Orion Airways Airbus 300s.
 

Did Orion Airways operate its two Airbus 300s out of Gatwick or was one based at Manchester. Does anyone know which other UK airports the A300s flew out of?
Thanks.😀

From the old spotting logs G-BMZK frequented Birmingham around July 87

Do you know what destinations the A300 served from BHX. I know there was a EMA -PMI flight.

1988 Orion A300 programme:

Sat KG539 LGW-ALC 0815 / KG540 ALC-LGW 1355
Sat KG2205 LGW-AGP 1525 / KG2206 AGP-LGW 2200
Sat KG509 LGW-PMI 2320 / KG510 PMI-LGW 0610
Sun KG511 LGW-LEI 0745 / KG512 LEI-LGW 1405
Sun KG513 LGW-IBZ 1530 / KG514 IBZ-LGW 2200
Sun KG585 LGW-FAO 2320 / KG586 FAO-LGW 0610
Mon KG517 LGW-MAH 0655 / KG518 MAH-LGW 1230
Mon KG519 LGW-CFU 1325 / KG520 CFU-LGW 2030
Mon KG521 LGW-MLA 2200 / KG522 MLA-LGW 0510
Tue KG523 LGW-PMI 0640 / KG524 PMI-LGW 1215
Tue KG525 LGW-HER 1420 / KG526 HER-LGW 2320
Wed KG527 LGW-PMI 0050 / KG528 PMI-LGW 0555
Wed KG529 LGW-FUE 0940 / KG530 FUE-LGW 1810
Wed KG533 LGW-RHO 2040 / KG534 RHO-LGW 0555
Thu KG535 LGW-LEI 1055 / KG536 LEI-LGW 1650
Fri KG503 LGW-CFU 0740 / KG504 CFU-LGW 1545
Fri KG597 LGW-HER 2040 / KG598 HER-LGW 0555

Sat KG921 MAN-PMI 0945 / KG822 PMI-BHX 1540
Sat KG821 BHX-PMI 1710 / KG922 PMI-MAN 2310
Sun KG925 MAN-ALC 0035 / KG926 ALC-MAN 0640
Sun KG927 MAN-ALC 0755 / KG928 ALC-MAN 1440
Sun KG917 MAN-AGP 1615 / KG918 AGP-MAN 2250
Mon KG901 MAN-CFU 0510 / KG902 CFU-MAN 1245
Mon KG903 MAN-MAH 1800 / KG904 MAH-MAH 2350
Tue KG907 MAN-PMI 0735 / KG862 PMI-BHX 1320
Tue KG861 BHX-PMI 1500 / KG908 PMI-MAN 2040
Tue KG905 MAN-TFS 2210 / KG906 TFS-MAN 0745
Wed KG965 MAN-RHO 1010 / KG966 RHO-MAN 1920
Wed KG915 MAN-IBZ 2050 / KG916 IBZ-MAN 0250
Thu KG909 MAN-LEI 0735 / KG910 LEI-MAN 1340
Thu KG911 MAN-FAO 1520 / KG912 FAO-MAN 2210
Fri KG923 MAN-MAH 0745 / KG516 MAH-LGW 1330
Fri KG515 LGW-MAH 1455 / KG924 MAH-MAN 2040
Fri KG931 MAN-HER 2255 / KG932 HER-MAN 0815

All obviously in the days before EU261....

Did Orion recruit Flight Engineers for their A300s or just place a third pilot in the FE seat ?

A300 F/Es
 

Orion did have Flight Engineers, I think there 14 of us based at LGW or MAN, as for the A/C, they were based one at LGW and one at MAN and they would switch over each week so that some maint. could be attempted by Dan Air at LGW.
I personally have operated from MAN, EMA, LGW, BHX, LTN, STN and Liverpool to Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, France, Germany and all of the Islands.
Sadly it didn,t last long and was swallowed up by Britannia.

In addition to KG's small fleet obtained from LH - The A300B4 was operated by Laker who in 1981 had 3 new ones, Dan Air who leased 3 from Hapag Lloyd,
and Monarch had a new fleet of 4 x -600R's (2 crew) which were flown not just on Med and SKI charters but went all over - MBA via CAI, GOA MLE usually via BAH and MCO Mexico Caribbean usually via BGR

Air Scandic also had a couple of old ones

If I remember rightly, Dan-Air only had two A300s at any time - NA was borrowed from Hapag-Lloyd and then NB and NC followed a year later to replace it.

