Old British airline callsigns

[tczulu]

Chiltern Airways

Met the guy supposedly setting it up in the 80s through a mutual friend.Never sounded a goer to me then,but what the hell ,I was only a humble ATCO2 working DTY,CLN,TMA N then.Come to think of it,still a humble ATCO2 but working the vastly improved TC South(not)!

[Finbarr]

Just came upon this thread by chance and what a very pleasant 20 minutes I've had reading it and reminiscing!

Re 'Beatours' (Britsh Airtours) I had the misfortune to join the other 'Airtours' (from oop North) when they formed in 1991 and was sent (with others) to Long Beach to do our MD83 (what a dreadful a/c) conversion course, and, being the cheapskates they were (and I guess still are as MyTravel) sent us on a BA flight (economy class) to LAX.

Being an experienced staff traveller, I tried all the [then] usual tricks to get us (12 of us) an upgrade and had in the end to resort to the backstop (the purser) who upgraded us all to J class but only because he couldn't understand why his parent company (as he thought) had put aircrew of a sister company (British Airours) into cattle class. Most enjoyable - so whoever you were - thank you!

I Remember "norjet" and "albion" fondly - but who remembers "Northair" (that rogue Crabtree's MAN-Dounreay operation)? Ah - "I learnt about flying from that!"

[Ian Brooks]

God yes I remember the Northair Ops ex Manchester along with E Raffles
who used to commute between MAN and LHR daily in his Baron callsign
Raffles 1 if I remember correctly

Ian

[22/04]

So to add a few

Was BAC Hurn "llama"? or am I dreaming?

Doves used by HS were in additon to AREA at least G-ARBE and for a while Heron G-AVTU.

No menton of RAF Royal/VIP flights which used/use Rainbow and Kitty or something similar

Cout line had a short flirtation with flight numbers in 1970 ish; I distinctly remember Court line 373 in 1970 ( G-AWBL). but went back to reggies- any one know why.

And Airtours went Kestel, then Tourjet and back to Kestrel- again anyone know why?

And presumably some airlines just thought there names were unpronoucable. Invicta used India Mike for years and Aviogenex were Julite Juliet, TMA were Tango Lima

Incidently Aer Lingus Longhaul (I think they were called something like Irish international Airlines) always used "Shamrock" (remember those 720s at LHR on summer Saturdays) but Aer Lingus adopted it at some stage.

And am I really dreaming or does anyone remember Air Florida ( "Palm")

But I'm getting old.

[2 sheds]

22/04

BAC Hurn was "Limar" - I think that is the correct spelling - either way, pronounced Lye-mar.

2 s

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

And Airtours went Kestel, then Tourjet and back to Kestrel- again anyone know why?

I seem to recall the "Tourjet" was considered too similar to the callsign used by a Russian charter operator also flying to the med.

[Spiney Norman]

Olney 1 B....I remember being told exactly the same reason at the time, (Kestrel/Tourjet)...Currently there's an issue being raised regarding the new Brussels Airlines use of the callsign 'Beeline'. Some clashing issue with tug callsigns at Heathrow apparently....Posibly another change? Would be some sort of record considering the time the airline has existed!
Spiney

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by 22/04

Incidently Aer Lingus Longhaul (I think they were called something like Irish international Airlines) always used "Shamrock" (remember those 720s at LHR on summer Saturdays) but Aer Lingus adopted it at some stage.

Yes, all through the 707 era the transatlantic operations of the Irish main carrier were under a different name of "Irish International" (in Irish "Aerlinte Eireann"). Their IATA flight designator was IN, as opposed to EI for Aer Lingus. I don't know if they had a separate AOC but judging by the way Dublin-Shannon sectors had to be shown with EI/IN joint flight numbers I suspect there was some such legal distinction.

Regarding BEA Airtours, I accept what all you pros above write but I had always had the impression they used to use the callsign "Tango". Anyone know how this belief might have arisen ?

