What happened to all the Spanish charter airlines ?
Thread Starter
Of course, the Spanish charter airlines didn't only have the UK in which to ply their trade. Northern Europe, Scandinavia and the Republic of Ireland were all available to them too. As I recall, those Eastern Bloc countries that had a significant tourism industry - Bulgaria , Romania and Yugoslavia - kept the flights firmly in house. To begin with in Bulgaria, that meant the national airline but then came VIA and Balkan Holidays Air. Tarom and Romavia did the Constanta stuff in Romania but Yugoslavia had a choice of JAT, Adria and Aviogenex. None of these three still exist ☹. To some extent, Adria and Aviogenex were little more than the flight departments of the government agencies which controlled them which could have meant their demise at the same time as the Yugoslav Republic in 1991. As we know, Adria managed to reinvent itself as the Slovene airline but Aviogenex was less fortunate .
The longest major flow in Europe is the holiday trade between Scandinavia and The Canaries. At about a 6 hour flight time it fits nicely into two rotations one day, one rotation the next. Long beyond the capabilities of twin-engined aircraft, it is what was behind Spantax building up their fleet of Convair 990s, and the DC8s of some other Spanish carriers (earlier they had favoured DC7s). Rather like Canadians to the Caribbean, the peak season for Scandinavia to Canaries is in the winter (in the summer Scandinavians tend to go to their cabin by the lake) so the aircraft were more readily available for the UK, with the opposite seasonality.
Wasnt just the smaller UK airports that got the likes of Spanair. I remember the weekly "invasion" of up to 12 Spanair MD80 series aircraft on Saturday nights alongside those of Lineas Aereas Canarias and the 737s and 757s of Air Europa. Some of these even operated W patterns - with one memorable one being a PMI-MAN-IBZ-MAN-PMI routing by UX.
Indeed - reminds me of one of our Air Spain DC-8 rotations
Sat afternoon was ALC-LTN (STD LTN 18.00) -ALC-LTN (STD LTN 00.40) -MAN-BCN-MAN-LTN then back on SUN morning was LTN (STD LTN 09.30) -IBZ-LTN-PMI - was always horribly delayed
Sat afternoon was ALC-LTN (STD LTN 18.00) -ALC-LTN (STD LTN 00.40) -MAN-BCN-MAN-LTN then back on SUN morning was LTN (STD LTN 09.30) -IBZ-LTN-PMI - was always horribly delayed
Those Air Spain DC8-21s were old and knackered when they got them; and flogging them like that was always going to be a recipe for disaster. If I recall correctly their Britannia operation wasn't much more reliable.
My first flight was NCL-PMI on a Transeuropa caravelle in ‘79. Only 4 at the time so don’t remember much except one photograph to prove I was on it and a meal tray (with the TransEuropa “T” on it) that we had for years afterwards as it was one of the over night flights mentioned above (arrive U.K. around 11 pm depart around midnight) so I’d fallen asleep but my parents kept the meal for me.
Aviaco had a very bad reputation for service and I remember a friend flying NCL- TFS saying they never saw the crew for the whole flight as they sat behind the curtain smoking!
I kept a 1987 Flight International edition that ran an article titled “Spanish Charters go upmarket” and explained how the Spanish government had insisted that a certain % of tourists arrived on Spanish airlines (or something to that effect) which had previously been the very poor Aviaco and Spantax. The new breed of Air Europa, Hispania and CTA were setting out to change the reputation of Spanish carriers that Aviaco and Spantax had created.
I never experienced them at their worst but I only flew on one another Spanish airline Futura in 1997. Service wasn’t quiet as good as U.K. Carrier’s at the time but was ok. Perhaps though we got what we paid for a cheap teletext holiday ! It was quite an eclectic flight out, 737-400 SE-DRR with Nordic European titles, Irish flight crew and Spanish cabin crew.
Aviaco had a very bad reputation for service and I remember a friend flying NCL- TFS saying they never saw the crew for the whole flight as they sat behind the curtain smoking!
I kept a 1987 Flight International edition that ran an article titled “Spanish Charters go upmarket” and explained how the Spanish government had insisted that a certain % of tourists arrived on Spanish airlines (or something to that effect) which had previously been the very poor Aviaco and Spantax. The new breed of Air Europa, Hispania and CTA were setting out to change the reputation of Spanish carriers that Aviaco and Spantax had created.
