Morton's, BUIA, and Aurigny
Quote from Aero Mad, on the "Trislander Retirement" thread:
"As the author of a book on the history of aviation in Alderney, I always got the impression that BUIA finally pulled out with one week's notice in 1969 and Aurigny took over the Alderney - Southampton route at last - maybe I'm wrong."
I'm not sure, because it was a time of great upheaval in the BUA Group – in the wake of Alan Bristow's hatchet job, with the closing-down of BUA[CI] Ltd at Jersey (for those not au-fait, that's what had been Jersey Airlines).
In 1968, after Bristow was appointed to sort out the BUA Group's unprofitability, the Jersey pilots went on strike virtually to a man – including some of my fellow BUA cadets, who were there merely on secondment. Bristow's response was to close the airline down – that may have been his original intention – and they were all sacked.
Sammy Morton's Morton Air Services, to which I had been seconded – based at Gatwick, had also become part of the BUA Group. We were operating schedules to Alderney from Gatwick; also linking the island to Southampton, Guernsey (with a link to Exeter) and Jersey. We used the Heron 1B, which was more practical than our Mark 2s at Alderney because of its robust (and lighter) fixed landing gear. We carried 15 pax by omitting a steward/ess. (We also operated Daks to JER and GCI, mainly for freight.)
Without putting exact dates on it, the closure of BUA [CI] at JER (and also BUA [Manx] at Blackpool) led to the formation of BUIA, based at Gatwick, in the winter of 1968/9. The new company also absorbed Morton's, and we pilots had little choice other than to sign one of Bristow's contentious "personal contracts", to avoid redundancy.
I'm afraid the business side of the airline was pretty much beyond my ken, but we were aware for some time that a new airline was being formed in the Channel Islands, and intending to take over our Alderney operation. I remember one of our traffic officers at ACI was to become a leading light in Aurigny, but, by the time the new company started ops, I would have been on the Heralds. My own last trip there had been in April '69, and we certainly knew by then that we were pulling out.
When did Aurigny operate its first schedule?
Chris
Last edited by Chris Scott; 7th Aug 2010 at 10:44.