Peach Air 737-200s

[hatton]

Peach Air operated two ex Sabre Airways 737-200s in the mid 1990s. Apart from Gatwick, did the 737-200s operate out of anyother UK airports?

Thanks.

[Mooncrest]

They were certainly to be seen at Manchester. IIRC one dropped into LBA one day when Manchester was fog bound.

[airforced]

I think Peach operated out of Bournemouth for a period too which I believe to have been in the 90's. Charter flights to Spain for goodness knows who. May be wrong of course but that is my memory.

[kriskross]

In fact, Sabre crews were operating the 737s, ex Britannia, at the same time that Sabre were operating its own 727s, ex Dan Air. I believe they were there till the Company was UK launch customer for the 737-800 NG in 1998. The aircraft were operating solely for one tour operator and were not the most serviceable around. They were registered G-SBEA and G-SBEB if my memory serves me right.

[kriskross]

Just remembered, the tour company was Goldcrest.

[willy wombat]

Goldcrest and Peach (which is an anagram of "cheap") were interlinked. Didn't they have tristars as well?

[lotus1]

They did operate Tristars I remember my parents used them quite a bit on the Alicante charter flights may be leased from air Atlanta then could have been air ops remember when one of there 737s landed on the taxi way /emergency runway at gatwick was spread all over national press they where the days

[compton3bravo]

Cannot recollect a Sabre 737 landing on the taxiway at Gatwick, there was the BIA 1-11 and the Air Malta 737 but happy to be proved wrong. I remember Sabre had some very experienced flight deck personnel.

[Musket90]

Compton you are correct. The BIA 1-11 landed on the parallel taxiway during an approach to 08L, the Air Malta B737 did the same but during an approach to 26R.
These are the only two events.

[Buster the Bear]

One summer, Sabre positioned a 737 every Saturday lunchtime from Gatwick to Norwich via the FIR! Routed CPT-BNN-BKY at 2,400ft, so often via the Luton airport overhead!

[hatton]

I think the Sabre 737-200 flights were to Alicante and Malaga. I believe Norfolk County Council had some involvement in organising the flights so East Anglians had the chance to have a holiday abroad flying locally.

[Knife-Edge]

Yes Peach Air 737's operated on Palmair charters out of Bournemouth for a season or two (as did Amber Air). A Peach Air TriStar also visited at least once briefly on a crew training / check sortie. If memory serves me right it was a chief pilot check sortie to approve BOH as primary diversion from LGW.

[stopbar]

Watched one of these B737/200 depart Rw09 at Norwich on a hot and windless day and it ran the whole length and I do mean the whole length before getting airborne. Must have been an interesting view from the cockpit!

[northboy]

Goldcrest and Peach (which is an anagram of "cheap") were interlinked. Didn't they have tristars as well?
Peach was ultimately part of the Carlson Leisure Group, which also owned Calendonian and the tour operator, Inspirations. Goldcrest was the group's seat broker and Peach was set up as a low cost in house airline - this being the days before internet booking and the locos that we all now recognise.

[G-ARZG]

I had the dubious pleasure of a Peach 732 (G-SBEA) which subbed for a TAT 737 on a BA flight from Bordeaux to Gatwick in 1998. What a PoS ! I was not surprised when its sister ship G-SBEB 'popped' in the now notorious decompression incident over the Channel soon after... 'ZG

[Mooncrest]

I'm surprised to hear that SBEA was a PoS ! Given her Britannia Airways heritage, I would have expected her to be in fine shape for years to come. Who was responsible for maintenance on the Peachy Pair ?

[CaptAirProx]

I worked for AirOps - AirOps were the previous AoC holder to operate for GoldCrest / Carlson Group etc. From memory they had 7 L1011's and two A300's. Based predominantly at LGW and MAN, but subbed for anyone and everyone, both charter and scheduled.

Sadly AirOps had their financed pulled and AirAtlanta took over the mantle, in their colours until the Peach Brand was born. I left as this was happening.

Have to say those days of AirOps were the finest fun I have enjoyed in the airline world. Exciting times and some unusual contracts and destinations all on the venerable L1011 - with great people all around.