Airways Cymru International
I thought I'd add a couple of pics of the 1-11's
G-WLAD at Jersey when leased to BMA. (Credit - Facebook 'Jersey Airport of Yesteryear')
G-YMRU at Guernsey. (Credit - Facebook 'Guernsey Airport of Yesteryear')
G-WLAD at Jersey when leased to BMA. (Credit - Facebook 'Jersey Airport of Yesteryear')
G-YMRU at Guernsey. (Credit - Facebook 'Guernsey Airport of Yesteryear')
Last edited by Jerbourg; 26th Dec 2023 at 11:48. Reason: Add pic Credit
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That’s interesting on both counts. Do the FB groups say what the aircraft were doing there? WLAD was pretty much exclusively posted to Leeds Bradford for British Midland, and BM only took over Leeds/Jersey after Dan-Air ceased flying - they never flew it before then. And just as curious as to what YMRU was doing in Guernsey whose runway wasn’t exactly a match made in heaven for a 1-11?!
Guernsey had I think the odd 1-11 flights from BMA with WLAD visiting, from memory I think YMRU may have also been on a Midland flight.
Loganair used a 1-11 on the GCI-MAN route on summer weekend flights circa 1989 - the only scheduled 1-11 service GCI has seen.
Loganair used a 1-11 on the GCI-MAN route on summer weekend flights circa 1989 - the only scheduled 1-11 service GCI has seen.
Last edited by Jerbourg; 27th Dec 2023 at 06:59. Reason: Correction
After its short-lived stint with Mediterranean Express, G-AZUK was picked up by London European Airways, by then Ryanair Europe. The 1-11 book shows it was leased by them to Loganair between 5 June 1989 and 3 October 1989 and then went back into service with LEA for about 18 months before another 18 months with British Air Ferries from April 1991 to November 1992. The other ex-Faucett 1-11-475 (G-AYUW) never made it back into UK service.
The other 1-11 476 for Med Ex, G-AYUW was painted up for the airline at LTN but corrosion was discovered and she never flew for the airline and was scrapped there.
FWIW:
re the lease of G-WLAD; after summer 1985 flying with CYM, saw the a/c go to BMA (in BD livery) then to Manx for summer 1987 (repainted in their livery) then returned to CYM 12/1987 with just Airways Cymru titles added, who then ceased trading a month later.
In fact it is thought that she never returned to flying for Airways Cymru. G-WLAD was stored at Lasham, then SEN for a total of 3 years.
In 1986 she was replaced in service with their first new Boeing 737-300, which arrived in May 1986 as G-PROC. This aircraft was leased from ILFC but was only ten months old at the time having been delivered new to Sunworld International Airways and wore the smart Sunworld livery with Airways Cymru titles and served for only one season.
The airline was happy with the 737-300 and for the 1987 season set out to acquire another pair.
Both aircraft were acquired on long-term six year leases and at the time the carrier's fortunes were on the up as it had a £2 million pound capital injection from Brian proctor who with a 25% share became the new Chairman. Looking to the future the carrier began to dream of larger 737-400s, ruling out the operation of MD-83s due to the then lack of suitable local engineering facilities.
It was also keen on beginning scheduled services to traditional charter destinations in the Med. At the same time the new leadership was looking for a name change as they realised that Cymru was a mouthful for English speakers. For this reason it maybe assumed that both the new 737-300s were painted in the airline's standard livery but did not receive the tail logo.
The titles became Airways International Cymru, which may have lead to the simpler name of Airways International.
I saw G-WLAD in BD livery at both Faro FAO, JER Jersey and PMI Palma in Spring 1987.
FWIW:
re the lease of G-WLAD; after summer 1985 flying with CYM, saw the a/c go to BMA (in BD livery) then to Manx for summer 1987 (repainted in their livery) then returned to CYM 12/1987 with just Airways Cymru titles added, who then ceased trading a month later.
In fact it is thought that she never returned to flying for Airways Cymru. G-WLAD was stored at Lasham, then SEN for a total of 3 years.
In 1986 she was replaced in service with their first new Boeing 737-300, which arrived in May 1986 as G-PROC. This aircraft was leased from ILFC but was only ten months old at the time having been delivered new to Sunworld International Airways and wore the smart Sunworld livery with Airways Cymru titles and served for only one season.
The airline was happy with the 737-300 and for the 1987 season set out to acquire another pair.
Both aircraft were acquired on long-term six year leases and at the time the carrier's fortunes were on the up as it had a £2 million pound capital injection from Brian proctor who with a 25% share became the new Chairman. Looking to the future the carrier began to dream of larger 737-400s, ruling out the operation of MD-83s due to the then lack of suitable local engineering facilities.
It was also keen on beginning scheduled services to traditional charter destinations in the Med. At the same time the new leadership was looking for a name change as they realised that Cymru was a mouthful for English speakers. For this reason it maybe assumed that both the new 737-300s were painted in the airline's standard livery but did not receive the tail logo.
