Originally Posted by
Mooncrest
I'm rather glad I started this thread although it seems recently to have morphed into a Court Line discussion forum ! This is something I can't join in on I'm afraid as this airline never visited Leeds in my memory. Mind you we didn't get regular jet charters from this gaff till Britannia came along in 76. Short runways and all that. Still I'd like to have seen and heard the pastel set.
Yes I'm sorry to have been among those guilty of turning this into something from the Aviation History & Nostalgia forum. But I'll try a link with your background. One of those One-Elevens that Court leased from BMA performed the first ever jet departure from Leeds when it was new, in 1970, on the BMA schedule to Glasgow. Apparently it woke up the whole of Yorkshire .....
But yes, Court Line was mainly a southern England-based operator. Clarksons, their associated tour operator and main client, preferred to charter Dan-Air Comets from northern departure points. They built up quite a substantial business out of Teesside, which never seems to have recovered its position after 1974.