Alidair InterCity Airlines

[Mooncrest]

Did this airline ever visit Leeds Bradford ? LBA, like many regional airports in the seventies, was something of a Viscount hotbed but Alidair's Viscount fleet is one I don't remember seeing.

Thankyou.

[Helen49]

Yes!!

They did a number of Ad Hoc charters and I think I recall them being involved in bulb field charters to Rotterdam one season.

You're right, the Viscounts of numerous operators were fairly common visitors to LBA, being one of the few aircraft at the time which had a half decent payload range off the then 1600m runway.

British Eagle were the first Viscount operators at LBA using the 700 series with a very limited load off runway 10/28 [before the now main runway 14/32 was constructed] It was a Saturday morning service in 1965 (?) to Newquay.......calling at Manchester both in and outbound. Hard to imagine, but true and as you might imagine involved quite few diversions and cancellations with no repeat performance the following season!!

BKS were the first regular operators of the Viscount, using leased V700s from Channel Airways prior to acquiring their own.....from United Airlines in the States?

H49

[seacue]

BKS ....of the Viscount, using leased V700s from Channel Airways prior to acquiring their own.....from United Airlines in the States?
and United got theirs when they took over Capitol Airlines.

[Mooncrest]

Thanks folks. I'll have to search for some photos.

Thought Helen49 might have a reply for this thread. Didn't disappoint !

[Mooncrest]

Slight thread drift but now I think about it, Dan-Air used Viscounts on their Jersey flights from Leeds Bradford in the late seventies/early eighties. However, I don't know if these were the 700 series leased from Alidair or the 800s that came from Fields/ABC. So maybe I did chance upon an Alidair machine, albeit with a compass and pennant on the fin.

Northeast, British Airways and BMA were, of course, never far away. British Eagle is a tad before my time, I fear.

[Airbanda]

Sure I remember an Alidair V700 turning up mid evening during Summer of 76 or 77 covering for an ailing Anglia F27 but cannot lay my hands on reg just now.

[DH106]

I'm pretty sure I saw Alidair's G-ARBY departing from R15 at LBA just a couple of days before it's unfortunate 'gliding incident' short of Exeter. So yes - Alidair Viscounts did visit Leeds in the late 70's

On the Dan Air front, I remember it's leased Viscount 700 G-ARIR being used quite a lot around the same period.

[Mooncrest]

I was reading about ARBY's forced landing in my Vickers Viscount book a few hours ago. I'd been on holiday in Devon just a few miles from the 'runway' the year before that incident.

I wonder if Alidair ever subbed for British Airways on the LBA-LHR route ? My brother took a flight back to Leeds on a Viscount back in 1979. I remember him telling me the seats were red vinyl and other family members saying the aircraft wasn't one of British Airways'.

[Cantiflas]

Whilst G-ARIR did fly occasionally for Dan,the primary leased aircraft and painted in Dan's livery was a type724,G-BDRC ex Trans Canada I think.I'm sure Alidair Viscounts visited LBA but I can't find it in my log book.
(RC flew MME-SPL-CWL-BRS-MME weekdays and MME-PWK-IOM-PWK-MME on
summer weekends for Dan)

[Fareastdriver]

In the late seventies helicopters did not have the range to fly from Aberdeen to the Shetland Basin oilfields so the offshore workers were flown from Aberdeen to Sumburgh by chartered plank wing and then on to their platforms/rigs by helicopter.

Alidair had one Viscount and Dan Air had two or three 748s. IIRC Alidair was for BNOC and Dan Air for Shell etc.

We helicopters pilots obviously had nothing to do until the trade arrived and if it socked in there were no customers arriving. When it was marginal then it was a different story.

The 748s always arrived at Sumburgh first and if it was really marginal they would hold overhead until the Viscount arrived. Interested observers like myself would watch the approach to see what the day would bring.

The Viscount would usually suddenly appear out the gloom and land on the runway. This being the case there would then be a queue of 748s following him down. Should Alidair not make it then everybody went home.

[Cantiflas]

Fareastdriver we had a few Viscounts!
There were a number of occasions when it seemed like one foot in the bay and one in the aircraft when circling to land.Light house,Fawlty Towers and the lead in lights were quite a welcome sight!
We did Chevron,BP and others.
Thanks for your observations.

[Groundloop]

This being the case there would then be a queue of 747s following him down.

747s at Sumburgh!??:ok:

[t211]

I was with Dan, This might help regarding Alidair

Danair's Viscount 724 G-BDRC (c/n 52) is seen here taxiing out, sometime in 1978. Must be one of the first photos I took of a civil aircraft, at that time I was more fascinated by military aircraft but I'd started a job at Amsterdam's Schiphol the year before.

C/n 52 Viscount V.724
First flight 20Apr55 - delivered to TCA on 01May55 as CF-TGO. Flew the inaugural Montreal - Vancouver Viscount service on 01Nov55. Last TCA flight was on 06Jan63; total flight hours at that time was 17.995 hrs and 14.743 landings. The aircraft was then withdrawn from use.
Sold to W.C. World Associates Inc. on 02Mar64 and re-sold to Air Inter on 02Apr64 as F-BMCG. CofA and Cert. of Registration both issued on 11Jun64.
Sold to Alidair on 15Sep75 and delivered to Paris-Orly on 24Oct75.
Reregistered as G-BDRC on 09Feb76. Leased to Intra Airways between 25Mar76 and 31Oct77. Transferred to Alidair (Scotland) on 15Nov77. Leased to Dan-Air Services between 27Feb78 and 27Jan79. Leases to ABC, Intra Airways and Guernsey Airlines.
Before entering service with Guernsey Airlines the aircraft was refitted with the interior from V.735 G-BFYZ (c/n 69), which had crashed earlier.
Operated for Southern Int'l Air Transport in Oct80 and leased to Dan-air 08Sep80 - Oct80. Alidair became Inter City Airlines on 01Mar81. G-BDRC was withdrawn from service and stored at Guernsey on 01Aug83.
Sold to Janus Airways on 04Jan84.
Late 1984 withdrawn again from use, stored at Exeter. Registration was cancelled 09Oct84. During May 1986 it was reported engineless and a corroded hulk on Manston Airport Fire Dump. Blown over by a hurricane at Manston on 16Oct87 and subsequently broken up.
Source: "The Vickers Viscount" (- by Rayner G C Kittle; Air-Britain Historians Ltd, 2008)

[t211]

If my memory serves me well Dan-Air had a total of 15 HS748's at Aberdeen and we used to Double park for the First rotation of the day.

[Mooncrest]

G-BDRC certainly visited LBA at least once, probably around 1977, when Intra had it on lease from...Alidair. There is a lovely Colin Addison photograph of it parked on about stand 3, hanging on a wall inside the airport Fire Station.

[Airbanda]

There is a lovely Colin Addison photograph of it parked on about stand 3, hanging on a wall inside the airport Fire Station.

Remember Colin well from my spotting days and sadly reading of his premature death while browsing avmags in Holborn WH Smiths. Any idea who owns his copyright now and how much has been published.

[Mooncrest]

I'm not aware of any Colin Addison photographs in any current publication. They used to appear in Aviation News and Rotate (old LBA spotter mag) but that is many years ago. As for copyright I haven't a clue.