Originally Posted by
Flightrider
I suppose it all depends how much of a puritanical historian you are ! Glasgow - Southampton was initially flown daily by a BUA 1-11-200 in between Gatwick sorties for many years which continued through into BCal until the early 80s.
There was a BA HS748 service which was a Glasgow-Manchester-Birmingham-Southampton in the late 80s, which was short lived.
After that, Loganair was the first nonstop service since the BCal which I recall started in 1991 or 1992, designed to serve the IBM corporate business. It was initially a 2x daily J31 and went to a 4x daily J31 before Edinburgh was also added and J41s arrived.
After that came the BRAL / BA Connect thing with the 145s and then Flybe started up in competition on the Southampton routes about 1997 with 146s. Flybe then were given BA Connect with the dowry to take it off BA’s hands, competition was eliminated and the Q400s came along.
Flybe went bust, Loganair came back with the 145s, Flybe threatened to come back again but pulled those plans and went bankrupt shortly afterwards.
If I’ve missed anything, please say so but I think that’s a potted history of 50 years of Glasgow-Southampton services!
Just a couple of points if I may.
BUA started Glasgow to Southampton in 1966 with a Viscount 800, the BAC-1-11-200 started in 1969. Originally a daily service but was reduced to six weekly after Caledonian purchased BUA in 1970. In 1974 BCAL had to reduce their network due to several factors at the time and Glasgow to Southampton ended in September 1974.
The short lived British Airways HS-748 service that operated to Southampton between 1987/88 I believe originated in Edinburgh rather than Glasgow. The routing was Edinburgh-Manchester-Birmingham-Southampton, it could have even originated from Aberdeen. I used the flight a couple of times whilst it existed.
Loganair inaugurated Edinburgh/Glasgow to Southampton in October 1991.