I never experienced them at their worst but I only flew on one another Spanish airline Futura in 1997. Service wasn’t quiet as good as U.K. Carrier’s at the time but was ok. Perhaps though we got what we paid for a cheap teletext holiday ! It was quite an eclectic flight out, 737-400 SE-DRR with Nordic European titles, Irish flight crew and Spanish cabin crew.
Last edited by GBYAJ; 21st Oct 2021 at 07:01.
Pegase Driver
ATNotts
Not quite, their 6 DC8-20s were all built from 1960, delivered from 1971 -73 so only 10-13 years old when they got them most were ex United , so well maintained and all continued to fly until the 80s with other airlines. They were never involved in serious incidents or accidents unlike many of their competitors at the time . The 20 series was advanced for its time used already the powerful JT4A which unfortunately used lots of fuel and smoked like hell... A very nice aircraft . The reason it folded was not clear , money shortage more likely , but it was not safety or poor maintenance of their fleet.
Not quite, their 6 DC8-20s were all built from 1960, delivered from 1971 -73 so only 10-13 years old when they got them most were ex United , so well maintained and all continued to fly until the 80s with other airlines. They were never involved in serious incidents or accidents unlike many of their competitors at the time . The 20 series was advanced for its time used already the powerful JT4A which unfortunately used lots of fuel and smoked like hell... A very nice aircraft . The reason it folded was not clear , money shortage more likely , but it was not safety or poor maintenance of their fleet.
ATC Watcher
Many airlines folded around 1975 struggling mainly due to the fuel crisis and fluctuating holiday markets.
Court Line, Atlantis, Aviacion, Mey Air, Phoenix, Modern AT, Air Viking, and Donaldson all recently had folded or were about to.
In Germany even Bavaria and Germanair were cooperating closely in 1974.
Air Spain's' six DC-8's were all ex Eastern AL.
They were as you say, not that old but frankly inside they really harked back to the dark ages even for 1972.
Really old fashioned with poor lighting, dark colours and a lot of gold green and brown trim LOL.
Seating at 189 was pretty tight.
No APU meant hot and sticky during the turnarounds and delays.
This was at a time when many charter airlines already had or were soon to add new 1-11's, 727's 737's, even Tridents, plus some airlines on the lucrative and competitive Germany and Scandinavian routes by now had the latest wide body Tri-Star's, 747's, A300's, DC-10's, and TEA, Transavia, and Germanair had A300's, all of which had clean new interiors, and air conditioning (APU).
It was fun (The Air Spain DC-8) and very fast to fly on them (when they actually got around to take off) but they were very technically intense and maintenance ''heavy'' with many Tech and (ATC) delays; getting AOG spare parts was always going on.
Once they were in the air they were fine. Always a bit of a lottery whether the aircraft actually turned up as I remember, or if it did turn up was it the one to cover the one before that was delayed 12 hours previously lol. Happy Days.
One of the senior Directors was killed on his way to London to secure more IT contracts; I gather he was on the Iberia DC-9 en-route to LHR that went down in France after colliding with a Spantax Coronado en-route to LGW in 1973.
VistaJet Holidays was Air Spain's main UK charterer demanding both incentives for busy schedules for rock bottom seat prices that the UK charter airlines simply could not give, although BMA's 1-11's did a lot of Vista's work, along with Air Spain.
Horizon and 4S Holidays also took seats from Vista Jet to share flights, mainly from LGW LTN MAN and GLA.
They folded in the main (so did Vista Jet) due to (like Transeuropa and TAE a few years later) being in the back end position of having old, fuel and tech heavy jet fleets that needed renewal but there was no cash around. Couple this with continued rising fuel costs from 1973, and various recessions and Tour Operators wanting airlines with new jets, and losing out to the bulk of the Scandinavian passenger traffic to TFS and LPA during the winter months.
The Air Spain DC-8 story -
The bankruptcy of British Eagle meant for Air Spain that a number of summer charters were taken over from this airline for the 1969 and 1970 seasons.
The 1970 summer season went so well for Air Spain's Britannia's that even larger aircraft were looked for.
The necessary fleet expansion was found in the purchase of used DC-8-21s from Eastern Airlines who had started to replace its 1960 DC-8 series 21 with new DC-8 60 series.
The first of six a/c for AS (JA) was commissioned in January 1971 as EC-BXR (c/n 45422 ex N8601).
