Metropolitan Airways (the British one from the 1980s)

[Mooncrest]

In late 1984, this company assumed the Leeds Bradford-based Dan Air Link City routes that had hitherto been operated since about 1972. Dan Air had utilised the HS748 - usually G-ARAY - but Metropolitan opted for the lower capacity Short SD330. Initially, G-BGNA - ex-Loganair - was their aircraft (the Twin Otters were elsewhere) but a few extra sheds joined by early 1985, one or two ex-Genair machines among them. What prompted Dan Air to abandon the routes in the first place ? Were they becoming uneconomical to fly with the 748 ? Was G-ARAY getting on a bit ? As we know, Metropolitan themselves didn't last much longer.

EDIT: Just to add, the LBA Link City routes were Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow.

As I recall, Dan Air's seasonal Channel Island flights to and from LBA continued as they had for some years with non-based aircraft, anything from a 748 up to a 727-100. We didn't see their Viscount 800s after about 1980. British Midland picked up Jersey and Air UK took Guernsey after Dan Air was bought out.

Thankyou.

[bean]

Air UK took over LBA-GCI from BA in 1980. Dan never operated LBA-GCI

[dixi188]

I was involved in the maintenance of the Metropolitan Airways fleet 1983 to 1985.
A while ago now but what I remember is this:-
Started as Alderney Air Ferries with an Islander. Scheduled route from Bournemouth to Gatwick.
Then got two Twin Otters, G-RBLA and G-BELS and took over the Dan-Air Link City route Bournemouth - Cardiff - Birmingham - Manchester - Newcastle.
I think Dan-Air pulled the 748 off the route when the BAe factory at Bournemouth closed and there was less demand.
Then they got their first SD330, G-BGNA, for Cardiff- Leeds- Glasgow.
Things picked up and the Twin Otters weren't big enough so two more SD330 were leased. G-METO and G-METP. These were ex Genair and previously Fine Air of Canada. they were the first and third production aircraft and had been parked for around a year before Metropolitan got them. Initally they were not very reliable and by the time we had sorted all the problems the passenger numbers were very poor due to the unreliable service.
Things didn't go well and ceased trading summer 1985.
The night things stopped we had to park G-METO and G-METP at Bournemouth and disable them.
Glasgow base didn't know the airline had gone bust and did a Saturday charter to The Isle of Man with G-BGNA where it was impounded.
My memories from around 40 years ago.
Dixi.

[Mooncrest]

Thankyou both. I was quite amused seeing BGNA in its Dan Air livery for the first time. The bold compass and pennant logo looked rather silly on those tiny tailfins!

I think BGNA was the only shed to be painted in Dan Air colours. I guess by the time the other two came along, the association with Dan was over.

[Richard Le page]

Air UK took over LBA-GCI from BA in 1980. Dan never operated LBA-GCI

Dan Air most certainly did operate LBA-GCI. From 1980 to around 1987 or 88 if I recall correctly. Summer only.
Air UK took over the route again summer only until their demise in 1998. KLM UK then took over the route Summer weekends only.
Now operated by Aurigny again summer and Christmas only.

[Flightrider]

Airport Schedules 1981 and Airport Timetables UK 1985 has Dan-Air operating a nearly identical HS748 service on Leeds-Guernsey:

Saturday & Sunday DA441 depart LBA 0830, arrive GCI 1015
Saturday & Sunday DA448 depart GCI 1845, arrive LBA 2030

In between times the aircraft looks to have done GCI-BRS-CWL-BRS as DA272/273 and spent some time on the ground in Guernsey. The weekday HS748 service GLA-LBA-BRS-CWL also looks to have worked its way through the Channel Islands every lunchtime.

On Metropolitan, I've got the 1985 Summer timetable (hues of metallic gray and blue) which I'll try to scan in and post if I can. By today's standards, it's rather random.

Monday-Friday Shorts 330 on LBA-GLA-LBA-CWL-BRS-CWL-LBA-GLA-LBA (which was the only consistent thing they did).

330 at Bournemouth did:
RD 050 Mon/Wed/Fri BOH-CWL-MAN-NCL-GLA and reverse as RD057 in the evening
RD 052 Tue/Thu BOH-BHX-MAN-NCL-GLA and reverse as RD059 in the evening

The 330 at Glasgow did the reverse routings, so
RD051 Mon/Wed/Fri GLA-NCL-MAN-CWL-BOH and reverse as RD058 in the evening
RD053 Tue/Thu GLA-NCL-MAN-BHX-BOH and reverse as RD056 in the evening

[Helen49]

A vague recollection that Metropolitan ground operations were carried out with an ex-milk float. Sorry I cannot remember anything else other than mentioned above. [Good Dan-Air tradition of using vehicles long retired by other owners......ie nackered!]

