wouldhave. This may be too old for your search, and you may have seen it before ? scanned from 'British Independent Airlines since 1946' I hope it may be of some use to you ?

Keith.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...airroutes2.jpg

As a Newcastle spotter in the early and mid 1960s, one of my most vivid memories was of the airfield being beaten-up in a remarkable flying display by a Dan-Air Dove. It was on the occasion of the type's phasing-out from the cross-country route which followed different routings on different days and in different seasons but took in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Bournemouth and possibly other places as well.

I think the Doves must have been replaced by Daks, it certainly wasn't Budgies, they came later. The Daks also flew to Kristiansand, sometimes even with the odd paying customer.

Later, in 1969, there was an Ambassador flying a Saturday Carlisle and Isle of Man service, with a Newcastle-Carlisle fare of twelve bob (60p). And no, I never got around to partaking :{

748 From Leeds-Bradford
 

Around '74-'76 Dan Air had a 748 based at Leeds-Bradford. It did a daily 'bus-route' that was something like: Leeds-Glasgow-Leeds-Cardiff-Bristol-Bournemouth-Jersey-Guernsey-Bournemouth-Bristol-Cardiff-Leeds-Glasgow-Leeds.

At the same time Air Anglia did a similar thing with an F27 based at Norwich, its route was something like Norwich-Leeds-Edinburgh-Aberdeen-Stavanger-Aberdeen-Edinburgh-Leeds-Norwich.

Seeing as the Dan Air 1st leg was Leeds-Glasgow and the last leg was Glasgow-Leeds, I used it quite frequently. I was based in Leeds and had to visit Glasgow based customers quite a lot. I could spend a full day at my customer and not have a night away from home and family. I did one day trip to Bournemouth and back to visit the RN in Portsmouth, I managed to get my business done while Dan Air were playing around in 'Bergerac Country' :)

When I needed to get to Edinburgh customers I did the same with Air Anglia.

Two very useful services for me at the time. Can it be done today?

Adam - in 1991 the 'normal' NCL charter cab was a 737, but it sounds like either a 1-11 or 727 as you say. Depends a bit on where you were going too.

The 'cross-country' was known as the Link City, which I think was even painted on one of the HS748's. Bournemouth (i.e. Hurn in proper language) had 2 based 748's that stayed overnight. I thought one was for the Jersey/Guernsey routes and the other for the Link City route.

When the Comet at Hurn in 1979/1980, Bath Travel sold tickets for the positioning flight back to Gatwick for £8 each. The aircraft was G-BDIU and the pilots did an amazing take-off roll starting from turning onto the runway, with what appeared to be a near vertical climb-out! At Gatwick they finished with an overshoot before landing. What an amazing £8 worth.

I also flew on B727's G-BAFZ and and G-BAJW when I did 2 ski trips to Clermont-Ferrand. I did a cockpit visit on one trip and there were 5 flight deck crew.

Certainly an oddball airline and always something interesting to see. Like the Fiji Airways 748 on the Channel Islands route one day! (DQ-FAL, later G-BIUV).

BOAC...The flight was to Mahon, Menorca in about September 1991. Sorry for being so unspecific.

I would guess you were treated to a 'luxury' 1-11 but only a guess. The 737 usually did the longer stuff like Larnaca.

The 748's did the Staverton/Jersey charters too (early 80's?) I think they used to go via Bristol

HS748 G-AXVG :: G-AXVG.jpg :: Fotopic.Net

HS748 G-BHCJ :: G-BHCJ.jpg :: Fotopic.Net

Interesting airline was Dan-Air.
Some are surprised they lasted as long as they did......... probably something to do with 'Team Spirit', sadly not shown up on the accountants balance sheet so not wanted these days by the Bean Counters.

With regard to #10 "When the 146-100 came out, they bought their first ever new aircraft".................
Did they not get a brand new Nord 262 many years before, and play with it for a short while.?

Dan Air Routes
 

I think the Nord 262 [ operated from mid-1970 to early 1972 ] was actually second-hand, bought from Air Ceylon.

Coincidentally, I've just been looking at the DA scheduled services for 1962, and in the timetable there is a three times weekly extension of the Bristol/Cardiff/Liverpool/Newcastle service to Dundee and Glasgow. Dundee is shown as being served via "HMS Condor, Arbroath" !

Does anyone know if this ever actually came about ?