With the introduction of the DC-8 at Air Spain, a striking new colour scheme was introduced at the same time, namely a red and yellow colour scheme, inspired by the colours of the Spanish flag.
Only the new Douglas Eights would be provided with this new colour scheme.
With the first DC-8, the holiday flights were further expanded with Zurich and Frankfurt to Palma and Las Palmas.
In addition, the flights to existing UK destinations were expanded, with the DC-8's frequently seen at Gatwick, Manchester, Luton, Birmingham and Glasgow.
At the end of 1971 the second a/c was delivered, registered as EC-BZQ (c/n 45426 ex N8605). With the delivery of EC-CAD (c/n 45423 ex N8602) on April 11, 1972 and EC-CAM (c/n 45427 ex N8606) on June 7, 1972, the number was increased to four DC-8-21s for that year.
Although the Britannia's were put up for sale, no direct new user was found.
The number of Britannia's in passenger use had fallen sharply due to the availability of the many jets on the new and second-hand charter market and only a few freight companies were after them.
After being in storage at Palma for more than a year, both planes were sold to freight carrier IAS (International Aviation Services) who dismantled both a/c in Palma in 1974 for the necessary parts.
With the delivery of the next two DC-8s EC-CDA (c/n 45429 ex N8608) on April 11, 1973 and EC-CDB (c/n 45414 ex N8503) on May 19, 1973, the DC-8 fleet was complete and the last Bristol Britannia was also decommissioned after six years of service and sold to IAS almost immediately.
This Britannia was flown a month later to Biggin Hill where the aircraft was also scrapped for parts.
Competition in the charter market was fierce in the early 1970s and Air Spain were soon to pay the toll.
Given the over capacity, DC-8 EC-BZQ was quickly put back up for sale at Miami in March 1974 and sold that same month to Aerovias Quisqueyana as N8605.
However, 1974 was to be a disaster year for Air Spain.
The low seat price due to the competition in the market and the rising costs for the fuel and maintenance of this early model first series of DC-8's caused great losses.
These losses accumulated so rapidly that Air Spain had to request a deferment of payments to EAL on January 30, 1975 and shortly thereafter again, so in mid-February 1975 Air Spain had to cease operations.
Although talks were immediately started about the takeover of the company by Aviaco, they remained just talks.
Cause: Air Spain's sky-high debt burden. Namely, these amounted to 1000 million Pesatas ($15 million).
Air Spain was declared bankrupt by the spring of 1975, the DC-8 fleet was grounded on Palma from mid-February. Eastern Airlines as the largest creditor of the not yet fully paid off fleet, eventually became the owner of the aircraft again.
Although the aircraft were still flown back to the United States in the spring of 1976, only a single machine found a new employer. Most DC-8s were soon scrapped at Marana.
One of the AS DC-8 21 airframes survives, preserved as a private residence in Tennessee.
A year later, with Air Spain (and Vista Jet) was seen no longer, and many of the Palma and Las Palmas flights were now operated by by Aviaco DC-8's and Spantax CV-990s.
The colourful DC-8's were all named after Spain's sunshine holiday islands, namely Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote.
Many airlines folded around 1975 struggling mainly due to the fuel crisis and fluctuating holiday markets.
Court Line, Atlantis, Aviacion, Mey Air, Phoenix, Modern AT, Air Viking, and Donaldson all recently had folded or were about to.
In Germany even Bavaria and Germanair were cooperating closely in 1974.
Air Spain's' six DC-8's were all ex Eastern AL.
They were as you say, not that old but frankly inside they really harked back to the dark ages even for 1972.
Really old fashioned with poor lighting, dark colours and a lot of gold green and brown trim LOL.
Seating at 189 was pretty tight.
No APU meant hot and sticky during the turnarounds and delays.
This was at a time when many charter airlines already had or were soon to add new 1-11's, 727's 737's, even Tridents, plus some airlines on the lucrative and competitive Germany and Scandinavian routes by now had the latest wide body Tri-Star's, 747's, A300's, DC-10's, and TEA, Transavia, and Germanair had A300's, all of which had clean new interiors, and air conditioning (APU).
It was fun (The Air Spain DC-8) and very fast to fly on them (when they actually got around to take off) but they were very technically intense and maintenance ''heavy'' with many Tech and (ATC) delays; getting AOG spare parts was always going on.
Once they were in the air they were fine. Always a bit of a lottery whether the aircraft actually turned up as I remember, or if it did turn up was it the one to cover the one before that was delayed 12 hours previously lol. Happy Days.
One of the senior Directors was killed on his way to London to secure more IT contracts; I gather he was on the Iberia DC-9 en-route to LHR that went down in France after colliding with a Spantax Coronado en-route to LGW in 1973.
VistaJet Holidays was Air Spain's main UK charterer demanding both incentives for busy schedules for rock bottom seat prices that the UK charter airlines simply could not give, although BMA's 1-11's did a lot of Vista's work, along with Air Spain.
Horizon and 4S Holidays also took seats from Vista Jet to share flights, mainly from LGW LTN MAN and GLA.
They folded in the main (so did Vista Jet) due to (like Transeuropa and TAE a few years later) being in the back end position of having old, fuel and tech heavy jet fleets that needed renewal but there was no cash around. Couple this with continued rising fuel costs from 1973, and various recessions and Tour Operators wanting airlines with new jets, and losing out to the bulk of the Scandinavian passenger traffic to TFS and LPA during the winter months.
The Air Spain DC-8 story -
The bankruptcy of British Eagle meant for Air Spain that a number of summer charters were taken over from this airline for the 1969 and 1970 seasons.
The 1970 summer season went so well for Air Spain's Britannia's that even larger aircraft were looked for.
The necessary fleet expansion was found in the purchase of used DC-8-21s from Eastern Airlines who had started to replace its 1960 DC-8 series 21 with new DC-8 60 series.
The first of six a/c for AS (JA) was commissioned in January 1971 as EC-BXR (c/n 45422 ex N8601).
With the introduction of the DC-8 at Air Spain, a striking new colour scheme was introduced at the same time, namely a red and yellow colour scheme, inspired by the colours of the Spanish flag.
Only the new Douglas Eights would be provided with this new colour scheme.
With the first DC-8, the holiday flights were further expanded with Zurich and Frankfurt to Palma and Las Palmas.
In addition, the flights to existing UK destinations were expanded, with the DC-8's frequently seen at Gatwick, Manchester, Luton, Birmingham and Glasgow.
At the end of 1971 the second a/c was delivered, registered as EC-BZQ (c/n 45426 ex N8605). With the delivery of EC-CAD (c/n 45423 ex N8602) on April 11, 1972 and EC-CAM (c/n 45427 ex N8606) on June 7, 1972, the number was increased to four DC-8-21s for that year.
Although the Britannia's were put up for sale, no direct new user was found.
The number of Britannia's in passenger use had fallen sharply due to the availability of the many jets on the new and second-hand charter market and only a few freight companies were after them.
After being in storage at Palma for more than a year, both planes were sold to freight carrier IAS (International Aviation Services) who dismantled both a/c in Palma in 1974 for the necessary parts.
With the delivery of the next two DC-8s EC-CDA (c/n 45429 ex N8608) on April 11, 1973 and EC-CDB (c/n 45414 ex N8503) on May 19, 1973, the DC-8 fleet was complete and the last Bristol Britannia was also decommissioned after six years of service and sold to IAS almost immediately.
This Britannia was flown a month later to Biggin Hill where the aircraft was also scrapped for parts.
Competition in the charter market was fierce in the early 1970s and Air Spain were soon to pay the toll.
Given the over capacity, DC-8 EC-BZQ was quickly put back up for sale at Miami in March 1974 and sold that same month to Aerovias Quisqueyana as N8605.
However, 1974 was to be a disaster year for Air Spain.
The low seat price due to the competition in the market and the rising costs for the fuel and maintenance of this early model first series of DC-8's caused great losses.
These losses accumulated so rapidly that Air Spain had to request a deferment of payments to EAL on January 30, 1975 and shortly thereafter again, so in mid-February 1975 Air Spain had to cease operations.
Although talks were immediately started about the takeover of the company by Aviaco, they remained just talks.
Cause: Air Spain's sky-high debt burden. Namely, these amounted to 1000 million Pesatas ($15 million).
Air Spain was declared bankrupt by the spring of 1975, the DC-8 fleet was grounded on Palma from mid-February. Eastern Airlines as the largest creditor of the not yet fully paid off fleet, eventually became the owner of the aircraft again.
