Dan Air Route Network
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My first ever flight was in the 1970's - a DanAir Comet Gatwick to Venice, followed by a return from Milan on a 707 two weeks later (school cruise on the SS Uganda)
I'll never forget the food on the way out - sausage beans and chips, all nicely burnt in a foil tray. Much better than the Italian sarnies on the way back
Also nearly flew on a DanAir 748 by accident. At Newcastle in 1977 waiting for a flight to Amsterdam by British Midland. We were all at the departure gate. Servisair girl says "follow me everyone please". No ticket / boarding pass check. We all follow her onto the apron and toward a DanAir 748. I was first in queue, stop and say "No - I'm not getting on that". Servisair girl says "yes you are, thats your plane". Dutch chap behind me says "Theres no way I'm flying to Amsterdam in...THAT"
Servisair girl says "Amsterdam??...thats going to Gatwick".
Passengers in unison "well we're not....."
cue trek back to departure gate where British Midland rep is desperately trying to find her passengers, who are ALL missing....
I'll never forget the food on the way out - sausage beans and chips, all nicely burnt in a foil tray. Much better than the Italian sarnies on the way back
Also nearly flew on a DanAir 748 by accident. At Newcastle in 1977 waiting for a flight to Amsterdam by British Midland. We were all at the departure gate. Servisair girl says "follow me everyone please". No ticket / boarding pass check. We all follow her onto the apron and toward a DanAir 748. I was first in queue, stop and say "No - I'm not getting on that". Servisair girl says "yes you are, thats your plane". Dutch chap behind me says "Theres no way I'm flying to Amsterdam in...THAT"
Servisair girl says "Amsterdam??...thats going to Gatwick".
Passengers in unison "well we're not....."
cue trek back to departure gate where British Midland rep is desperately trying to find her passengers, who are ALL missing....
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Was on a Dan Air 737 charter from MUC - TLV - MUC back in the late 80's, seemed to be a regular service for them for some time.
Did this originate from West Berlin ? ere the cabin crew British or German (Dan-Air had a Berlin cabin crew base, although German pilots were not allowed).
IT routes dan air
the DA jet charter network boomed from the late 60's when more comets were bought and they op'd alot for Clarksons holidays from all over the UK but mainly MAN/NCL/GLA and LTN/LGW
the Canaries was always busy with comets as they had the range over the short 1-11's of Autair (who later became Court) although Laker sent theirs
to TCI and LPA always.
next came their own 1-11's 200/300's (ex AA and British Eagle)
in 1974 the ex JAL 727-146's arrived which Dan had extra exits put in for 146 pax.
the comets often flew out of Hurn for Palmair and correct me if i am wrong but the comet did some TA charters too?
1-11-500's were obtained after the court line collapse and then some came from german companies.
the 1-11's of both types did go to some farther flung places like Athens and Corfu, am not sure if they did Canaries but no doubt they did go there.
the 707-321's often went TA but also did palma and other IT spots and stuff like cruise ship flights and ad-hoc stuff when a Caledonian 707 went sick.
the 707-320c's were all freight and were leased out.
never appeared in full DA colours i think.
the 727-200's came next 189 seats (yuk) plus 737-200/300/400's
as mentioned previously even the little 146's always went to palma and ibiza on Saturday and Sunday nights.
basically if there was a beach or an island then Dan would go there!
someone mentioned British Eagle was the last main charter operator form LAP/LHR
*Heathrow* but not quite true...
BKS which became Northeast/BAS (then british airways/northeast) still operated their Britannia's then in 1969 the new trident 1e's 123 pax until at least 1976 (i worked for them) and we flew for Swans Tours of London (not swan hellenic)
we went with both trident aircraft (summer weekends only) to palma ibiza mahon gerona rimini pisa malaga alicante tunis venice (i think or it might have been treviso or trieste) milan turin munich and zurich in the winter too for ski flights,
although we did not go in to any Austrian airport for charters.
when a trident was w/o 1974 at Bilbao we subbed BA VC10's for our LHR charter work for us...
and when in 1972 Caledonian pranged a 1-11-500 into the lagoon at Corfu they sub'd a trident off us and i went to Dubrovnik with it, and hitched a ride
back a week later when the Wardair 727 op'd the same service.
also BMA did regular charters to Italy and Sardinia from LHR for Citalia holidays until not that long ago and also did palma's and alicante's with dc9's when i was working with them.
the Canaries was always busy with comets as they had the range over the short 1-11's of Autair (who later became Court) although Laker sent theirs
to TCI and LPA always.
next came their own 1-11's 200/300's (ex AA and British Eagle)
in 1974 the ex JAL 727-146's arrived which Dan had extra exits put in for 146 pax.
the comets often flew out of Hurn for Palmair and correct me if i am wrong but the comet did some TA charters too?
1-11-500's were obtained after the court line collapse and then some came from german companies.
the 1-11's of both types did go to some farther flung places like Athens and Corfu, am not sure if they did Canaries but no doubt they did go there.
the 707-321's often went TA but also did palma and other IT spots and stuff like cruise ship flights and ad-hoc stuff when a Caledonian 707 went sick.
the 707-320c's were all freight and were leased out.
never appeared in full DA colours i think.
the 727-200's came next 189 seats (yuk) plus 737-200/300/400's
as mentioned previously even the little 146's always went to palma and ibiza on Saturday and Sunday nights.
basically if there was a beach or an island then Dan would go there!
someone mentioned British Eagle was the last main charter operator form LAP/LHR
*Heathrow* but not quite true...
BKS which became Northeast/BAS (then british airways/northeast) still operated their Britannia's then in 1969 the new trident 1e's 123 pax until at least 1976 (i worked for them) and we flew for Swans Tours of London (not swan hellenic)
we went with both trident aircraft (summer weekends only) to palma ibiza mahon gerona rimini pisa malaga alicante tunis venice (i think or it might have been treviso or trieste) milan turin munich and zurich in the winter too for ski flights,
although we did not go in to any Austrian airport for charters.
when a trident was w/o 1974 at Bilbao we subbed BA VC10's for our LHR charter work for us...
and when in 1972 Caledonian pranged a 1-11-500 into the lagoon at Corfu they sub'd a trident off us and i went to Dubrovnik with it, and hitched a ride
back a week later when the Wardair 727 op'd the same service.
also BMA did regular charters to Italy and Sardinia from LHR for Citalia holidays until not that long ago and also did palma's and alicante's with dc9's when i was working with them.
Last edited by rog747; 4th Mar 2012 at 18:20.
Rog :
Very interesting post, thank you.
I believe the Clarksons Comet flights from the North-East were operated from Teesside, not Newcastle, although Dan-Air doubtless operated plenty of flights from Newcastle for others. In 1977 I was regularly visiting near Teesside, and there was often a DA 727 doing training circuits there.
I was aware of the Northeast charters out of Heathrow in the 1970s, but similarly to the BMI ones from there operating until just a couple of years ago, they appear confined to marginal time at weekends using aircraft otherwise standing idle from weekday trunk route flights; British Eagle was the last to have an actual charter fleet based there (including handling RAF charters with the seats in a Britannia turned backwards, which occasionally when things got disorganised ended up being used on Glasgow schedules in this configuration, to the surprise of the pax !).
I believe that some of the One-Eleven 500s that came from Court Line ater their collapse brought the bizarre Seatback Catering with them, and were used by Dan-Air as such.
Surprised to hear of the Wardair 727 doing a subcharter over to Corfu ! Did they sneak it in and send a westbound Canadian flight off several hours late ? I went in that aircraft in 1969 to Vancouver, stopping both ways in Greenland.
Very interesting post, thank you.
I believe the Clarksons Comet flights from the North-East were operated from Teesside, not Newcastle, although Dan-Air doubtless operated plenty of flights from Newcastle for others. In 1977 I was regularly visiting near Teesside, and there was often a DA 727 doing training circuits there.
I was aware of the Northeast charters out of Heathrow in the 1970s, but similarly to the BMI ones from there operating until just a couple of years ago, they appear confined to marginal time at weekends using aircraft otherwise standing idle from weekday trunk route flights; British Eagle was the last to have an actual charter fleet based there (including handling RAF charters with the seats in a Britannia turned backwards, which occasionally when things got disorganised ended up being used on Glasgow schedules in this configuration, to the surprise of the pax !).
I believe that some of the One-Eleven 500s that came from Court Line ater their collapse brought the bizarre Seatback Catering with them, and were used by Dan-Air as such.
Surprised to hear of the Wardair 727 doing a subcharter over to Corfu ! Did they sneak it in and send a westbound Canadian flight off several hours late ? I went in that aircraft in 1969 to Vancouver, stopping both ways in Greenland.
to whbm
thanks very much...
re the bks/northeast charters, well we did actually have a proper charter
dept at LHR so although the flights were at weekends using the tridents
it was an intensive IT programme for Swans but i understand what you mean...see page 4 of this re bks and swans tours
http://website.lineone.net/~biggles2...NewsSheet5.pdf
my first ever flight was an Eagle Britannia bounteous from LAP to BCN 1964 with the seats facing backwards!
also went to rimini in 1967 and we had a trooping a/c then too.
re seatback catering, oh yes lol, an ''interesting feature'' especially when the outbound pax ate the inbound pax's grub too lol.
the meal flaps had locks but they often never got locked.
the grub in those plastic boxes we thought was basic back then but compared to today's fare it was gorgeous.
the wardair 727 sub charter was to dubrovnik not corfu in summer 1972.
very often wardair would lay-over their a/c for a day or 2 at LGW so i guess it was on the ad-hoc rota for ''thunderbird'' duties...
119 pax i recall loads of legroom and big comfy seats and nice girls.
we had the biggest TS ever coming home up over yugoslavia and italy over the mountains and never seen one like it since.
the turbulence was structure bending lol
their one and only 727 cf-fun ? sadly met an untimely demise
somewhere in south america i think after they sold it.
Air-Britain : Boeing 727-11
re the bks/northeast charters, well we did actually have a proper charter
dept at LHR so although the flights were at weekends using the tridents
it was an intensive IT programme for Swans but i understand what you mean...see page 4 of this re bks and swans tours
http://website.lineone.net/~biggles2...NewsSheet5.pdf
my first ever flight was an Eagle Britannia bounteous from LAP to BCN 1964 with the seats facing backwards!
also went to rimini in 1967 and we had a trooping a/c then too.
re seatback catering, oh yes lol, an ''interesting feature'' especially when the outbound pax ate the inbound pax's grub too lol.
the meal flaps had locks but they often never got locked.
the grub in those plastic boxes we thought was basic back then but compared to today's fare it was gorgeous.
the wardair 727 sub charter was to dubrovnik not corfu in summer 1972.
very often wardair would lay-over their a/c for a day or 2 at LGW so i guess it was on the ad-hoc rota for ''thunderbird'' duties...
119 pax i recall loads of legroom and big comfy seats and nice girls.
we had the biggest TS ever coming home up over yugoslavia and italy over the mountains and never seen one like it since.
the turbulence was structure bending lol
their one and only 727 cf-fun ? sadly met an untimely demise
somewhere in south america i think after they sold it.
Air-Britain : Boeing 727-11