Unless my memory is also playing up, only the first of the Orion A300s was painted and the second stayed in a hybrid Lufthansa scheme (which was pretty austere) from beginning to end. I think it was ZK which was painted - it looked great in Orion colours.

One other Orion question of anyone in the know who may be able to answer, if I may ask.

Almeria was a relatively modest destination for the likes of Thomson and rivals of the era including Intasun, the Owners Abroad brands and Cosmos. However Orion had far more capacity into Almeria than almost everyone else put together at the time. Was this simply that Horizon had found a niche and made it work, or was there some other link through hotel ownership or a Bass brewery offshoot or some other connection that this served? Just curious - I'd remembered them flying Almeria from a lot of UK airports on a rotating pattern of Thursday and Sunday flights, but firing in A300s from LGW and MAN would be a lot of capacity even now, let alone back in 1988.

I worked with G-BIMB during 1981/1982 and I found myself working with it again, this time registered as G-HLAD, during 2001/2002 before it became repossed by the lessor and so to the knackers yard


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1b0d8c5da0.jpg

Interesting assortment of holes in that 727.

I think it was the original Horizon Hols that set up Mojacar and Roquetas de Mar
and built some hotels as a new resort and it became a new ''Costa Almeria'' back in the early 70's...It was unheard of before then

Yes DA only had 2 at any one time - One of the 3 was never painted up in full DA livery
Both KG a/c got full Orion livery ZK & ZL

Thank you for this, really appreciate it. Was Orion’s EMA timetable to the same destinations but with 737-300s?

Looking at that 1988 list there are a few W rotations on there where BHX sees the MAN A300 fly in and out - I guess EMA likely saw those as well now and again too on peak dates/routes
They only flew 2 seasons 87 and 88

The 737's did loads of W flights in and out of - Bournemouth Blackpool Bristol Southend Teesside Bristol LBA LTN GLA

EMA had 737-200 and 300 series that flew to all or most of those places the A300's did - possibly to more smaller Greek islands too

I wonder if Orion flew into Skaithos and Mykonos?

1988 EMA programme for two based 737-300s:

Sat KG703 EMA-PMI 0710 / KG704 PMI-EMA 1350
Sat KG204 EMA-PMI 1530 / KG205 PMI-EMA 2115
Sat KG2861 EMA-GRO 2210 / KG2862 GRO-EMA 0310
Sun KG711 EMA-MUC 0825 / KG712 MUC-EMA 1310
Sun KG777 EMA-LEI 1415 / KG778 LEI-EMA 2050
Sun KG721 EMA-FAO 2150 / KG722 FAO-EMA 0430
Mon KG2407 EMA-CFU 1225 / KG2408 CFU-EMA 2015
Mon KG2603 EMA-ZTH 2135 / KG2604 ZTH-EMA 0645 (tech stop QTV on the way home)
Tue KG204 EMA-PMI 0940 / KG205 PMI-EMA 1535
Tue KG717 EMA-HER 1630 / KG718 HER-EMA 2345
Wed KG719 EMA-PMI 0055 / KG720 PMI-EMA 0635
Wed KG733 EMA-IBZ 1545 / KG734 IBZ-EMA 2135
Wed KG751 EMA-RHO 2245 / KG752 RHO-EMA 0810
Thu KG749 EMA-FAO 0935 / KG750 FAO-EMA 1615
Thu KG2881 EMA-GRO 1715 / KG2882 GRO-EMA 2215
Thu KG771 EMA-AGP 2330 / KG772 AGP-EMA 0600
Fri KG705 EMA-NAP 0710 / KG706 NAP-EMA 1450
Fri KG791 EMA-MAH 1545 / KG792 MAH-EMA 2130
Fri KG737 EMA-CFU 2240 / KG738 CFU-EMA 0625

