British and European charter airlines from days past...
The two Translift passenger DC-8s were part of the whole fleet of series 71s bought from United by lessors GPA and all (I think) destined for freighter conversion. Some others flew in passenger configuration for different operators, pending their turn in the conversion queue.
This aircraft then went on to Emery Airfreight, who got another 10 years use out of it. It may well be the Emery DC8 whose takeoff I once delayed (by all of 30 seconds
) in my PA28 at St Petersburg PIE airport, Florida, one evening. End of a fascinating first-ever night flying up and down the coast, I was picking my way gingerly onto the taxyway lights. The neurotic tower controller started shouting at me within seconds, she said I was "delaying a Commercial Service". I doubt they had even got lined up behind me by this time.
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We offered to let an American Eagle ATR depart ahead of us in a 152 at Key West - "that's OK sir, we still got a bunch of checks to do..."
WHBM referenced the Stansted Sunday Scandinavian charters early in the thread. Here is the "Sunday Regulars" spot from the February 1982 edition of Stansted Aviation Newsletter, noting the January 1982 comings and goings. Not sure why Maersk are missing as their 732's and 720's were definitely part of the invasion, but otherwise the regulars from Braathens, BusyBee, Lynjeflyg, Conair, Scanair and Sterling are nicely represented
The two Translift passenger DC-8s were part of the whole fleet of series 71s bought from United by lessors GPA and all (I think) destined for freighter conversion. Some others flew in passenger configuration for different operators, pending their turn in the conversion queue.
Aer Turas definitely had DC-8's - which made me think of Interconair, the cowboy Britannia operator (I'm not being rude - they specialised in cattle charters...)
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A lesser operation, but in the 1970s I was at university in Edinburgh. There was a traditional, and quite large, contingent from Norway there. No direct flights, and so every start and end of each term they would charter from Braathens to come to and fro. There were about 125 such students.
When I first went there it was on a DC6B. This had to do a double lift, morning flight from Oslo to Edinburgh, then it returned empty and did a second flight in the afternoon, returning empty again. Opposite at the end of term. A good day's work for the crew and aircraft.
Form about 1974 they got a Braathens 737-200 instead. This could take all in one flight, plus was of course much faster than the plodding "Big Doug". It normally did an early morning scheduled business flight from Oslo to Bergen and back, then a holiday flight to the Mediterranean. The Edinburgh round trip was just inserted between these two, the Med trip scheduled for a few hours later on those days. It was a real example of jet productivity.
When I first went there it was on a DC6B. This had to do a double lift, morning flight from Oslo to Edinburgh, then it returned empty and did a second flight in the afternoon, returning empty again. Opposite at the end of term. A good day's work for the crew and aircraft.
Form about 1974 they got a Braathens 737-200 instead. This could take all in one flight, plus was of course much faster than the plodding "Big Doug". It normally did an early morning scheduled business flight from Oslo to Bergen and back, then a holiday flight to the Mediterranean. The Edinburgh round trip was just inserted between these two, the Med trip scheduled for a few hours later on those days. It was a real example of jet productivity.
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Rog 747 ,re your thought ...
'' BA IIRC, bought as many of these C engines as they could, for spares.''
Whilst still hanging about on Tridents ; we were told that Eastern swopped to E engines as they were more economical on the longer sectors they flew . BA meantime flew the 75s on short sectors where the Cs were better , as 10 mins or less in the cruise was normal . Thus BA's second batch of 75s were engined with Cs bought second hand and at knockdown prices from Eastern . Once that supply was exhausted , then further batchs and Caledonians were Es from new . The last few being ' PIPed ' [ product improvement programme ] .. Tho what that really was , I was never completely sure ! Slightly faster , more capable FMC [ Flight Management Computer ] supposedly .
rgds condor .
'' BA IIRC, bought as many of these C engines as they could, for spares.''
Whilst still hanging about on Tridents ; we were told that Eastern swopped to E engines as they were more economical on the longer sectors they flew . BA meantime flew the 75s on short sectors where the Cs were better , as 10 mins or less in the cruise was normal . Thus BA's second batch of 75s were engined with Cs bought second hand and at knockdown prices from Eastern . Once that supply was exhausted , then further batchs and Caledonians were Es from new . The last few being ' PIPed ' [ product improvement programme ] .. Tho what that really was , I was never completely sure ! Slightly faster , more capable FMC [ Flight Management Computer ] supposedly .
rgds condor .
