Low Fares to Africa
 

I'm trying to put a name, and a few details, to the operation that used to run (late 50s/early 60s?) between the UK and the East African colonies. A number of independent airlines used to operate typically Viscounts with lower fares, more stops and generally less attractive amenities than BOAC and its Britannias and Comets.

Was it a genuinely commercial operation? In other words, were they allowed to undercut the flag carrier on condition that they offered lower standards of service? Or was it Government-subsidised?

Hunting-Clan &/or Airwork seem to fit the bill, evidenced by some interesting old photos here

Magnificent photos - thanks for sharing them. I passed through Entebbe in Jan 1971 in an EAA VC 10.

Thanks 'gruntie' they are a bunch of pictures that will be viewed time and time again. And what this forum is about.

Good job!

PPP

Basically it was Hunting-Clan and Airwork who were allowed to start low-fare services to East, and later West, Africa. They started initially in the early 1950s with Vikings, which needed a huge number of tech stops along the way, then advanced to Viscounts.

These two airlines merged in 1960 to form the core of British United who introduced Britannias and ultimately VC-10s on the routes. It ended up as an independent alternative to BOAC/BA. Until the VC-10s came along they were usually one step behing BOAC in equipment.

Frequency was always low, a couple of times a week at most. The operators were always bursting to add service. In the beginning Hunting and Airwork did a weekly operation which they alternated between each other, fortnightly each. As far as crewing goes they did extended nightstops each night as well as the intermediate fuel stops and I get the impression the same crew did the whole round trip (which took the best part of a week) in one go.

The conditions were fairly tightly controlled. Most of the passengers were actually travelling on UK government business anyway, colonial officers and their families forming the bulk of the loads. Anybody on business tended to go BOAC.

Just about to leave the country for a few days but I have plenty of timetables and history, dates etc in my collection.

*Edit - Aha ! Just sat here ready to go and remembered I have a file here on my Notebook !

1956 timetable, all Vickers Viking.

Weekly. 0915 Mondays AW/HC401 :
Heathrow - Biarritz - Tangier - Agadir - Villa Cisneros - Bathurst - Freetown - Takoradi - Accra

Twice-weekly 0845 Wednesdays/Fridays AW/HC 301 :
Heathrow - Nice - Malta - Tripoli - Wadi Halfa - Khartoum - Juba - Entebbe - Taba - Ndola - Lusaka - Salisbury

Thrice-weekly 0830 Tue/Thu/Sat AW/HC 101 :
Heathrow - Nice - Malta - Tripoli - Wadi Halfa - Khartoum - Juba - Entebbe - Nairobi

Cape to London
 

Who attempted to run an alternate service Capetown > London possibly as early as 1947?
At this time naturally B.O.A.C. and S.A.A., had duopoly on this route.
I remember the news coverage of the first flight. Were there ever any more? The northward progress of the aircraft was reported stop by stop. The Board of Trade said it would not provide any fuel. The company claimed they were only operating a Cape to Paris service and the final leg was optional and free of charge. The aircraft would refuel in Paris for a return trip to London.
Now recollection is vague I seem to think that at sometime service was refused at colonial airports and the route became a bit circuitous being obliged to use either French or Portuguese facilities only.
The captain on this first flight was a Fred McCauliffe (spelling?) between careers WW2 and later in the R.A.F. This I know for a fact because his son taught me the basic difference between girls and boys, however I don't think even he knew then why there was a difference!