Old British airline callsigns
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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)!
Last edited by tczulu; 24th Mar 2007 at 16:03. Reason: speling(ho ho)
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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!"
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!"
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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
who used to commute between MAN and LHR daily in his Baron callsign
Raffles 1 if I remember correctly
Ian
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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.
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.
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And Airtours went Kestel, then Tourjet and back to Kestrel- again anyone know why?
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
Spiney
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
Last edited by WHBM; 4th Dec 2007 at 12:41.
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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.
"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
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
BIA - 'BritIsland'
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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!
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!
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.
Nick.
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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
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
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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.