Was Gulf Aviation run by BOAC before it became Gulf Air?

Yes, it was bought out by the various Emirates in the early 1970s, probably at the time the registrations were changed from G- to local ones. Muscat I believe as A4O; the various admin tasks being spread among the different new owners. Someone will know more. BOAC were still a minority owner of Bahamas Airways as well when they got the new One-Eleven in 1968, so it was being passed around among friends.

I was in Muscat from 1976 to 79 and all the Gulf Air aircraft were A40 registered by then. Also all British built aircraft , VC-10s, BAC 1-11s, Skyvans and Islanders.
And SOAF was mostly British, Viscounts, BAC 1-11s, Skyvans, Islanders, Hunters, Strikemasters, Jaguars. The only non British were the Bell helicopters, 205s, 206s, and 212s. The DHC Caribous departed soon after I arrived and the Beavers had left a few months earlier.
Sorry for the thread drift.

Gulf Air's first four TriStars were each briefly on the UK register for a couple of weeks in 1976 between January and August after delivery; were BA doing fitting out/test flights/crew training?

Gulf Aviation:
Founded as Gulf Aviation in 1949 providing regional services throughout the Gulf region.
The founder was a former RAF pilot, Freddie Bosworth, and early types flown were the Anson, DC-3, Dove, Heron, F27, BN Islander, and the Skyvan.
Gulf Aviation did not operate the Vickers Viscount on its own, but leased capacity from Kuwait KAC to operate the following routes BAH-DOH-DXB and BAH-DOH-SHJ.

The BOAC VC-10 was operated by Gulf Aviation on leases from 1969, and one with Gulf Aviation stickers appeared on services to London from 1970.
LHR services on the VC10 were to BAH AUH DOH and DXB and flew twice weekly on WED and SAT, GF002 and GF004.



BOAC was the major shareholder until 1973 when governments of Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman bought the BOAC share.
The Airline was renamed Gulf Air in 1974, and become the Regions flag carrier.

Gulf Aviation BAC 1-11's
Gulf Aviation ordered one Series 432FD on 29th July 1969 with an option on a second.
This option was taken up and the aircraft were delivered in November 1969 and November 1971.
Bahamas Airways, Ltd, Nassau first leased from BAC the two Series 432FDs from November and December 1968 pending delivery of two Series 517FEs which were delivered in July 1969.
These aircraft were configured in a 79 seat single class layout.
G-AXOX and G-AXMU

Gulf Air BAC 1-11's
A used Series 409AY was leased from BAC and later purchased with delivery in February 1974 G-AXBB/A40-BB
Two Series 416EKs were leased from Cambrian Airways/British Airways, G-AWBL from October 1973 to the end of June 1974 and the other G-AVOF in November 1974.
A Series 408EF of Bavaria Fluggesellschaft was leased in full Gulf Air colours from November 1975 to May 1977 D-ALLI (Built for Channel Airways as G-AWGG but NTU)
G-AXMU/A40-MU was leased to British Airways in 1977.

The aircraft were operated throughout the Gulf area and to Egypt, India and Pakistan.
The 1-11 was finally disposed of in November 1977.

G-AXOX G-AXBB and G-AXMU all ended up flying with BIA.

Several BOAC VC10s were sold to GF and operated with A40 registrations they were crewed from a variety of sources including ex RAF

Remarkable how we got from Airways Cymru 1-11s and 737s to Gulf Air VC10s in just four pages!.

Well, you have a knack to bring up topics that are very close to many of the Pprune Members hearts here, and when one starts to dig deeper on subjects, the links and connections sort of bloom and gather a momentum LOL

Thank goodness for History eh!

The first two Gulf Air Tristars were crew training in the UK with their British registrations in early 1976.

Thread evolution is rather like the TV series fronted by James Burke many, many years ago - "Connections" where he start from one point and besides that, by the time he had reached the end of the show he had arrived somewhere completely different, or even right back where he started via a very convoluted route.

Personally I love threads like these as in the process of drifting really interesting information emerges. Keep 'em coming.

After being stored at Castle Donn (East Midlands) for a couple of years

And now for more deviation.
When I was an apprentice at Hurn I was doing some wiring in a 1-11 cabin when the aircraft started moving around. I stuck my head out of one of the overwing exits to see James Burke bouncing up and down on the wing near the tip. A voice asked me to stay inside while they filmed that bit again. He was making a documentary for people who were scared of flying and showing how the wings flexed.
Later that day I went to see my father who was senior inspector in the flight shed, and there, sitting in his office, was James Burke. We had a chat.
That's my "name drop" bit done.

Perhaps a bit late and apologies if already covered was it not Airways International Cymru rather than Airways Cymru International 🤔. It’s been worrying me….

Definitely Airways International Cymru.

Airways Cymru titles, and a red dragon on the blue tail.
(This scheme and titles with the red dragon appeared only on the 1-11 fleet)
The 1-11's at first stayed in QB's all blue, with G-YMRU gaining CYM house colours, but G-WLAD went to BD.
The BIA lease 1-11 was with hybrid BIA cheatline, but looked very nice.

Airways Cymru, on mainly all white aircraft, sunshine tail logo (737-300 lease from Sunworld)

Airways International titles with small red dragon, with Cymru title on blue tail. 737-200

Airways International Cymru titles, with just a plain blue tail. 737-200 and 737-300

There was a late rumour it was to be just Airways International but they went under.
The main investor is said that Cymru to be rather a mouthful for Joe Public.

Fair to say that BAZI's livery was little more than Britannia's base navy blue and tailfin logo crudely painted over; then BNCT and PROK were painted the same, factory fresh. Ryanair took much the same approach when it too acquired ex-Britannia 737s.

I've known how to pronounce 'Cymru' since primary school. It isn't a mouthful by any stretch of the imagination.

Indeed, so have I but the English generally appear to consider not being able to pronounce 'foreign' words some kind of a badge of honour!