Air Bridge Carriers
 

Anyone remember Air Bridge Carriers?

I would imagine that quite a lot of people might remember Air Bridge Carriers.

Sagittair, Air Bridge Carriers, Hunting Cargo Airlines, Air Contractors.
Argosy, Herald, Vanguard, Electra, B727, A300, F27, B737.

Nope! Don't remember a thing!

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/105925977@N03/, on Flickr

Never really saw them at my local, Newcastle, in 'Air Bridge' guise. We do get Air Contractors' ATR42s in here doing the FedEx run between GLA and CDG - never knew they were linked to Air Bridge. Thanks for that info, dixi188.


Going a bit left-field here, but I do remember a story about one of the Merchantmen being haunted?

Christmas Day 1988. Heathrow

I do, though the memory is quite vague. :)

I remember one of the engineers telling me he’d gone to an aeroplane (cant remember which one) on the ramp that he’d supposed was empty, he’d noticed someone sitting in the Captains seat who he guessed hadn’t heard his greeting. He did what he needed to do in the ‘cabin’ and had nipped in to the flight deck to say goodbye. There was no-one there. It had a big effect on him and he was loathe to enter another ‘empty’ aircraft.

Sorry it’s a bit vague, but I think this is the gist of what he told me.

But in reality that engineer was seeing things because as we all know 'haunted' doesn't really exist in the real world, it's a matter of opinion and there is always a sensible reason behind it.

No, let’s not hijack the thread. It doesn’t matter.

Was Fields, the engineering outfit at East Midlands and Heathrow, a sister company to ABC ?

The company had a handful of Viscount 800s in the late 70s/early 80s which spent at least some of their time operating for Dan-Air. BCZR, BGLC and CSZA/B.

One engineer did describe to me how he found a complaint in the log about 'ghostly sounds from the airstairs'. He signed it off with 'airstairs lubricated and excorcised'.

Can't be sure if that involved a Vanguard, but I suspect it did.

was air foyle part of ABC?

IIRC ABC was started by two ex-BEA captains - Arnold(?) Boakes(?) and ??? Carter, so the acronym deriving from their names also suited the new company.

[QUOTE=Mooncrest;10101969]Was Fields, the engineering outfit at East Midlands and Heathrow, a sister company to ABC ?

Field Aircraft Services & ABC were both subsidiary companies of the Hunting Group. Jack Capstick was the senior director of both companies and he was very supportive of these aviation subsidiaries.

Cyril Stevens became involved with ABC when the company bought their first Merchantman from BEA/BA

Dick Gilbert has written an excellent book on the company:-


His collection on Flickr contains many photos of aircraft and staff from ABC, plus many other outstanding historical shots.


Hearing one of the Merchantmen rumble up Amber One above Castle Don. around midnight on the Luton-Glasgow papers, is an abiding memory.

[quote=happybiker;10102203]Thankyou happybiker. I knew there was some connection. I believe Fields was something of a Viscount maintenance centre.

Were Air Bridge linked to Channel Air Bridge?

I remember as a lad their Bristol Freighters and ATL Carvairs trundling across to France from Southend.

rog747:

I am pretty certain that Chris Foyle had nothing to do with Air Bridge but we ended up with a lot of their ex-Vanguard drivers on the TNT contract.

Remember a j/s ride to GLA on a mins night Cappy grabbed a/c as we broke out just above mins after a perfect ILS by the co-jo

I was once privy to a CV from an engineer who claimed he was a "Director Designate " for ABC no less....alas.

Unfortunately, for him, his rapid departure from the UK and equally rapid departure from his then M.E bolt hole was well known, as was his capacity "to be economical with the truth "....along with a certain lack of attention to details when it came to the dates and content of his "impressive qualifications " as glowingly provided on his CV.

Used to meet, in passing, a genuine ABC engineer quite often however. This was in the 80's / 90's, an elderly guy with a beard is the best description I can give, but always a nice guy and always working alone. Which mustn't have been much fun on the then elderly Merchantman