The 436 were progressively reduced in number, some went to Airtours, some were retired. There wasn't a decision to retire the VC10 before the 707 or vice versa, both ran down somewhat equally, by 1980 there were still a handful of each type (707s down to just the -336s) in service.
There were a few of the -436 converted to all-economy, they were used on charters negotiated through BOAC Ltd, which was a subsidiary company, although just for sales/marketing, the ops side remained with the mainstream operation. They also did schedules to Toronto, where there was a long tradition of operating many of the BOAC flights with all-economy aircraft, reflecting the commercial demand on the route.
BOAC were starting to lose ground to the "Affinity Group Charters", which many independents were starting to get in on as the first generation 707s came onto the secondhand market (many from Pan Am). Carriers such as Lloyd, Laker, Caledonian, Donaldson, etc were getting this traffic, and BOAC Ltd was a response.
The -336 aircraft appear to have remained on mainstream thin-trunk routes to the end.
Last edited by WHBM; 28th Jun 2012 at 11:52.