The "independent" Britannias were delivered to Hunting-Clan and to Air Charter in 1958-9, Hunting based at Heathrow and Air Charter at Stansted. Both were principally used on UK to Far East military charters, including to Christmas Island in the Pacific; some of the latter trips found it more efficient to route out over Asia and home over America, doing a round-the-world journey.
In 1960 these two companies merged (with others) to form British United, which was owned principally by British & Commonwealth Shipping, hence the ownership listed above. BUA consolidated their operations at Gatwick. The Britannias then got transferred onto the BUA Gatwick to Central and East Africa schedules which had been run for many years by these same two founder airlines, starting with Vikings and progressing up through Viscounts. Fuel stops galore and extraordinary aircraft to use on long-haul routes, the Britannia made the transition to more mainstream aircraft. BUA replaced them after a few years with the VC-10 and sold the Brits off to people like Donaldson (who operated out of Gatwick and Glasgow).
To the fore in both the Britannia and the VC-10 purchase decisions was, of course, Freddie Laker, MD of Air Charter and then of BUA.
Charter Britannia operators out of Heathrow may seem surprising nowadays, but British Eagle persevered substantially with them until they went out of business in 1968, holiday charters to the Med, military to various points, freight loads, etc, as well as using them on a couple of their schedules.
Last edited by WHBM; 16th Jan 2008 at 14:30.
Reason: Bit about British Eagle