Gill Aviation. In the 1960's, Mike Gill came to Newcastle to be CFI of the Newcastle Aero Club after previously flying in the RAF. In the early 1970's he started an air taxi business called Gill Aviation. By the late 1980's the busines was in decline and it was sold to local businesman, Tim Jobling Pursar. He built the small air taxi outfit into a small airline carying passengers and freight on shorts 330's. The business again was struggling and was sold to the owners of Fair Flight of Biggin Hill, they were the owners of most of the aircraft. They built the business up over the next few years and introduced Shorts 360's and the ATR fleet. The business was sold again in the mid 1990's for a tidy profit to an investment group who built up the airline even further. Within a couple of years there was accusations of mis accounting etc and the investment houses steped in and removed the board. The company was run by the investment group for a few more years in which time the jet fleet (F100's) was introduced. Around 2000, the company went into administration, this lasted for about 18 months before emerging from this via a management buy out. The company seemed to be on the road to recovery when the twin towers incident of Sep 11th frightened the companies bankers into withdrawing their backing. The company went into liquidation on Sep 21 2001.