Originally Posted by 22/04

Aviogenex were Juliet Juliet, TMA were Tango Lima

Just based on their IATA flight designators. Several airlines chose to do this.

[sickBocks]

Kestrel/Tourjet

Thought the Kestrel/tourjet thing occurred as a result of the IEA ("Aspro") integration. Before the AOCs were merged some flights had the AIH designator - "Kestrel" and some had the TIH designator "Tourjet". This was early 90s.

[ATR42300]

Airline Callsigns

From the distant past I seem to remember Handley Page used the callsign "Choc Ice" ..........pretty cool what?

[Numpo-Nigit]

"Regarding BEA Airtours, I accept what all you pros above write but I had always had the impression they used to use the callsign "Tango". Anyone know how this belief might have arisen ?"

I seem to recall that BEA Airtours referred to their flights as "Tango" for passenger use. I can certainly remember hearing departure announcements for Tango + numbers on the PA at Gatwick. I assume that somebody in marketing thought that it would give the SLF the impression of something more inviting than a ride in a hand-me-down 707 or Comet. For ATC use it was always "Beetours".

NN

[2 sheds]

BEA Airtours - radiotelephony callsign was "Beetours", ICAO AO designator was KT (before the introduction of 3-letter designators).

2 s

[DH106]

BIA - 'BritIsland'

Perhaps the memory's playing tricks - I had the impression BIA used the 'UK' flight prefix and "UK xxx" callsign in the era immediately before the merger with Air Anglia and others to form Air UK - Air UK then kept these ?

[Finbarr]

BIA's RT Callsign was indeed "Britisland" with UK as the airline designator. When Air UK was formed, UK was still the airline designator and the RT callsign was "Ukay".
When BIA was resurrected after Air UK's failed attempt at the charter market as a separate charter outfit with BAC 1-11s and later MD83s it also used "Britisland"
Re Kestrel - this was dreamed up by a founder member Tom Beck (it was either going to be Kestrel or Nomad) - I was never sure if it was because of his love of ornithology or the fact that he had a Riley Kestrel car! Never liked it myself - the Spanish thought it was "Castrol". We had a bit of a reprieve when we went longhaul and "Tourjet" came along, but, as someone has already said, we had to revert to Kestrel as some minor Russian freight outfit had a similar sounding callsign and they had it first!

[m5dnd]

Sorry for thread drift...

22/04

The other Dove used by HSA was G-ASMG based at Dunsfold.. Still flying in Australia!

M5DND

[78deg]

On the smaller side

Midas
Direct Flight
National Airways
Hubbadair
Iceni
Eastern

All in East Anglia

[magpienja]

I wonder, the guys working back and maybe still today did you prefer the callsign to be the a/c reg, or even maybe just the likes of say Cambrian whiskey foxtrot, as opposed to the long winded callsigns we have today.

Nick.

[Sir George Cayley]

A few distant memories

British Airtours prefix was KT and when Caledonian took over the new 3 letter was CKT to preserve the memory.

When Orion started up their prefix was the same as the tehn defunct Modern Air (ah Coronados!) so got called "Modern" by some of the older ATCO's for a while.

I also remember "Redwing" as a callsign used by BEA on charter flights - or is that false memory syndrome again.

For the military buff the USAF used to run shuttles to Mildenhall with callsigns like Green Express and Blue Canoe

Finally, CAFU when ILS checking were "Calibrator"

I'll take some more memory medicine this evening (it's distilled from grapes you know) and post anything the synapses retrieve.

Sir George Cayley

[Spitoon]

Back in the days when BEA used Beeline it always amused me that Aurigny Air Services used Ayline. Never knew if it was a case of beautifully executed one-upmanship....

[merlinxx]

BEA Airtours

We were (I was in at the start in late'69 for ops '70. We were Beatours Flt # designation was KiloTango. That is apart from when we were operating for SyrianAir, Air Sychelles, DETA Mozambique et al.