Charter airline visits to Leeds Bradford, 1960s and 1970s
 

Britannia Airways began using LBA in 1976 but does anybody know which airlines visited prior to this time and what their likely destinations were ? Passenger or cargo. The only one I can think of is the Transavia Caravelle doing trips to the Dutch bulb fields.

I do remember the likes of BIA, Dan-Air, Aer Lingus and Northeast on the scheduled front but not the charter scene.

Thankyou.

Leeds?Bradford charters
 

Martinair Rotterdam DC4/7
Air Links - Argonaut - Lourdes
Dan Air - Ostend - DC3
British Eagle - Viscount - Palma
Autair International - Ambassador - Palma
Treffield - Viscount - Palma
All in the mid 60s

Martin's Air Charter (which later became Martinair) were regular visitors during the 1960s using DC-3s and Convair 440s. Not sure which destinations they served.

Thankyou horatio. Given that Martinair was Dutch their visits are quite likely to have been in connection with the bulb fields.

Leds/Bradford charters
 

Martinair operated Bulb field flights i think for Clarksons
Dan Air operated so called Champagne flights to Paris for short series with the Ambassador.

I've seen a picture of an Ambassador taking off from RW33 at LBA. I can't tell if it's Dan-Air or BKS though. At least it wasn't going to the Netherlands. 'On your left, tulips. On your right, daffodils etc.' I can't imagine anything more dull.

But tulips and daffodils are actually quite colourful!:ok:

wardair 747's and DC-10's were regular summer visitors to Canada

I seem to recall Yugotours Holidays did use LBA for their charters which would be aviogenex TU-134's and inex adria dc9's - can anyone confirm that?

again not sure if aviaco spantax or transeuropa ever came in? (caravelles or DC9)

BKS/Northeast Tridents never came in afaicr - they did charters from NCL LHR MME

Wardair and Yugotours did use LBA rog, but not in the 1960s and 1970s which is the era I'm talking about. Perhaps Pan Adria turned up occasionally before getting in with Inex Adria.

OK ta - just thought that yugotours was at the height of their game in the mid 70's and aviogenex and inex had quite big fleets then - they also used JAT for charters too

first widebody into LBA was in the 80's with wardair and BA 747's although both WD and CP got their 747's very early on and were regulars at LGW and MAN mid 70's

I used to love the occasional one-off specials at LBA, pre-extension -
e.g. Stirling Caravelle OY-SAH, 18/05/78

Transavia Caravelles......bulbfields.......football???

Not sure about Autair Ambassadors to Palma??? BKS to Paris yes and Dan-Air to Beauvais yes! [day trips]

I'm sure there were others, will try and return to the question. I can usually remember fifty years ago with ease!!

Invicta Airways, DC4s used on the bulb field trips and the trips to Lourdes.

BKS for just one season in 1964 using HS748s to Basle off runway 10/28 [no 15/33 at that stage!]

Just what was the big deal with b****y bulbfields fifty-odd years ago ? Must have been a flower power thing; I haven't known such a charter in my twenty-plus years at LBA. A longer runway and more capable jets may be significant here !

Clarksons used to operate these bulb field packages from pretty well every airport in the UK (aside of LHR I suspect); and they also flew similar series in the spring to Beauvais, presumably for short breaks in and around Paris.

In answer to your question, I suggest that the world was a very different place back in the 1960s and 1970s, and these destinations were pretty "exotic" for many of the customers, for whom they were probably their first excursion away from good old Blighty. Out of interest I googled bulb field holidays and cannot find a company offering packages by air on the lines of those that Clarksons used to offer - though the famous Keukenhof bulb fields that were a principal stop are still very much alive and kicking, with the likes of Shearings offering packages by coach.

concur fully with ATNotts

dutch bulb fields tours by air for either a day or short trips were huge business back then in the quiet shoulder period before the summer season kicked off

look at some old photos of RTM and you will see maybe a 10 or more UK charter a/c on the deck

clarksons were one of the biggies but many companies enjoyed the work (same with JER and GCI holidays by air - nowadays the popularity has long waned)

nowadays most bigger and local coach holiday companies (we have 4 down here in west dorset) all offer trips to the bulb fields by coach/ferry from your local town and are usually a sell out

Remarkable. These bulbfield jollies were evidently very much of their time and linked, I should say, to a post-war generation.

some of the first mass package tourism

Sorry for the thread drift - any of the LBA regulars remember the Aer Turas DC-4 that spent quite some time parked up over on 'the pan' after a landing incident. Think it burst some tyres. Mid to late 70's sometime?

They were marketed extensively to groups, Women's Institutes, that sort of thing. Many taking them had not been abroad, or by air, before. It also, being in March/April, formed pre-season work for the charter companies before a summer season that was shorter then. I believe passports were not required. Apart from seeing the flowers, foreign shopping for things not in UK shops in those days was another attraction. The coach took them to tourist trap shops but where £ were accepted. Everyone seemed to come home with Toblerone and Nutella.

Normal operation was with propeller aircraft, Viscounts, Ambassadors, etc, early departure to Rotterdam, only about an hour flying, sit there all day, back in the evening, then position on to the following morning's departure point. Clarksons were the leader, they started using Autair's Vikings from Luton which introduced the two to each other, and the rest was history. Some operators also offered overnight trips, which used the aircraft standing at Rotterdam to make a second round trip during the day.

Beauvais was another Clarksons point, being bussed from there to Paris, and there were other combinations and operators. The loss of the Invicta Vanguard approaching Basel from Bristol in 1973 was just such a day trip, it wiped out a number of women's social groups from North Somerset.