The titles became Airways International Cymru, which may have lead to the simpler name of Airways International.
I saw G-WLAD in BD livery at both Faro FAO, JER Jersey and PMI Palma in Spring 1987.
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Thread Starter
1986 BBC Airport 86 clip filmed from the flight deck of G-WLAD landing into LHR from LBA.
(Credit Simon Lowe)
https://vimeo.com/113203999
(Credit Simon Lowe)
https://vimeo.com/113203999
Thread Starter
Nothing to do with Airways Cymru but the Romanians also built a single short body Rombac 1-11, designated 487. AFAIK she remained on the Romanian register and also saw service with Anglo Cargo Airlines.
I sometimes wonder quite how hard British Midland looked for additional jets, let alone DC9s, when it transpired they were going to be short for the winter 1985/86 season. Airways Cymru probably thought all their Christmases had come at once when BM came knocking!
I sometimes wonder quite how hard British Midland looked for additional jets, let alone DC9s, when it transpired they were going to be short for the winter 1985/86 season. Airways Cymru probably thought all their Christmases had come at once when BM came knocking!
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But by this time BD had taken delivery of brand new Boeings (733 and 734's)
BMA's parent company, Airlines of Britain Holdings, that included Loganair (Scotland) and Manx Airlines (Isle of Man) was recapitalized in December 1988, when Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) bought a 24.9 percent stake for £25 million. SAS became a significant source of Interline traffic at LHR, and performed heavy maintenance on BD's DC-9 aircraft.
BMA posted a profit of £14.3 million for 1988.
The triumphant year was followed closely by tragedy in January 1989 when a brand new British Midland Boeing 737 crashed at Kegworth, just a few miles from its headquarters at EMA.
The airline continued to expand, although at a faster pace than it desired: BD opened a London-Paris route in 1989 to avoid giving up slots it had been awarded at Heathrow.
Besides the increased competition from British Airways, British Midland faced rising fuel prices and reduced passenger counts as a result of the Gulf War in January 1990.
After losing millions, BMA cut a tenth of its workforce of around 300 people.
Gulf War 1 would see the demise of BIA, then quickly followed by Air Europe and soon Dan Air was to be gone.
SAS increased their stake in BD to 40% in 1992, and this saw the transfer from SAS of a fleet of 737-500 aircraft.
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Hi everyone.
This is a great thread.
I flew on G-YMRU in Aug 1984 from CWL-TFS, complete in its still ex Quebecair livery! I didn’t have a clue who the airline was until I flew with them and we managed to make it non stop in both directions. From then on I always had a soft spot over the years for CYM and so threads like this are great. Over the years I have also managed to collect from memorabilia, including an inflight magazine which is my pride and joy! ☺️
Living close to CWL I would get my father to take me to the airport, mostly on a Sunday and I would often see CYM, quite regularly delayed! They would always park ‘round the back’ at CWL and I can even remember their 3 check in desks painted in a different colour to the others, think it was red or blue!
The airline was owned by Red Dragon Travel based in Cardiff and during my career I even worked with someone who worked for that company, admittedly not at the time CYM was operating, but she did share stories about CYM and later DMD.
As time has gone on it’s been great to read so much about the airline. Interesting to read that 1988 could have been a good year for the airline with it looking to diversity into its next phase and gain an expanded contact with Thomson Holidays. There was a local programme called ‘Wales This Week’ which went out in Jan/Feb 1988 when the airline collapsed and detailed a lot about the airline. I remember recording it on my VHS tape but that is long gone and I wish I could find that episode as it was really interesting from that I can remember.
I have the old Airport Timetables UK from that era which feature CYM and it’s amazing how many positioning flights they used to operate!
It is always great to hear all the tales about this airline and it appears that although they would appear to do everything in a shoestring, it had friendly staff who enjoyed working for the airline.
Thanks for a great trip down memory lane…..
This is a great thread.
I flew on G-YMRU in Aug 1984 from CWL-TFS, complete in its still ex Quebecair livery! I didn’t have a clue who the airline was until I flew with them and we managed to make it non stop in both directions. From then on I always had a soft spot over the years for CYM and so threads like this are great. Over the years I have also managed to collect from memorabilia, including an inflight magazine which is my pride and joy! ☺️
Living close to CWL I would get my father to take me to the airport, mostly on a Sunday and I would often see CYM, quite regularly delayed! They would always park ‘round the back’ at CWL and I can even remember their 3 check in desks painted in a different colour to the others, think it was red or blue!
The airline was owned by Red Dragon Travel based in Cardiff and during my career I even worked with someone who worked for that company, admittedly not at the time CYM was operating, but she did share stories about CYM and later DMD.
As time has gone on it’s been great to read so much about the airline. Interesting to read that 1988 could have been a good year for the airline with it looking to diversity into its next phase and gain an expanded contact with Thomson Holidays. There was a local programme called ‘Wales This Week’ which went out in Jan/Feb 1988 when the airline collapsed and detailed a lot about the airline. I remember recording it on my VHS tape but that is long gone and I wish I could find that episode as it was really interesting from that I can remember.
