GTS,

Sorry twas GAMCO, my error

Temps

The Demise
 

WHBM

Though I was hardly out of short trousers at the time, I think I'm right in saying that the chief contributor to the downfall of Court Line was the British economy which was pretty dire at the time they went down the pan. Wasn't the £50.00 travel allowance still around then? I can't imagine how anyone travelled on holiday with that little cash in the back pocket - and no credit cards!

WHBM
I think it would have been even more prudent to have bought an engine-carrying aircraft that actually worked !
and your suggestion would be ? :confused:

ATNotts
Yes partly but a couple of other factors
Clarkson who was the main customer went broke.
CourtLine bought Clarksons for £1 but the debts were too much.
Another factor was the fuel surcharge that hit the market those last couple of years ( and is back now:O)
Court Line group was very large which included major shipping interests. They offered most of the shipping assest to the Government. A price was agreed but the Government dragged its feet so CL went under

court line also owned apart from clarksons, horizon holidays and 4S travel and 4S sports travel...

horizon then got bought out by the directors i think and started orion airways bought later by britannia

4S travel was my first job
it was a small nice tour operator usng bcal/court line and air spain

Sun Sea Sand and Superjet if my memory is good enough.

Of course, always known as Sun Sea Sand and Sex.

Oh, did we do such things in those days ? :)

Sadly my first sight of a Courtline jet was at Luton Airport in the autumn of 1974, where the two L1011s languished before being returned to Lockheed in Palmdale (from where I think they went to Cathay Pacific). I wish I'd seen their extraordinary looking fleet in action.

Jaqui,
Can you keep me posted on the 20008 re-union
"Thor the galley slave"

Wasn't Fred Sheldrick, (or was it Sheldrake?), the Captain that
landed a 1-11 at Luton wearing a smoke mask with his head out
of the D/V window after the radome was absolutely wrecked by
hailstone coming back from Palma?:eek:

I seem to recollect it was "Hazel" Hazleden that bought that one in-if we are talking about the same incident ? I remember meeting the aircraft on arrival and the F/O was as white as a sheet but Hazel was as cool as a cucumber-all in a days work etc!! His pedigree as former Handley Page chief Test pilot probably went a long way towards his handling of the situation.

Is it Halcyon Days, or Halcyon DAZE ?
Yes you are right, I think, It was a brill bit of flying
Whoever it was. Aircraft was a mess though!:ok:

Jaqui
 

Is that the one and only David Williams - ex Courtline & Gulf Air ???:p

No, afraid not. It's the one & only Norm Hirst, ex-Court line,
KLM, IAS,Air Europe, and Britannia Airways. Sorry.

yes it is !
 

Hi Jaqui,
Yes it is......Just over the boarder in Saudi these days but left Aviation years ago, If you remember MGW, He died last month at the grand old age of 84.
keep in touch,

They had a tanker - Halcyon The Great (?) - at the oil refinery in Come-By-Chance NF when the bankruptcy writ came down. In the dead of night the crew warped her away from the dock using the spring lines instead of a tug and escaped, leading the RCMP on a merry chase down Placentia Bay. They got away with it too. :ok:

Pigboat,
Yes it was Halcyon the Great !

It was one of the first tankers over 100,000 tons ;) Hence the name!

Of course old hat now seeing some of these tanker weights !

Court Line also had Court Line Helicopters in Cape Town ( John Bourne where are you now:O.)
They used to supply tankers coming round the Cape as these were now all too big to get through Suez. The tankers (On autopilot!) would not slow down or change course so the drops had to be made on the move ! Quite a challenge with the boat doing 20+ knots and a tail wind of 30 knots
We lost an S62 on that operation that touch the waves on the way back.

I believe the helicopters are still operating:bored:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GotTheTshirt (Post 4014183)

I believe the helicopters are still operating

---

Not only helicopters, but they had Convair 580s operating only a few years ago in what many here will think are some very familiar livery schemes !

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Court-Air/Convair-580/0144658/M/

and

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Court-Air/Convair-580/0217632/M/

yes, different base colours for each aircraft

LIAT too?
 

Plus, they owned LIAT, which operated 1-11s painted in Court livery too.

WHBM

I remember the fixed wing side and the subtle change of name !;)

It was originally called Court Line Helicopters and wholly owned by CL.
After the collapse it was sold off I think to a local group and the name changed to Court and I think Court Air was added with the Fixed wing.
I seem to remember some fixed wing before the Convairs :confused: maybe Beech or Swearingen:hmm:

At the time of CL demise the Chief engineer was John Bourne

Other causes of the Court Line bankruptcy were:

1. The three-day week in the UK which reduced incomes dramatically
2. Increased oil prices following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, also reducing people's disposable income.
3. Changes of Government in Greece, Spain and Portugal (revolutionary, not democratic!) creating a sense of uncertainty and nervousness in travellers.

Together, these factors led to a recession, and Court Line was financially weak for the reasons outlined in other posts.

LGS

LGS,
There was another factor which you may remember.
3 years before with rising fuel prices operators decided to add a fuel surcharge on all flights. This amount was finalised 2 weeks prior to departure and punters were sent a supplementary invoice which had to be paid prior to departure. The amount was not even known until the bill arrived.
All operators did this so there was no escape.:*
Needless to say it was not popular.:=

In 1973 Thompson advertised NO fuel surcharge so all operators had to follow suit.
That winter Court was flying Caribbean operators so the fuel bite was hard.:ouch: