UK Airline Statistics for the 1950s & 1960s

[KeMac]

Could anyone tell me if I could find passengers numbers by airlines in the UK for 1950 through to 1970 and where I could dig them out please?

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

Work of a life-time ( how long have you got ? ) if you are looking at individual operators. Suggest you contact National Archives for guidance. For example, Google
BRITISH EAGLE NATIONAL ARCHIVES and see what comes up.

[Bergerie1]

You could also try the British Airways Heritage Collection:- https://www.britishairways.com/content/information/about-ba/history-and-heritage

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/801x172/screenshot_2024_02_28_at_11_48_36_british_ministry_of_civil_ avaiation_passenger_statistics_1950_1960_google_search_86e01 05e618083ec1b890a8876f40b240930014f.png
The reference for the workbook is TSGB 0201 (avi0101). You could try to obtain it through The Department For Transport e-mail is: [email protected]

[Jhieminga]

I haven't got the books to hand right now, but the three volume 'Britain's Airlines' books by Guy Halford-MacLeod (see here for vol.2 (https://amzn.to/48EgSCB)) does include some numbers if my memory isn't too bad. I would be happy to look up a few, but you could also try contacting the author, probably through his publisher. Not sure whether all these numbers are in there and whether the level of detail is enough for you.

[rog747]

Scheduled airlines then were mainly those services of BEA (Domestic and European) and BOAC (Worldwide) flying from London Airport (LHR).

You also had from 1964, the two main UK Independant Airlines British Eagle International Airways, and British United Airways who were operating both many Scheduled and Charter flights.
BUA had just received new VC10's and were flying from Gatwick Airport to West, Central and East Africa, plus down to South America.
They also from 1965, had a fleet of new BAC 1-11 jets.
British Eagle were desperately trying to regain licences from the BoT to again operate with newly ordered 707C's, flights from London Airport to Bermuda, Nassau Miami and Kingston.
Sadly they would go under in late 1968.

The rest of UK's air traffic was made up of the many small Independent and Charter airlines.

[bean]

Scheduled airlines then were mainly those services of BEA (Domestic and European) and BOAC (Worldwide) flying from London Airport (LHR).

You also had from 1964, the two main UK Independant Airlines British Eagle International Airways, and British United Airways who were operating both many Scheduled and Charter flights.
BUA had just received new VC10's and were flying from Gatwick Airport to West, Central and East Africa, plus down to South America.
They also from 1965, had a fleet of new BAC 1-11 jets.
British Eagle were desperately trying to regain licences from the BoT to again operate with newly ordered 707C's, flights from London Airport to Bermuda, Nassau Miami and Kingston.
Sadly they would go under in late 1968.

The rest of UK's air traffic was made up of the many small Independent and Charter airlines.
1964 is not relevant. Scheduled services under BEA associate agreements by independent carriers were operating way before 1964. 1960 is significant because of the formation of the Air Transport licensing Board.
Cambrian, Jersey Airlines, Channel, Silver City, Dan-Air, Derby were all operating profitably in the scheduled service field by the late 50s early 60s

[KeMac]

Many Thanks for all the kind responses

Jhieminga (https://www.pprune.org/members/48625-jhieminga) - I hadn't thought of Guy HM - I was in touch with him a few years back and will drop him a line. Thank you

[Jhieminga]

You're welcome! I checked volume 1 the other day and it has some of these numbers in an appendix, although it's categorised as 'BOAC - BEA - Others'. No doubt Guy will have the original sources or know where to find them.

[Tim Zukas]

Can you get a look at old magazines? Can't expect to get every year for every airline, but some stats did appear in the 1960 era. American Aviation (which became Airlift around then) published passengers and passenger-miles for US airlines, and sometimes for some foreign, including BOAC if not BEA.

Samples:
The table in the 28 Apr 1952 issue says BEA carried 912,604 revenue passengers in 1950, 1,121,439 in 1951. Available seat-miles 429,823,148 in 1950, 493,968,220 in 1951; revenue passenger miles, 259,046,195 in 1950, 329,452,420 in 1951.

Airlift May 1962 gives revenue passengers and revenue passenger-miles (thousands) in 1961

Autair 10000 - 400
BEA 4,355,442 - 1,538,888
BOAC 852,941 - 2,654,272
British United 424,157 - 705,500
Channel Air Bridge 238,000 - 28,011
Cunard Eagle 151,135 - 37,486

Same issue says BEA Vanguards carried 198,568 thousand RPMs in 1961, Viscount 800s (?) carried 694,990, Viscount 700s (?) carried 244,188, and Comets carried 335,614.

The June issue says BKS carried 194682 passengers in 1961, 48251 thousand RPMs.
Then in the July issue, a correction: British United RPMs were actually 82542 thousand.

[Tim Zukas]

Forgot about World Air Transport Statistics, the IATA annual report. First issue was 1957 with numbers for 1956.

BOAC 388342 revenue pax, 1875867 thousand RPKs, 2884160 thousand ASKs.

BEA 2428166 - 1264293 - 1817425

Hunting Clan 7638 - 48150 - 63316

If you want more, speak up.