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A couple more which I don't think have been mentioned.
Prime Airlines - nothing to do with Amazon, but an offshoot of Heavylift Cargo Airlines.
Launched in 2001, it struggled following 9/11 and failed in 2002. It operated a single A300.
Eirjet - an Irish A320 operator from late 2004 through to Autumn 2006.
Perhaps most famous for landing an A320 at Shackleton Barracks (formerly RAF Ballykelly) mistaking it for Londonderry when operating a flight on behalf of Ryanair from Liverpool.
Prime Airlines - nothing to do with Amazon, but an offshoot of Heavylift Cargo Airlines.
Launched in 2001, it struggled following 9/11 and failed in 2002. It operated a single A300.
Eirjet - an Irish A320 operator from late 2004 through to Autumn 2006.
Perhaps most famous for landing an A320 at Shackleton Barracks (formerly RAF Ballykelly) mistaking it for Londonderry when operating a flight on behalf of Ryanair from Liverpool.
The Bournemouth travel agent Bath Travel used to operate their own holidays using a BAC 111 from Bournemouth. Although the aircraft was in their colours they obviously weren't the operators but I can't remember who were. It might have been Air Europe. One morning I was booked to fly on a scheduled flight from Bournemouth to Edinburgh on BAC111 and it went tech so the brought over the Bath Travel one in its place. I think that BT did change to a 737 later because it once flew into Jersey in thick fog and while it was parked the freezing fuel caused wing icing. As it was June, the airport had taken their de-icing equipment for servicing. The delay enabled my daughter and friends to get a lift back to Bournemouth. They were unable to fly their Baron back because of the fog.
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Eirjet - an Irish A320 operator from late 2004 through to Autumn 2006.
Perhaps most famous for landing an A320 at Shackleton Barracks (formerly RAF Ballykelly) mistaking it for Londonderry when operating a flight on behalf of Ryanair from Liverpool.
Perhaps most famous for landing an A320 at Shackleton Barracks (formerly RAF Ballykelly) mistaking it for Londonderry when operating a flight on behalf of Ryanair from Liverpool.
Oh yes, they were very lucky to have had no surprises landing there and only wounded pride. I seem to remember a meme at the time where someone had photoshopped the image and converted the name into 'Eiijet'.
Blimey is this thread still going? There’s also the seasonal swaps: Air Florida with Air Europe, Skyservice with Airtours/Air2000 etc, Allegiant with Jet2 (kind of), Air Tanker with bloody everybody…
Bath Travel of Bournemouth used a range of operators over time, but did like to place their decals on the aircraft as I believe they would represent the flights (not many per week) as "theirs", trading as Palmair. With a One-Eleven it sounds like the period in the late 1990s when they used European Aviation, actually also based at Bournemouth, who had bought much of the BA One-Eleven fleet when these were retired, and used them on a range of subcharters and contract ACMI operations, for quite a range of mainstream operators, some fully in the carriers livery.
The Palmair operation gave up about 15 years ago, squeezed between higher end operators like Jet2 (who at one stage operated their flights) and Ryanair coming into Bournemouth and providing competition in the local market where previously there had been little - although I recall from back in the 1970s Spantax had done a weekly Convair 990 flight to Palma from Bournemouth.
The Palmair operation gave up about 15 years ago, squeezed between higher end operators like Jet2 (who at one stage operated their flights) and Ryanair coming into Bournemouth and providing competition in the local market where previously there had been little - although I recall from back in the 1970s Spantax had done a weekly Convair 990 flight to Palma from Bournemouth.
Last edited by WHBM; 28th May 2024 at 17:32.
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European Aviation also operated the 737-200, mainly if not wholly ex-Sabena and Sobelair aircraft. There may have been some overlap with these and the ex-BA 1-11s.
The weekly Spantax flight into and out of Bournemouth provided considerable entertainment. You could see them coming from miles away from the black smoke coming from the Convair's four engines. I understood that they maintained a fair stock of spare tires at Bournemouth. They often used the shorter 35 runway because it saved taxi time. A very impressive take off with plenty of black smoke and noise.
Was at Luton on a cold windy day in March 1983 with a crowd of hacks (journalists) welcoming Monarch's first B757 with chief pilot Don Macangus (I think) at the controls. That was when it was a proper airline run by aviation people.