours in 1979. When done at the end of the 1979 season it seems to have languished at Lasham for years, for sale without success, until finally broken up there.
This made me think of the handful of 707/720 aircraft that languished at the Aer Lingus Mx apron in DUB for many years. Does anyone know their story ? I'm assuming that they were scrapped in situ at some point.