Dan Dare also had a significant base at Luton during the late 60's and early 70's, from about 1969 to 1974.

The based aircraft were 3 short-fuselage 1-11's (ex-British Eagle I think), plus one or two Comets. The Comets were later replaced by 727's. it was one of these 727's that nearly came to disaster on Rwy 26 on takeoff in 1974. The aircraft climbed away but not before sinking into the valley beyond the runway threshold and taking out some approach lights, although my memory is a bit hazy about the actual details of this event.

I believe the airline quit LTN soon after; in any case 1974-75 were terrible years for the British IT charter business following the oil price hike and Clarkson's collapse.

I had several flights in the 748's between Aberdeen and Sumburgh in the mid-70's. Those crews really knew how to handle those aircraft in frequently atrocious weather, especially landing at Sumburgh in severe gusting crosswinds.

They also flew a DC7 freighter in the late 1960's, based at Gatwick. I recall seeing it depart one day with an engine feathered after t/o, not unusual for a DC7 with those temperamental turbo-compound powerplants.

The airline also had some very sad incidents, such as the Barcelona Comet crash in 1970 and the Tenerife 727 crash in 1980. Both were CFIT accidents caused by crew disorientation when using dubious navaids and procedures.

The One-Elevens were from American Airlines, as well as former British Eagle ones, but the charter contracts from Luton were largely ex-Eagle ones, which Dan-Air picked up when Eagle went out of business. British Eagle was the last real charter operator based at Heathrow, but Dan-Air chose to set up a new base at Luton for these flights rather than use their established one at Gatwick.

This must have been the time when Dan-Air were finally winding up their Airspeed Ambassador fleet. One of these was based at Liverpool and operated daily to Amsterdam, an oddball link in their network. Anyone who is familiar with the sleeve-valved Bristol Centaurus radials on the Ambassador will know they were liable to smoke on startup, and after 15 years in service plus standing overnight at Speke, the morning start-up was something to see (although any aircraft parked behind it was not then something you could see for a few minutes). I wonder if any passenger ever had to be offloaded after witnessing it ! They must have got through several gallons of lube each day.

Not an answer but

I’ve a copy in front of me of the May 1969 issue of the ABC which shows the Autair Heathrow-Dundee service (Heralds: two a week direct, two via Carlisle and three via Blackpool) using RAF Leuchars.

Let's see what The Oracle (ie Tony Merton-Jones' book "British Independent Airlines") says :

"On July 3 1961 Dakotas took over the Plymouth-Cardiff-Bristol-Liverpool-Newcastle service, and on July 7 G-AMSS inaugurated a Liverpool-Newcastle-Dundee route. Dan-Air used Arbroath as its Dundee terminal airport ...... however, in July 1962 Dan-Air announced that due to lack of support, the services were to be severely pruned".

Looking on Google Earth at the still-extant runway at HMS Condor, I'm sure you could still put a Dakota down there. In those days it was a Fleet Air Arm base.

WHBM
 

Can speak off the Centaurus on the Beverley, where each donk consumed about an Imperial gallon an hour!

Sorry if this is considered 'Topic creep'

Dan Air - Arbroath
 

Thanks for the pointer to Tony M-J's book - silly of me, I've got the book but missed that item entirely - paralysis by analysis I think !

Richard.

Mustbeaboeing, i have a feeling the first new aircraft Dan Air bought was a Bristol 170 freighter

Leuchars was not a practical airport for Dundee in 1962 as the Tay Road Bridge was not opened until 1966, so it was relatively inaccessible.

(I have been trying for some time to find out as much as possible about their route network but have been hitting a brick wall.)

DA picked up INV/LHR from BA around 1983 and operated this route very successfully till the end. G-ATPK, BAC 1-11 srs300 was a regular on this route, later replaced by 500 srs aircraft and finally B737s.

They also operated LGW-MAN-INV & INV-ABZ-LGW for a short period around circa 1990-1991

Dan-Air 1960's schedules into Teesside
 

Can anyone tell me exactly when Dan-Air stopped their initial scheduled services into Teesside (begun in 1965)? These ran NCL-MME-LPL-CWL-BRS, with DC3, and later Ambassador as far as LPL. They appear in the summer 1969 timetable, and have vanished by July 1970, after Nord 262 introduced. (Dan-Air resumed Teesside schedules again from 1973).