Although the aircraft were still flown back to the United States in the spring of 1976, only a single machine found a new employer. Most DC-8s were soon scrapped at Marana.
One of the AS DC-8 21 airframes survives, preserved as a private residence in Tennessee.
A year later, with Air Spain (and Vista Jet) was seen no longer, and many of the Palma and Las Palmas flights were now operated by by Aviaco DC-8's and Spantax CV-990s.
The colourful DC-8's were all named after Spain's sunshine holiday islands, namely Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote.
They folded in the main (so did Vista Jet) due to (like Transeuropa and TAE a few years later) being in the back end position of having old, fuel and tech heavy jet fleets that needed renewal but there was no cash around.
Moments later we took off from what is now the western runway. The newer Palma eastern runway appeared to have been completed, but was not in use, and was being used for parking the whole of the onetime Spantax Convair 990 fleet, lined up in echelon along it, a distant sight as our 737 became airborne. They were there for years, most were scrapped in the early 1990s, but there's still one left there, sort-of preserved, but in decidedly weatherbeaten condition, Spantax livery under the dirt, in a remote area between the runways. Do look out for it if passing through. Here it is on Google Earth, a nice reminder of those old Spanish charter operators.
palma airport - Google Maps
Shame it's in such a weather-streaked condition, The owners should have remembered George Bernard Shaw (making a rare appearence in a post here) and his expression : "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plane".
Sorry ...
Pegase Driver
@rog747 : many thanks for you detailed story ! What a memory ! , yes they were ex Eastern , not United, I mixed the 2 up,
Would you have the similar story for Spantax.? I flew often in the jumpseat of the BX CV990s for many years when commuting to LPA and we had long discussions during the long afternoon flights with the newspaper taped on the windscreen to avoid the sun..
Same with TAE, "Trabajos" ,DC8s they were even more cowboy ops than BX but were far more lucky in terms of safety. I always wanted to write down some of the funny anecdotes I had with Spantax , including a belly landing in Cologne, but never went to it. The last accident they had ( the DC10 ) just before they folded left also a bad taste to it all ( Although the acceptance flight when they got it was a good story in itself !)
@WHBM : yes the CV990 belongs now to an association that want to restore it ( and repaint it) for static display somewhere more public.
https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com...-coronado.html
Unfortunately Covid put a temporary stop to it , but when tourists and money come back to the island I am sure they will continue..
Would you have the similar story for Spantax.? I flew often in the jumpseat of the BX CV990s for many years when commuting to LPA and we had long discussions during the long afternoon flights with the newspaper taped on the windscreen to avoid the sun..
Same with TAE, "Trabajos" ,DC8s they were even more cowboy ops than BX but were far more lucky in terms of safety. I always wanted to write down some of the funny anecdotes I had with Spantax , including a belly landing in Cologne, but never went to it. The last accident they had ( the DC10 ) just before they folded left also a bad taste to it all ( Although the acceptance flight when they got it was a good story in itself !)
@WHBM : yes the CV990 belongs now to an association that want to restore it ( and repaint it) for static display somewhere more public.
https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com...-coronado.html
Unfortunately Covid put a temporary stop to it , but when tourists and money come back to the island I am sure they will continue..
Pegase Driver
No ,but flew with one of the crew afterwards heard the story , zero flaps landing , high workload , killed the horn and they forgot the gear... landed as smooth as a baby . Pax did not complain .
Later they just jacked it up , managed to lower the gear , Swissair guys came to fix a few things on the engines and they flew it to Woensdrecht (NL) for repairing the " scratches "on the belly .It continued to fly for a few years afterwards until the airline folded.
Those were the days .
From your pseudo , are you by chance an ex Dan Air . ? if yes I am sure we exchanged a | "Chug-a-lug" together....
Later they just jacked it up , managed to lower the gear , Swissair guys came to fix a few things on the engines and they flew it to Woensdrecht (NL) for repairing the " scratches "on the belly .It continued to fly for a few years afterwards until the airline folded.
Those were the days .
From your pseudo , are you by chance an ex Dan Air . ? if yes I am sure we exchanged a | "Chug-a-lug" together....
Swissair indeed retained the engineering skills on the Cv990 well after they disposed of their own fleet (the last of which actually went to Spantax), and did all their major checks at Zurich. The Spantax aircraft lost at Stockholm had a prior major engine failure and was taking off on a three-engine ferry to Zurich for an engine change.
