Orion Airways bases

[hatton]

Going back to the 1980s does anyone know which airports Orion Airways based its 737s out of? Thanks

[Mooncrest]

Not completely sure but East Midlands (HQ), Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham were among them. They used to do 'W' legs through Leeds Bradford as well.

[BHX5DME]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Airways

[hatton]

I wonder if Bristol and Newcastle had a 737 based their; W pattern to Blackpool for Friday Tenerife flights, with crews back to EMA in company Cessna.

[LGS6753]

Orion aircraft were certainly seen at Luton, not sure whether any were based.

[MerchantVenturer]

Orion certainly flew from Bristol but I'm not sure they had a base there. In 1985 I flew on a Boeing 737-300 for the first time; it was an Orion aircraft and we flew from Bristol to Faro. The return was an Orion B 737-200 with a notice by the door saying it was Boeing's 737th 737.

[squeaker]

First Orion B737-300 I saw was at Bournemouth in 1985 or 1986.

[VickersVicount]

737-200's were regular during the summers on e or twice per week on W patterns at Glasgow operating for Horizon. Was nice to see BY, MON and KG 732's in a row.

[Fishaman]

I recall seeing Orion pigs running out of LGW.

[Knife-Edge]

First Orion B737-300 I saw was at Bournemouth in 1985 or 1986.

They were the first operator to bring a B737-300 in to Bournemouth, remember it well, I was on the apron on the turnaround. So newfangled and different to the 200's and 1-11's in them days!

[MARK9263]

Manchester, East Midlands, Birmingham, Gatwick and Luton.

The remaining airports served were all 'W' flights such as Blackpool, Cardiff, Bristol etc

[AeroSpark]

Definetely Manchester, I flew with them a couple of times when I was a young lad. They were my favourite airline at the time as they handed out boiled sweets to suck on during take off!

[hatton]

We're there any UK Airports that Orion didn't fly out of?

[Waldo1]

Probably Belfast lol.....

[canberra97]

Definitely not Southampton

[Rob Courtney]

I remember they based one of their A300s out of Manchester in 87. They had 2 old ones ex Lufthansa and Air France (if memory serves)

Got stuck with a 20 hr delay going to PMI that summer and ended up flying on a Caribbean Air 747-100 (leased in from Cargolux)

[oldart]

Even Teesside had them!

[lotus1]

I remember on business to mcalpines at Luton around early 79 suddenly this strange looking 737 came out of Britannias hanger with Orion all painted up brown and black speaking to a Mcalpine engineer he said this had flown in direct from The Boeing factory for Britannia to check over for Orion he said an older engineer had stated he remembered when they had Vikings?

[AhhhVC813]

"Definitely not Southampton".

Afraid that's not exactly correct, as EGNX-EGHI-EGNX charters operated for a while carrying 130 of Hampshire's Constabulary to and from the East Midlands, to police the Nottinghamshire coalfields during the 84-85 miners strike. Not exactly regular charters to the Balearics, I'll grant you.

[Fairdealfrank]

We're there any UK Airports that Orion didn't fly out of?

Heathrow probably.

[FQTLSteve]

Flew Orion A300 BHX-PMI 1987, and the 737th 737 also BHX-PMI in 1982....makes me feel old!

[VickersVicount]

Not sure if they ventured to EDI, doubt they would have gone to ABZ or INV.

[Jn14:6]

Fairdealfrank.
Not so! I did a couple of sub-charters for BD, Heathrow to Hannover and back, in April 1985 aboard G-BGTY.

[canberra97]

ahhhVC813

Thanks for that information regarding Orion flights from Southampton as I wasn't aware of that due to the fact I was travelling the world during that period in the Merchant Navy as I was away from the UK for nine months of the year so UK news from that period is s bit vague.

[hatton]

Did the Orion A300s tend to fly out of Gatwick or did they operate from other airports in the UK? Thanks

[WHBM]

Did the Orion A300s tend to fly out of Gatwick or did they operate from other airports in the UK? Thanks
Seem to recall it was one at Gatwick, one at Manchester, which would quite often turn up at the Mediterranean destination together on hotel changeover day. They only had them for two seasons, 87 and 88.

My only flight with them was Gatwick based, to Palma. The inbound aircraft was a ski flight from Geneva.

Owned by Horizon Holidays, based principally in the Midlands. This came out of the Midlands branch of Horizon Holidays, which had been a reasonable middle-market operator absorbed by downmarket Clarksons/Court Line, the whole group went under spectacularly in 1974 but the Midlands operation managed to extricate themselves within days, and carried on. They had previously had a longstanding tradition, surprisingly, of chartering Britannia aircraft, of course owned by their rival Thomson. This had worked well for some years but someone at Thomson decided to start stitching them up commercially so they set up their own Orion operation. They used to account for about three Britannia 737s, two at Birmingham and one East Midlands, so quite a loss to their Midlands bases. Subsequently Horizon, and Orion, developed to a more mainstream market spread where Gatwick, and particularly Manchester, were important as well.

Used to work in Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, in about 1981, facing the Portland Hotel which was the main Orion Hotac. Very regularly would see Orion crews leaving there so possibly the base was needing to be supported from elsewhere. Two pilots and three hosties (for a 130-seat 737-200) just fitted into a normal black taxi which was an economical transfer, the three girls on the back seat and the two from the pointy end squished onto the tip-up rear-facing seats. Decent chaps, aren't we all ? Anyone on here one of those crews ?