The Clarkson name keeps coming up. I'm not old enough to remember but I wouldn't mind betting these Dutch and French charters were their only involvement with Leeds Bradford. The shorter runway then would then have precluded Mediterranean ITs with Court Line or Dan-Air jets. Thank goodness Britannia came along with their Advanced 732s.

yes i do not recall LBA as being on Clarksons list of Med departure airports

LBA was def covered by a NCL tour operator (their name escapes me) and BKS was used - def to Majorca maybe other places too
Global holidays used LBA (again BKS iirc) all viscounts afaik

trying to think of the name of the North East package holiday company

You are correct, Clarksons never operated from Leeds to the Med. In fact I don't think any of the majors did before Clarksons went under. Often thought of as a Court Line user, they only chartered them from Luton, Birmingham, and Bristol/Cardiff. They used Dan-Air (almost exclusively Comets) from Gatwick, Manchester, Teesside and Glasgow, which must have been 50% of their capacity. As far as Leeds was concerned, using Teesside airport, which few others did, seems to have been done to serve both Yorkshire and Tyneside from one point.

1969 BKS staff mag shows IT flights direct from LBA to Palma Ibiza Gerona Barcelona and Rimini all on viscounts for wallace arnold holidays

mag quotes ''LBA is impossible for Tridents''

1969 and 1970 were the expansion years for IT's from LBA it seems

got it!!


the big tour operator using BKS airways from NCL and LBA/MME was Airways Holidays (what happened to them)

and also wallace arnold and Thomas Cook Holidays on behalf of BEA chose BKS to op from the Northeast

Plenty of Court Line 111s at Glasgow. Are you saying they were not operating for Clarksons there?

they may have done but Horizon holidays became a big flying contract for OU after the buyout in late 1972 and previously their contracts were with BCAL which were then cancelled by court line at a huge and crippling penalty to them

Glad to see Leeds Bradford got to see at least some Mediterranean action, albeit with my beloved Viscounts. If the Tridents couldn't handle the old runway I don't suppose the Bristol Britannia could manage it either ! Did this BKS work carry on after the name change to Northeast ?

I think the Wallace Arnold (a Leeds company, mainly into coaches) and Airways flights from Leeds on BKS Viscounts were sharing the same flights, which a number of tour companies did.

Leeds United was a significant name in European football in the 60s and 70s so this could well have led to some interesting charters for the club itself and its opponents, provided they didn't use Ringway.

If memory serves me correctly first jet operation in LBA was Leeds United on Aer Lingus BAC 111.

no BKS Brits afaik were used on charters from LBA - nor was the ambassador or 748
under Northeast a Britannia was retained to act as a trident back up
and cannot confirm about Northeast Viscounts continuing Med charters from LBA upon name change as the BKS archive finishes the year of name change
I cannot recall ever seeing a yellow viscount down in Palma for instance but Cambrian did carry on with them along with the new 1-11's

airways holidays tended to be the bigger operator of all the IT's and the Tridents went only from NCL and LHR and a PMI series from MME i think

from the provinces MAN HUY NWI STN IOM and GLA EDI ABZ in Scotland BA (CF) now has a large weekend Med and Italy charter programme using the EMB RJ's but sadly LBA and NCL are not on the list

Swan Tours in London had the LHR BKS/NO Trident charter contract for 2 a/c from 1970/71 for the Med summer and a winter ski series for some years until Swans was bought by Inghams and that contract was lost by 1976

charter flights from LHR never really took off again for many years until BMA had a few to Italy and sardinia with Citalia (CIT)
now BA has a very large charter flight program from LHR to the Med + corsica sardinia and Greek Islands for many specialized upmarket tour operators and Cunard cruises plus ski charters in the winter - same as the old trident days

Interesting times (flower-spotting notwithstanding!) back then. Nowadays, LBA charters which aren't for the Med are still football related - often Eastern Airways - and Lapland and Northern Lights - Enter Air and Small Planet.

Even into the 1980s unusual aircraft and airlines appeared at LBA, such as Busy Bee, Nor-Fly and Braathens. All Norwegian so again possibly LUFC aficionados or cruise ship customers.

Although it was a little before my time, I have often heard the story of the Aer Lingus 1-11 operating the first jet airliner flights from and to LBA, complete with LUFC and their entourage. Given the considerable LUFC fanbase in the Republic of Ireland, it is perhaps not surprising Aer Lingus got the job.

Airways were swallowed up by Intasun.

Slighty O.T., BA did do some rotations with a Trident into Leeds on the Heathrow circa '79-'80. I was in my first year at Leeds University, and the campus is on the 32 centre line.

Tridents at Leeds Bradford. Must have been lightly loaded or Kamikaze pilots at the controls. I know the Trident/LBA issue has been debated at length on here before; I don't remember seeing one. We need Helen 49's input for verification !

EI-ARS 'City of Galway'. Regular on racehorse charters in mid seventies for Ebor, St Leger and Wetherby events. Burst tyres on landing in October 76 or 77, ferried out with gear down and (IIRC) never returned.

i guess a runway extension had been done by then? (79-80?)

i was at LHR then with BMA at T1 but cannot recall any tridents op'g LHR- to LBA
but i guess it may have happened behind my back lol;)
we, BMA took over the LBA route soon after then iirc

could it have been training? touch and go's?

ah airways were taken over then Intasun - never knew that - did AE take over their flying?

I believe EI-ARS is this one, preserved at the Berlin Airlift Memorial at Frankfurt.

Runway 15/33 was only extended once - this was finished in 1984 by which time BA were long since off the LHR-LBA route and Tridents were well into the withdrawal process.

I don't know when Intasun purchased Airway Holidays but Air Europe didn't begin to use LBA until 1980 (I think), on W patterns to Palma and Barcelona.