Sat KG701 EMA-ALC 1040 / KG702 ALC-EMA 1650
Sat KG709 EMA-PMI 1800 / KG710 PMI-EMA 2345
Sun KG707 EMA-PMI 0040 / KG708 PMI-EMA 0625
Sun KG206 EMA-AGP 0905 / KG866 AGP-BHX 1540
Sun KG865 BHX-AGP 1700 / KG207 AGP-EMA 2340
Mon KG773 EMA-IBZ 0035 / KG774 IBZ-EMA 0625
Mon KG769 EMA-MAH 0910 / KG770 MAH-EMA 1450
Mon KG755 EMA-MAH 1550 / KG756 MAH-EMA 2125
Mon KG725 EMA-CFU 2330 / KG726 CFU-EMA 0710
Tue KG715 EMA-TFS 0900 / KG716 TFS-EMA 0545
Wed KG781 EMA-QTV 0800 / KG782 QTV-EMA 1310
Wed KG727 EMA-LCA 1415 / KG728 LCA-EMA 0055
Thu KG783 EMA-LEI 0800 / KG784 LEI-EMA 1430
Thu KG2877 EMA-REU 1515 / KG2878 REU-EMA 2020
Thu KG767 EMA-PMI 2130 / KG768 PMI-EMA 0315
Fri KG2605 EMA-CFU 1345 / KG2606 CFU-EMA 2130
Fri KG743 EMA-HER 2255 / KG744 HER-EMA 0825

Sun KG761 EMA-IBZ 1455 / KG762 IBZ-EMA 1345 ran on 737-200 as a W pattern off Birmingham

Quite a bit of other flying though - BHX/JER on Saturdays had an Orion 737, an Air UK Leisure 737-200, a Brymon Dash 7 and several British Midland DC9s. The Birmingham-based 737 did a Saturday morning Reus, a lunchtime Jersey, an afternoon Alicante and then a night Gerona!

I am sure they flew into both, plus Santorini too (IIRC these were 737-200)

(tech stop QTV on the way home) QTV ??
not sure of that one

Flightrider

there used to be a book called “airport timetables uk 198x” which was the bible before FR24 - is this where your info comes from? I binned mine years ago but wish I had it handy to answer questions like this!

thread drift but also Newcastle with w patterns. For example 733 on Saturdays in 1986 to alc, 737-200’s to mah on Mondays 86 -89 (?) and a 737-300 to ath (LGW W always G-BOLM in 88). Can’t remember KG going to Teeside in the late 80’s, was mainly Dan Air.

QTV is in Texas!

Thank you very much.

I think Orion did flights to Gambia at some stage?

QTV was the old code for Venice Treviso.

Outside EMA, BHX, MAN and LGW 1985 had Orion flying:
BOH to MAH, FAO, CFU and PMI
STN to CFU
CWL to MAH, FAO
LBA to MAH, LEI, FAO, CFU
GLA to PMI, TFS, LEI, FAO, NAP, HER, CFU,
NCL to CFU and HER
BRS to MAH, TFS, LEI, FAO, NAP, RHO, CFU
LTN to LEI, FAO, HER, CFU

They were also doing MAN-TLV in -B1 powered 737-300...

Virtually all of the regional stuff had gone by 1988. Destinations in Greece for Horizon were RHO, CFU, HER, EFL, SKG, JSI and ZTH. For other tour operators including Owners Abroad group, they were also flying ATH, ZTH (the 733s looked like they could get back non-stop to LGW but nowhere further north, as refuelling stops at QTV were planned), JSI, PVK, JTR, EFL and SMI. Most of Grecian's flying was on the Paramount MD83s by then with Owners Abroad also using the Amber Air 737-200s at Manchester.

Looks like only Britannia and Dan-Air were serving JMK in 1988. And yes, there was a Friday night Newcastle-Athens W pattern from Gatwick on a 737-300.

Turning the clock back further, to 1982, one can't help but think that the BD9115 Alicante departure at 23:30 on a Sunday night must have been unpopular with the locals - in a 707. Nearest rival is probably the OM544 01:30 Sunday morning departure from Luton to Tel Aviv in a Boeing 720 - which I guess you could probably hear on the outskirts of Birmingham too!

But yes, I've got most of the ATUK books - missing a few along the way but have a pile of them.

even more drift but I lived on the flight path to NCL in the 80’s and distinctly remember being shaken awake on Saturday mornings (1985 or 6 I think) at around 3am as an Air Atlantis 707 took off. Later through ATUk found out this was a regular flight for Airtours To FAO (presumably based on the model that Intasun started of old aircraft on night flights with limited catering = cheap holidays).

. Why did Orion stop the regional flights by 88?

I believe QTV was, at the time used for Treviso, not sure if that was official though. Were the IATA airfield "Q" codes unofficial? QLA is oft used for Lasham, but a Google search doesn't turn up any code for Lasham.

(Phileas beat me to it!!).

Thankyou, classic.

