Widebody Holiday Jets
 

OK, you've twisted my arm.

Aer Lingus used to send their 747s to the Mediterranean and Canaries when not doing transatlantic schedules. Likewise their 707s.

Aviaco would pinch 747s and A300s from Mother Iberia for their busy routes.

Britannia kickstarted the 767's bucket and spade career. Braathens wasn't far behind but in the end, they preferred their trusty 737s.

British Airtours used the early TriStars transferred from the parent, plus a few 747s from time to time. Caledonian continued their operation.


Of course, there are others but someone else can pick up the baton for now.

Condor used the 747-200 for a while.

Gatwick in the 70s - Wardair and CP Air 747s, TIA and World Airways DC-10s, plus of course Freddie's DC-10s and, I never saw them, Court's TriStars.

Looking in the Thomson brochures to see if the flight was BY or BY*. The star meaning you were on a 767.

Don’t forget Peach (anagram of cheap) and their Gatwick based tristars, along with Air Atlanta.

I would guess one of the first was the second BOAC 747 route, which was from JFK to Bermuda. The same aircraft would manage LHR-JFK-BDA and return within 24 hours, so it was operated from day 1. Nobody goes to Bermuda except on holiday, do they ?

For a dedicated aircraft I expect a Laker DC-10 was the first. I think he beat Court Line's Tristars. Liveried up for Skytrain, their first were ABC charters to Toronto and some Palma/Tenerife holiday flights.

:)

How were they associated with Air Atlanta ? Same ownership, different AOC ?

The 90’s saw lots Tristar operators. Presumably they were cheap to lease at that point.

Air Ops was one but don’t know much about them.

nordic European another. Flew on a Nordic 737 in 96 worst flight/aircraft ever so picked holiday flights very carefully after that.

Dan A300B4,
Airtours/MyTravel A330-200 and -300, DC-10-10 and DC-10-30
Air Scandic A300B4 FFCC
Orion A300B4

American Trans Air (ATA) flew Tristars. Took several trips to Hawaii with them in the early to mid-90s. Loved the Tristars.

Back in the day, I flew LGW-TFS on an Iberia B747-200 which was subbed in by Monarch after some tech issues. They combined a couple of flights onto the 742.

AS BOAC crew I used to work my nuts off on the JFK - BDA -JFK 'Bermuda shuttle' route. It was hell, full of Americans going on holiday and we had to do a full meal service and duty free in such a short time, but as crew we did it and had a deservesd day off in the Lexington before going home the following night.

How about British Caledonian Charter/Cal air International/Novair? I'm sure many of the more knowable contributors will be able to fill in the details such as time line and routes operated.

LTU with L1011, MD11, B767 and A330

Air Florida DC-10 (ex ONA?). Did Miami and back on it in 1984. :)

Air Ops/ECU Air - L1011 Gatwick Malaga 1994 - all the overhead lockers had been ripped out (and I mean RIPPED) - the worst interior of any aircraft I've ever paid money to fly in............. they didn't last long

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7e168bcabd.jpg
Sorry about the quality, but Arrecife in the 1980's.

I did some flights to Faro in the 90's trying to help my sister out a few times.
A variety of dodgy airlines seemed to materialise :)
The best flight was probably with Monarch in an A300 both ways.
The worst was outbound in an Air Belgium 737 with the tightest seating I ever saw (no legroom),the return was a 3 Holer from Air Atlanta (L1011) - nice enough aircraft but closeby travelling companions were the family from hell LOL (the lord only knows who I was actually booked with - neither of those 2 airlines).
The most interesting was in the 727 of Sabre Airways (both ways).

Anybody mention Laker's A300B4s?

My first charter wide body experience was by chance. 08.02.92, pitched up at LGW for my package ski-holiday and a BY flight to ZRH

Boarded a bus, heading to a remote stand, but no BY 737 in sight. Bus stopped by the stairs of G-BBAF, resplendent in its Caledonian colours and thus I enjoyed a unique experience of a relatively lightly loaded L1011 charter flight. Flight home was back to BY with G-AVRN providing the service

Five years later managed to ride her sisters BBAH and BBAI, LGW-DLM-LGW.