I have the old Airport Timetables UK from that era which feature CYM and it’s amazing how many positioning flights they used to operate!
It is always great to hear all the tales about this airline and it appears that although they would appear to do everything in a shoestring, it had friendly staff who enjoyed working for the airline.
Thanks for a great trip down memory lane…..
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Thread Starter
Hi everyone.
This is a great thread.
I flew on G-YMRU in Aug 1984 from CWL-TFS, complete in its still ex Quebecair livery! I didn’t have a clue who the airline was until I flew with them and we managed to make it non stop in both directions. From then on I always had a soft spot over the years for CYM and so threads like this are great. Over the years I have also managed to collect from memorabilia, including an inflight magazine which is my pride and joy! ☺️
Living close to CWL I would get my father to take me to the airport, mostly on a Sunday and I would often see CYM, quite regularly delayed! They would always park ‘round the back’ at CWL and I can even remember their 3 check in desks painted in a different colour to the others, think it was red or blue!
The airline was owned by Red Dragon Travel based in Cardiff and during my career I even worked with someone who worked for that company, admittedly not at the time CYM was operating, but she did share stories about CYM and later DMD.
As time has gone on it’s been great to read so much about the airline. Interesting to read that 1988 could have been a good year for the airline with it looking to diversity into its next phase and gain an expanded contact with Thomson Holidays. There was a local programme called ‘Wales This Week’ which went out in Jan/Feb 1988 when the airline collapsed and detailed a lot about the airline. I remember recording it on my VHS tape but that is long gone and I wish I could find that episode as it was really interesting from that I can remember.
I have the old Airport Timetables UK from that era which feature CYM and it’s amazing how many positioning flights they used to operate!
It is always great to hear all the tales about this airline and it appears that although they would appear to do everything in a shoestring, it had friendly staff who enjoyed working for the airline.
Thanks for a great trip down memory lane…..
This is a great thread.
I flew on G-YMRU in Aug 1984 from CWL-TFS, complete in its still ex Quebecair livery! I didn’t have a clue who the airline was until I flew with them and we managed to make it non stop in both directions. From then on I always had a soft spot over the years for CYM and so threads like this are great. Over the years I have also managed to collect from memorabilia, including an inflight magazine which is my pride and joy! ☺️
Living close to CWL I would get my father to take me to the airport, mostly on a Sunday and I would often see CYM, quite regularly delayed! They would always park ‘round the back’ at CWL and I can even remember their 3 check in desks painted in a different colour to the others, think it was red or blue!
The airline was owned by Red Dragon Travel based in Cardiff and during my career I even worked with someone who worked for that company, admittedly not at the time CYM was operating, but she did share stories about CYM and later DMD.
As time has gone on it’s been great to read so much about the airline. Interesting to read that 1988 could have been a good year for the airline with it looking to diversity into its next phase and gain an expanded contact with Thomson Holidays. There was a local programme called ‘Wales This Week’ which went out in Jan/Feb 1988 when the airline collapsed and detailed a lot about the airline. I remember recording it on my VHS tape but that is long gone and I wish I could find that episode as it was really interesting from that I can remember.
I have the old Airport Timetables UK from that era which feature CYM and it’s amazing how many positioning flights they used to operate!
It is always great to hear all the tales about this airline and it appears that although they would appear to do everything in a shoestring, it had friendly staff who enjoyed working for the airline.
Thanks for a great trip down memory lane…..
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One of the upsides of using a leased aircraft on their shortest route, London to Leeds, is that such leases commonly have a high proportion of the cost based on flying hours, so the less hours it does the better. BA once did a lease of a 727 for their Shuttle flights, it came from US carrier American Trans Air, who among other work did US military charters from a sub-base in Germany, and supplied crew and aircraft from there, at a high hourly charge which looked good, but didn't twig that although aircraft and crew were always in readiness it was only going to be used as a last-ditch Shuttle backup aircraft, and so it got low hours and lost them money.
Finnair BD DC9
OH-LYB (named Merseyside) was the first of 3 other DC-9's to be leased/bought from Finnair (YA, YC and YD, and all were in BMA livery.
We always flew them with our Crew (Flight Deck and Cabin) but with an AY 'flying spanner'' usually on the Jump Seat when we first got YB.
2 of these became G-BMAH and AI.
We also in 1978, leased a DC-9 from Southern as N48075 also named Merseyside
I cannot recall why this happened - possibly as YB went back to HEL for a bit >?
When the LHR-LPL was relegated to a Turbo-prop, DC-9 'YB' went to the EMA base now named Darley Dale.
A DC-9 later replaced the Viscount on the LGW-BFS route.
G-BMAB (ex TWA) was noted named Ulster, but this was done I think in relation to the new LHR-BFS route awarded in 1983).
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I remember the Southern DC-9. Surprised these aircraft weren't UK registered while leased, was there a reason for that?
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