The Orion A300 never graced the LBA concrete. I'm not sure the 733 did either, at least not until the fleet had been subsumed into Britannia's, by which time the 733 visited at least once a week until Britannia disposed of the fleet.

Orion didn't have a base at LBA, 'W' patterns only, albeit in significant numbers.

Google for "iata code qla" or whatever code

It a source of confusion for me to see Orion Airlines being a British Company as I worked for Orion Air in 1986 but it was the American one. At one time it operated about 85 cargo aircraft, B747-100, DC8-73, B727-100 and DC9-30 series. None of them had Orion Air on them for we operated for UPS, Emery and other companies. We did a brief stab at operating charter passenger B747-100 and even a b727-200. The B747 was fitted with 504 seats but was an ex-Pan Am'er and had come off lease from TWA. It was very knackered out and trying to find a substitute aircraft for it when it went AOG usually meant hiring two aircraft. Operating pax charters turned out to be a final blow. The Mother Company of Orion meanwhile put me on building and certifying a repair station in Greensboro which I did. It was TIMCO until HAECO bought it out and has done quite well since.

Tony,
ORION was a UK company, wholly owned by the holiday travel group HORIZON ( hence the name ). Later I believe a large UK Brewing Company bought some shares in it. All aircraft owned and operated by Orion.

Orion UK (KG) was formed by Horizon Midlands Holidays who had survived the Court Line crash in 1974 and went it alone, whereas Horizon Holidays and 4S Travel did not.
In 1989 Horizon Hols (they had dropped the Midlands by now) was bought by Thomson Hols and the KG fleet was merged into Britannia/BY who did not want the A300's and AFAIK did not operate them as BY flights.
The 737-300's were painted in BY livery but were not kept for that long.

There was a USA outfit also called Orion who leased some dodgy old 747-100 crates from Cargolux op'g for Airtours International and ICA (Barbados)
(Cargolux also leased 747-100 to Lion Air also op for Airtours)

Re QTV - Ah yes I should have got the ''TV'' as Treviso, I did wonder that ~~ Also back in the early 70's Reus was known as QGN (Tarragona)

The second A/C was painted just before everything fell to bits.

Bass, who Eventually bought Horizon and then sold it to Thompson (Britannia) had the Hotel El Moresco, Hotel Indalo and Pueblo Indalo all in Mojacar. I think this helped focus the KG movements through Almeria. I remember the check in queue coming out through the doors of the tiny terminal.

Sold to Thompson Holidays (Britannia Airways)

Yes Bass - that was them - I was wracking my brain on that one.
And Rank bought BCAL Charter (the ex Laker DC-10-10 charter operation)

A bit like "Stanste(a)d" there's no "p" in Thomson!! Sorry for excessive pedantry, life's a tad boring!

Just to add a few photos of Orion Airways aircraft to remind us all what a nice livery the airline had.

Orion Airways Boeing 737-2Q8 G-BGTY

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b1e4628970.jpg

Orion Airways Boeing 737-3T5 G-BLKB

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f792678b49.jpg

Orion Airways Airbus A300B4-2C G-BMZK

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....75435788ac.jpg

Orion Airways Boeing 737-2L9 G-GPAB owned by Guinness Peat Aviation and previously leased to Monarch as G-BISO at Luton Airport 25 May 1984.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....51be2987d6.jpg

Dan Air (Hapag Lloyd) Airbus A300B4 G-BMNA. Leased from Hapag Lloyd, in service between April 1986 and December 1986. G-BMNA wore a hybrid livery of Dan Air and Hapag Lloyd.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8b59da278b.jpg

Dan Air Airbus A300B4 G-BMNB. Leased from Hapag Lloyd, in service with Dan Air between December 1986 and June 1990.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....52586a9d64.jpg

Dan Air Airbus A300B4 G-BMNC. Leased from Hapag Lloyd, in service with Dan Air between March 1988 and April 1991.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d79401af0b.jpg

Orion Airways Airbus A300B4-203 G-BMZL in the hybrid "Lufthansa" livery. Former Lufthansa, delivered to Orion Airways in April 1987, left the fleet in January 1989 after the takeover by Thomson.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f2f11a569e.jpg

Orion Airways Airbus A300B4-203 G-BMZK was painted in the full livery. Former Lufthansa, delivered to Orion Airways in May 1987, left the fleet in January 1989 after the takeover by Thomson.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cb467655ed.jpg