Those G-BBA....L1011's did sterling work on the bucket and spade and snow plough runs after their mainline BA days were over.

A shout for Monarch's A300-600's, A330's and of course their sole DC-10, part of which is preserved at MAN

Round about 1989/1990 Air Europe used a leased 747 (Tower Air?) for its Orlando flights (in addition to the 757s). Its reliability was appalling, so much so that when I, as an Air Europe employee, took the family to Disney on holiday, we elected to go via Bangor on a 757 rather than non-stop on the 747.

Mention of the Tower Air 747 reminds me my daughter flew to the US, maybe 1990?.
She booked with Airtours and finished up going on a 747.Possibly a ZK registered?
There was also an Orion? 747 flying around that time which became infamous for its reliability.I think the press labelled it the flying pig.

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I did a trip on a Peach Tristar out of Gatwick in mid 90s. I only remember it as I had the best package flight meal ever. Fish pie that was truly excellent.

Flying into Dusseldorf back then was always a pleasure to see all the many widebodies of LTU awaiting passengers, or in and outside the Mx Hangars, a sea of red and white.

I bought a bucket shop (remember them ?) ticket from London to Honolulu return with World Airways, a good 40% cheaper than the BA/United offering on the route. Almost 2 days of travelling and quite a few airports, not mentioned on the ticket and legal to do so.....I think it was LGW-BWI-MCI-OAK-LAX-HNL. The DC-10's were pleasant enough and the colour scheme a classic.

Did anyone mention People Express and their 747's from LGW to EWR back when it was a bit of a dump compared to JFK. My flight had only maybe 50 passenger and looked a bit dilapidated. Not long after they went bust, bought out by Frankie boy and TAC before all that went south.

Let us not forget Northwest Orient flying 747's and DC10's from Gatwick to several points on the east coast of the USA. They were a nice airline to fly with and had incredible connections to a massive host of regional airports.

BritishCaledonianCharter/CalAir/NovAir..used DC10-10's for years. One of then AL was one of the earliest examples and still had some test equipment aboard.
These were excellent aircraft with 380 seats and good airfield performance.
Of the three two were ex Laker and the other bought in (which served as the flying eye hospital for a number of years).

Monarch were going to acquire a pair of used A310-300 from Canada in 1992 but the deal fell through when the two A306 aircraft it had on lease were returned following the collapse of Compass in Australia. There were also a pair of B767-300 that were ordered from Boeing and never delivered and ended up elsewhere.

I flew LHR-FAro in 1974 or 5 on a BA Airtours tristar and very nice it was too compared to the usual sun and fun services.

WHBM , well back then the BA JFK BDA return may have had a good number of US holiday makers but these days the BA 2232 /3 LGW BDA is almost entirely justified on business travel as BDA is inordinately expensive to visit except on business but BA have for years done really well out of the F and J loads . Bermuda is one of the worlds largest insurance markets handling billions and billions plus a substantial offshore legal domicile business too and these folks dont travel Y very often and there are a good number of wealthy Bermudians willing to pay for F on the relatively short overnight BDA-LGW. BA mostly used a 747 but the JFK add on route had stopped by then and the BA 74 went on to Kingston and returned close to midnight BDA time, in the 70sd BDA was a frequent stop on both BA and AC Caribbean services using 707 300s and DC8-60 series .

Tourism even from the US has declined dramatically and an A320 is about the largest you get from the US airports. Back in the 1980s (I spent the whole decade there) a typical day included . AA Dc10 ex JFK, EAstern L1011 ex JFK DL L1011s doing BOS-BDA-ATL and the reverse ATL-BDA-BOS , AC DC8 . In addition there were another four or five flights all using 727s. Early 737s were not suitable for Bermuda since there is only the one runway there and a diversion meant coming all the way back to where one started from against the usual westerlies. Many many more seats than are available today. Also that tourist marketwas rather more Golf and Luxury shopping than bucket and spade and probably a much older demographic than typical bucket and spade ops ,

There was a short lived Airline,Classic Airways who flew a Tristar.Saw it once on a Lourdes charter at Leeds/Bradford many moons ago.

