Airlines you wish still existed

[Hostie2201]

Dan Air ahhhh those lovely 111 aircraft and those not so lovely 727 100 series, Juliet Whisky with her constant oil leaks, just loved those night flights to Dalaman and Izmir...................

[The AvgasDinosaur]

Anyone remember Invicta,
Vikings, DC-4, Viscount, Vanguard, Britannia and some early (smokey) Boeing B720Bs
Quite a collection

Hope it helps
Be lucky
David

[Mr_Grubby]

Back in '66 I flew Gatwick - Muharraq on a trooping flight. They gave us kids these postcards to keep us quite. I remember feeling shortchanged because some kids were flown out on BUA VC 10s. I had to wait until '67 befor I flew on G-ASIW.
Clint.

[BYALPHAINDIA]

Although I was a 'Kid' - Baby Goat, I remember BCAL, CALAIR , NOVAIR, I liked the 'TARTAN' uniforms with it's Scottish look!!

They seem to be bringing 'TARTAN' back into fashion, I would say the BCAL uniforms were the best I have ever seen!!

They don't wear 'UNIFORMS' now they wear 'Teeshirts' instead = all part of the LO-CO entourage!!

Regards.

[BYALPHAINDIA]

Bring Back Dan Dare!!

The Aircraft Dan Air operated were workhorses, with their 'Black Smoke' trailing from the back!!

I flew on a DA 1-11 in 1988 from MAN - PER and we 'powered' off R24 like a NASA Launch!!

I have recently read that DA went into 11 hour talks with 'Branson' over a possible takeover in October 1992, Branson could have had DA for next to nothing, But He pulled out at the last minute?

Due to BA taking DA, DA is not a 'popular' word around Crawley!!

RIP DA.

Regards.

[Opssys]

Dan Air and Other Thoughts

Despite being a BCAL Man (through and through), I had a lot of time for Dan Air people (and its the people who make any company work, even when logic says it shouldn't). Not only was there some behind the scenes collaboration on Contingencies between BCAL and Dan Air, but also I was always impressed how they did so much with so little, in IT, Engineering, in fact every department.

They did work their Aircraft and Crews hard, and during the shortish period I was using them almost weekly to Switzerland, the punctuality and service was excellent, the Cabin Staff were Manchester based and I often travelled out from Gatwick and then back with the same Girls (I think eventually Dan Air had a token Steward). A longer day for them than most of the BCAL Cabin Staff on short haul would normally expect.

In many ways a great Airline, but needed massive inward investment to break out of the 'aged' fleet mode of operation. I suspect Branson looked at what he would to spend after taking-over Dan and thought better of it.

I can understand there is still some resentment over the BA takeover of Dan Air and compared with how BA Handled both the BA Airtours Reorganisation (just before the BCAL Takeover) and the Dan Air Takeover, I think the BCAL Staff got off lightly.

[VC10Conway]

For me it's Court Line, even though I never flew with them. My interest was first awakened by my visits to Luton in 1974. Aged just 13 at the time, I used to be taken airside by various helpful Monarch engineering & Dan-air staff and stand by the two massive L1011s that remained on the apron for ages after the bankrupcy.

[DC10RealMan]

For me it was DAN-AIR, as a staff traveller they were absolutely wonderful

[BYALPHAINDIA]

I don't think there were many liveries as bright as CourtLine thou?

The L10 looked good in the colours.

I was a fan of Excalibur for a short time back in 1994, I loved the livery, It suited the A320.

Another was Ambassador - a 'lovely' and different scheme but was short lived.

My favourite back then was Air 2000, the original scheme 1987 white fuselage, gold + red cheatlines, I am not a big fan of the current FCA scheme.

Although a long time BY fan, I actually like both the old BY and the new Thomsonfly scheme.

[llanfairpg]

Anyone remember the BOAC Viscount?

[The SSK]

Originally Posted by llanfairpg

Anyone remember the BOAC Viscount?

I do, sort of. I did a spell in the BOAC Duty Room at Prestwick in 1969 and at the time BA were using somebody's DC3 (Emerald Airways?) on a Belfast operation to link with the transatlantics. Somewhere along the line it was replaced by a Viscount, I think from British Midland, painted in BOAC livery, and Aberdeen was added. I can't remember whether that was while I was at PIK, or afterwards.
There was a story attached to it, that BA sent over to BD enough paint to redecorate their entire fleet, they made a tidy profit selling on the surplus.

[bean]

The two Viscounts which operated in BOAC colours were provided by Cambrian
They were G-AMOG & G-AMON both series 701's & operated from 1972. They were indeed subsequently replaces by BMA Viscounts

I only discovered recently that BIA had the contract at one point as well- at least during 1971.

Aircraft would position BLK-PIK then operate PIK-BFS-PIK & position back PIK-BLK. This from a former BIA BLK ops bod man now living in Jersey

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by The SSK

Somewhere along the line it was replaced by a Viscount, I think from British Midland, painted in BOAC livery, and Aberdeen was added.

The two aircraft were actually Cambrian Airways Viscount 700s, G-AMOG and G-AMON. By this time Cambrian was owned by BEA, so ultimately the same owners as BOAC.

And here they are at PIK. (BA titles by then but still in the BOAC scheme). Just one round trip a day for each from Belfast or Aberdeen to Prestwick and back.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0087200/M/

[The SSK]

Yes - more fragments come back to me. The BD aircraft would have been later, and painted in mid-1970s British Airways livery, the lorryloads of paint were red, white and blue, we reckoned they kept the white and the blue and palmed off the red.

Another story was that one of the aircraft, in BA colours, operated a BD service to Jersey. The BA ops crew looked out of the window and saw it arriving, scratched their heads about what service it might be, but thought nonetheless 'it's one of ours', and rushed out to it, falling over the BD squad who were doing the same thing.