[chevvron]

A vague recollection that Metropolitan ground operations were carried out with an ex-milk float. Sorry I cannot remember anything else other than mentioned above. [Good Dan-Air tradition of using vehicles long retired by other owners......ie nackered!]
Knackered is spelt with a 'k' Helen.:=

[jensdad]

Surprised nobody has mentioned that they did flights for British Caledonian as well. I'm not sure if these had gone to a Dan-Air code share by the time the Shorts had come online, but when they had the Twin Otters they definitely operated the Glasgow Newcastle end of the link city shlep under a BR- flight number.

[Sotonsean]

Surprised nobody has mentioned that they did flights for British Caledonian as well. I'm not sure if these had gone to a Dan-Air code share by the time the Shorts had come online, but when they had the Twin Otters they definitely operated the Glasgow Newcastle end of the link city shlep under a BR- flight number.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x812/1593268_67a80cc95b80d78bc0c818a7ee705bec1fcf9f0f.jpg

SD330 G-METO at Bristol Airport in 1985 wearing a hybrid Metropolitan Airways and BCAL livery.

[Mooncrest]

A vague recollection that Metropolitan ground operations were carried out with an ex-milk float. Sorry I cannot remember anything else other than mentioned above. [Good Dan-Air tradition of using vehicles long retired by other owners......ie nackered!]
If that's that's the same milk float I'm thinking of then I was driving it some 11 or 12 years later! It started every time too.

[dixi188]

The colour scheme with the Union flag on the blue fins was not good due to the engine exhaust sooting it up.
Metropolitan had a milk float at Bournemouth with a 28 volt tapping for ground power. I think milk floats had 48 volt battery installations.
Channel Express had a milk float at Cardiff for the Twin Otter that did the Liverpool mail flight. For a while the pilot, (no names), used to start the right engine, then get out and disconnect the milk float ground power, then get back aboard and continue the operation. A little later he employed a lad at his own cost to do the milk float bit.
Aurigny had milk floats for baggage. One had an argument with the tail of a Trislander when it had tipped on its backside.

[jensdad]

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x812/1593268_67a80cc95b80d78bc0c818a7ee705bec1fcf9f0f.jpg

SD330 G-METO at Bristol Airport in 1985 wearing a hybrid Metropolitan Airways and BCAL livery.
Nice photo, Sotonsean. Thanks for posting. Must admit, don't think I ever saw this in that scheme - the only times I ever saw the Sheds they seemed to be in a red, white and blue scheme.

[Flightrider]

So the real trivia question - was this aircraft in basic BCal colours as a result of the Metropolitan/BCal Commuter tie-up, or because it was previously operated as G-BKIE by Genair which went bust in early 1984 (?) and so was painted like that anyway? Looking at the state of the paint scheme where the previous markings have been crudely whited out, I'd say the latter!!

The re-registration from G-METO to G-METP followed Metropolitan's failure - CAA G-INFO says that happened on 6-9-1985. It was fairly standard back in the day to do that as a means of keeping away from liens being imposed for previous operators' debts - just like the Court Line One-Elevens into Dan-Air and the Laker DC10-10s into BCal Charter. Computer flight tracking has changed all of that!

[Mooncrest]

So, do we know why Dan Air took their 748(s) away from the LBA-based Link City routes? It can't have had anything to do with BAe at Bournemouth as BOH was not a Dan Air route from LBA at this time.

[dixi188]

I'm confused about the registrations on the Metro fleet.
We maintained the Shorts 3-30s at Glos Air, Bournemouth. There were three of them G-BGNA, G-METO and I thought G-METP, but the info from flightrider makes me wonder.
Found it. G-BLTD was the other one. G-METO became G-METP.
Ref. my post #3, it was Time Air of Canada.

[Airbanda]

As regards LBA to the Channel Isles and (variously) BA/Northeast, Dan Air, Air UK etc one needs to differentiate between schedules and IT charters.

I remember in summer 1975 there being multiple BA/NE services on Saturday/Sunday only some of which were schedules. Others were for tor companies - Wallace Arnold rings a bell.

Later Dan Air operated Viscounts to jersey, mainly I think for Hards. Probably 748 operations to Guernsey were similar.

We forget how big the Channel Isles were as a holiday destination until foreign IT services got to be just as cheap.