Aer Turas operated a TriStar or two as well, on passenger charter flights from the UK. EI-CNN was one and it was the one-time G-BAAA of Court Line.

Here's a few more from various times 1990s on.

Prime Airlines - nothing to do with Amazon, but a subsiduary of Heavylift Air Cargo - they operated an A300 for a season or so.
Tranaer - several A300s operated during the late 1990s, and appararently a MD-11 (N278WA) too during 1999 - presumably a wetlease from World
Air Scandic already mentioned as an A300 operator, also had a Tristar - the aforementioned Aer Turas EI-CNN
TBG Airways, linked to Aer Turas, also used EI-CNN, plus another couple of Irish registered Tristar.
European Air Charter had 747s (ex British Airways) plus a single A300 (that whilst painted up, never operated for them)
Atlanta Airways (nothing to do with Air Atlanta Icelandic) who became International Airways
Air Atlanta Europe which was the UK offshoot of Air Atlanta Icelandic
Leisure International who had a couple of 767s - they were the 'widebody' arm of Air UK Leisure
JMC Air the combined Caledonian / Flying Colours airline with DC-10-30s (and A330s?)
Excalibur Airways, who decided to switch from shorthaul flying with A320s, and found it all went pearshaped very quickly - they had wetleased DC-10 (V2 LEH)
Somewhat tenuously, I believe British Air Ferries used (Bulgarian, wetleased) A310s for a period of time too.

I'm sure there are more.

The Stansted Sunday night Scandi invasion, well discussed on the other holiday jet threads, saw Scanair send their A300's and DC-10's in the mid/late 80's. Im not actually sure when these Sunday charters ended....I guess they just faded away as the low-co's emerged?

Danish Conair also had A300's, and I guess these may also have visited Stansted on a Sunday, although my memory is declining to give me an image of one there.

KLM used 747’s on cruise ship passengers to the Canaries.

Jetstream 7.
European Air Charter bought two A300B2s from air france without engines,(they were removed after the ferry flights from France).
Both aircraft were painted in new colours but no engines were available for lease and the aircraft sat at Bournemouth for quite a few years before being broken up.

Martinair around 1995 747 to Orlando.

IIRC, the a/c referred to was indeed with Laker as G-BELO before passing over to BCAL Charter the joint venture project between BCAL and The Rank Organisation which in turn was the parent company of Wings/OSL Holidays

SHJ
I was a regular on the NW Orient to Minneapolis back then from Gatwick. My personal record was 3 trips in one month ( don’t ask !) and you are correct their regional service was excellent along with that of Delta who had L1011 on the North Atlantic to Atlanta who I also used. TWA had a mix of L1011 and I think 767 but I did not use them much on the St Louis service. All a long time ago now.

Cheers
Mr Mac

Just remembered I flew a Travel City Direct 747 200 from Manchester to Orlando Sanford.Seem to remember the cabin crew were Air Atlanta circa 2004.

Did TWA operate from LGW as well as LHR ? Delta and Continental also flew from LGW for a time didn't they ? I seem to remember taking flights with them, but like you I used to travel a lot and it's a bit of a blur, well parts of it at least!

This was an operation which changed almost every year. The principal two DC-10-10s BZJD/E were more recent deliveries 1979 to Laker than their others, I think they were from a cancelled order. After a couple of years, when Laker shut down the mainstream tour operators left unserved got together with British Caledonian, who also had the DC-10 on their AOC but were not doing holiday charters at the time, and a joint operation started, which seemed to change its name every year or two, initially just British Caledonian, then British Caledonian Charter. The livery then got changed from the normal B Cal one to the bold orange stripe, initially as Cal Air, then as Novair, one summer season only I think, then they got replaced by 737-400s. Five different names in 10 years. One of them was still flying until a few months ago for FedEx. 42 years use was a good run.