[Mooncrest]

Interesting story behind the founding of Orion. Similar in some respects to how Air Europe got going. Errol Cossey and Martin O'Regan at Dan Air were hankering for a new fuel efficient fleet to reduce costs and thus offer a better deal to Intasun, their main customer. Fred Newman, Dan's chairman, wasn't having it so EC and MOR approached Harry Goodman with a view to doing it themselves. Subsequently, Air Europe was born, with a small fleet of the holiday jet-of-the-moment, the 737-200.

At Leeds Bradford in the 1980s, it was common to have a 737 or three on the deck at the same time, from the likes of Orion, Air Europe, Britannia, Monarch and latterly, Dan Air. None of them based but passing through on W patterns.

[WHBM]

he said an older engineer had stated he remembered when they had Vikings?
One for me I guess but this was a completely different, independent Orion Airways, which ran from 1957-60, mainly based out of Blackbushe, but this closed in 1960 so they used at Gatwick at the end. Holiday charters and odd other stuff, initially one hand-me-down Vickers Viking for their first two seasons, then three, but business fell away and they closed. Livery two shades of green.

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fflyawaysimulation.com%2Fimages%2 Fdownloadshots%2F16761-orionoszip-10-viking-12.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fflyawaysimulation.com%2Fdownloads%2F files%2F16761%2Ffs2004-orion-airways-viking-1b-g-ahos%2F&docid=L3IaGiaTEYYDfM&tbnid=TQHleXtWbZa_uM%3A&w=1280&h=1024&itg=1&bih=628&biw=1366&ved=0ahUKEwjApsCumsTOAhUFKMAKHX6xClcQMwgsKAowCg&iact=mrc&uact=8

Well remembered, senior engineer.

[CabinCrewe]

when you see images of the Orion interiors 732's and A300s its only then you realise how long ago and dated it was. #cherylbaker

[Rob Courtney]

when you see images of the Orion interiors 732's and A300s its only then you realise how long ago and dated it was. #cherylbaker

The A300s were awful, there was quite a few seat rows that had no windows, just behind the second door. Very claustrophobic for a wide body.

[Evanelpus]

Going back to the OP's question.

He wants to know about bases, not where the darn things flew in and out of:ugh:

[VickersVicount]

threads develop and evolve. What have you to contribute on the bases then?

[hatton]

EMA was HQ with hanger, simulator and cabin crew trainer, BHX had line maintenance and I believe that Gatwick had two aircraft based. Bass take over spoit it at Orion as they sold them to rival firm. 737-300s went to Gatwick. EMA got knackered old 737-200s and Britannia had the cheek to put up a poster saying it was their biggest flying programme ever!

[WHBM]

Bases varied over time because Orion changed its operation most years. They did just nine summer seasons, 1980 to 1988. Started off with four aircraft in 1980, added a couple (plus bases) each year to 1984, which was something of a high point with 11 aircraft. Thereafter they trod water for the rest of their time, fleet rose and fell, ended up in 1988 with 10 aircraft, although by now two were A300s.

[Evanelpus]

threads develop and evolve. What have you to contribute on the bases then?


Oooh, who lit the fuse on your Tampon?:rolleyes:

[canberra97]

Evanelpus

No he is absolutely correct threads do develop and evolve with some interesting information so it seems you have the problem and what exactly did you contribute to the discussion other than your ridiculous comment!

[WHBM]

At Leeds Bradford in the 1980s, it was common to have a 737 or three on the deck at the same time, from the likes of Orion, Air Europe, Britannia, Monarch and latterly, Dan Air. None of them based but passing through on W patterns.
Normal operating practice at the time was to have a summer morning departure from base at about 0800 to Spain etc, next rotation departed at about 1500, and if there was a night rotation one at about 2200, getting back to have a few hours maintenance and recovery time before starting the next day.

If going to do a W to a lesser point, this was typically done that the morning outbound routed back through there, and the return to base was in the evening. It was therefore standard that most W arrangements worked in and out of the lesser point in mid-afternoon, so the medium-sized places like Leeds or Cardiff that were not a base might well get several together. Must have challenged the handling agents.

[TSR2]

Flew with Orion 29th April 1980 from Manchester to Malta but returned two weeks later to Liverpool due to nightime runway closure at Manchester for re-surfacing. Possibly Liverpool was a base if only for one season.

[Mooncrest]

Normal operating practice at the time was to have a summer morning departure from base at about 0800 to Spain etc, next rotation departed at about 1500, and if there was a night rotation one at about 2200, getting back to have a few hours maintenance and recovery time before starting the next day.

If going to do a W to a lesser point, this was typically done that the morning outbound routed back through there, and the return to base was in the evening. It was therefore standard that most W arrangements worked in and out of the lesser point in mid-afternoon, so the medium-sized places like Leeds or Cardiff that were not a base might well get several together. Must have challenged the handling agents.

Sounds about right. As well as the afternoon rotations through Leeds,late night departures were common in the early eighties,typically Britannia and Monarch. 9.35pm was the usual departure time,as late as possible before the 10pm curfew to allow for slots and the possibility of returning after departure in case of emergency. I don't remember that ever happening mind.

Thread drift over. Back to Orion!

[Fairdealfrank]

Fairdealfrank.
Not so! I did a couple of sub-charters for BD, Heathrow to Hannover and back, in April 1985 aboard G-BGTY.

Excellent! How long did that go on for?