charters at MCO
Not so,,
back in the late 80's and early 90's when ETOPS was first granted to Britannia air2000 Monarch AE KT (then CKT) and later on Flying Colours they only used Orlando MCO
--- along with the Virgin 747 charters as it was first of all (then their flights all became scheduled in 1992 i think) plus BA.
the 757 paved the way into MCO for many charter carriers
757's Tristars and the A300's usually had to tech stop both ways at Bangor, Goose Bay or Gander (Bangor was the main one and customs cleared there too)
some flights back eastbound to GLA and MAN did go home non-stop if the wx was favourable and i think BCAL/BCA charter which became Calair then Novair operated their DC-10-10's there too -also via BGR
In the mid-1990s a new passenger terminal was built at Sanford SFB capable of accommodating jet airliners was built. Charter airlines catering to the heavy British and EU tourist demographic that had previously been using MCO Orlando International Airport were offered greatly reduced landing fees at Sanford, so many carriers relocated their operations.
i think Monarch was the first to use SFB iso MCO IIRC - but someone here may trump me on that lol....
so in the beginning all UK charters used MCO with 767-200ER and 757-200ER A300-600R 747-100/200 and Tristars plus DC-10-30's of CKT ATA, World and Laker (mk2)
FYI
Virgin's first use of their new A340-300's in 1993 was on the MCO flights (schedules by then - not charters)
sadly AE air Europe went bust in 1991 - they were using a leased Tower Air 747 aka fat Freddie and AE's 757's to MCO
they had on-order some new MD-11's for long haul charters which ended up with LTU i think.
BY Britannia sometimes used a non-ER 762 which had to tech stop
some old junk yard 747-100's of Lion and Orion air (affiliated to cargolux) flying for airtours intl went to MCO too iirc
Last edited by rog747; 27th Nov 2015 at 11:29.