Channel Airways
Encyclopedia
Channel Airways was a private airline formed in the United Kingdom
in 1946 as East Anglian Flying Services.
The newly formed airline initially operated aerial joy rides with a single, three-seater aircraft from an airstrip on the Kent
coast. Scheduled services began in 1947, following the move to Southend (Rochford) Airport
earlier that year, while inclusive tour (IT) charter flights started in 1948. Rapid business growth saw seven additional aircraft join the fledgling airline's fleet by the end of that year.
The introduction of exchange controls
in the early 1950s resulted in a major contraction of the travel market, in turn compelling East Anglian to cease all operations other than pleasure flying. Following a recovery in demand, aircraft and employees that had been surplus to requirements during the slump were respectively brought back into service and re-hired. By that time, the airline had also opened a second base at Ipswich Airport
and obtained its first long-term scheduled service licence. The latter part of the 1950s saw East Anglian updating its fleet with post-war
aircraft designs.
Fleet modernisation continued in the early 1960s with the addition of Viking
, DC-3
and DC-4
equipment. In October 1962, East Anglian Flying Services became Channel Airways. The following year saw the acquisition of Channel's first turbine-powered aircraft.
Channel entered the jet age
in June 1967 with the arrival of its first BAC One-Eleven
400 at Southend
. In March 1968, Channel Airways became the first independentindependent from government-owned corporation
s airline in the UK
to operate the Hawker Siddeley Trident
. Channel's new jet
s were contracted to major tour operator
s in the UK and West Germany
from bases at Southend, London Stansted
, other British
airports and Berlin Tegel in what used to be West Berlin
prior to German reunification
. During that time, Channel moved its main operating and engineering base as well as its head office from Southend to Stansted
to enable regular jet operations to more distant destinations with a full commercial payload from the latter's longer runway.
A bus stop scheduled service linking the airline's Southend base with Aberdeen
via six intermediate points briefly operated in the late-1960s with modified Viscount
s.
The addition of five Comet
4Bs in 1970 marked a major expansion of Channel's jet operation, making it a leading contemporary UK charter airline, with IT operations accounting for more than half of its business.
Low utilisation of the Trident
fleet resulted in the type's disposal in December 1971, followed by closure of the Stansted engineering base and return of the head office to Southend. The company's deteriorating trading position and diminishing prospects led to growing financial difficulties. This forced Channel Airways to cease operations in February 1972.
British independent airlines. Former Royal Air Force
squadron leader
Reginald "Jack" Jones founded Channel Airways in June 1946 as an aerial joy ride business, which was incorporate
d as East Anglian Flying Services on 16 August 1946. The new airline was majority-owned by Jones and his family, who held more than 80% of its shares.
Commercial operations commenced on 16 August 1946 with a single, early-1930s vintage, three-seat Puss Moth
, offering joy rides at 10s a time from a landing strip near the Kent seaside town of Herne Bay
. Soon after, this aircraft also operated air taxi
flights to destinations all over the UK.
On 5 January 1947, East Anglian moved its base across the Thames estuary
to Southend Municipal Airport
near Southend-on-Sea
in Essex
, only four days after its re-opening as a civil airport. The move to Southend Airport led to the introduction of a regular Southend—Rochester feeder service, East Anglian's first scheduled route.
Nineteen forty-eight was the year East Anglian operated its first IT charter flight from Southend
to Ostend
in conjunction with two British travel agents. By winter 1948, a huge expansion of the fledgling airline's pleasure flying and charter business resulted in acquisition of seven additional aircraft. These included five de Havilland Dragon Rapide
s, a Miles Aerovan
and an Airspeed Courier
. One of East Anglian's engagements at the time included a one-off round-trip to Cyprus
carrying a party of schoolboys, which was operated by a Miles Aerovan lacking radio
equipment and an autopilot
.
Following a successful first year on the Southend—Ostend charter run, East Anglian obtained a scheduled service licence for the route, as well as a Southend—Jersey
scheduled licence.
— Jones himself and an office boy
.
Following a gradual pickup in demand, East Anglian brought back into service aircraft that had been laid up during the slump, re-hired laid-off employees and, in 1953, obtained a lease
on the grass airfield at Ipswich Airport as a secondary base for its charter operations and a future feeder point on its scheduled network. During that period, East Anglian was awarded its first long-term scheduled licencevalid for seven years on the Southend—Ostend route. Additional scheduled services were launched from Southend and Portsmouth
to Paris
as well as from Portsmouth to Jersey while some Southend—Jersey services featured additional stops in Rochester, Shoreham
and Guernsey
. A Southend—Rotterdam
link followed in 1956.
During the late-1950s, East Anglian began the process of augmenting and eventually replacing pre-war
aircraft designs such as the Dragon Rapide with more modern equipment, starting with the acquisition of three de Havilland Dove
s from West African Airways Corporation
. By the end of 1957, a year that saw nearly 30,000 passengers fly with East Anglian, two Bristol 170s
had joined the fleet. These aircraft were the airline's first bulk carriers.
s and Douglas DC-3
s as well as a single Douglas DC-4
, quickening the pace of its fleet modernisation programme.
On 29 October 1962, East Anglian Flying Services officially changed its name to Channel Airways. (Although the Channel Airways name had appeared on the company's aircraft for some time prior to it becoming official, the old name was retained as the officially registered name until the somewhat similarly sounding Channel Air Bridge
name became defunct to avoid any confusion.) By that time, Channel Airways operated frequent scheduled passenger and freight services from Southend, Ipswich and Rochester
to the Channel Islands
, Rotterdam, Ostend and Paris as well as from Portsmouth
to the Channel Islands. The airline also held licences to operate vehicle ferry services from Bristol
to Dublin, Cork
, Jersey and Bilbao
as well as from Southend to Jersey and Bilbao. It furthermore applied for traffic rights to operate a vehicle ferry service between Liverpool
and Dublin. Moreover, the company ran regular, 52-seat luxury express coach
services linking Norwich
with Ipswich as well as Eastbourne
, Brighton
, Worthing
, London
, Reading
, Basingstoke
and Guildford
with Portsmouth. In addition, IT and general passenger and freight charter services, which accounted for a growing share of the firm's business, were operated while rival independent airline Tradair became a wholly owned subsidiary of Channel Airways on 31 December 1962.
In 1963, Channel Airways acquired its first turboprop
airliner
, a Vickers Viscount
700 series inherited from Tradair. That year also marked the beginning of the airline's large-scale expansion into IT charters. This saw the operation of a Douglas DC-4 in a high-density, 88-seat layout from Manchester and other UK airports to Ostend.
The arrival of Channel's first turbine-powered aircraft coincided with the introduction of a new "Golden"-themed livery
that was subsequently adopted for all Viscounts, HS 748s, One-Elevens
and Tridents, with minor variations for each sub-fleet. This was one of the few marketing gimmicks in which the airline indulged and marked a major departure from its refusal to build a brand identity or to engage in prestige promotion to keep costs down.
By the mid-1960s, Channel Airways had acquired another nine Viscount 700s. Seven of these were former British European Airways
(BEA) aircraft while the remaining two were sourced from Bahamas Airways and Starways
respectively. In addition to these aircraft, Channel also purchased eleven Viscount 812s from Continental Airlines
and four new Hawker Siddeley 748s to support a rapidly growing number of IT flights and regional scheduled services along the UK's South Coast, between the South Coast, the Channel Islands and the Continent
, as well as from Manchester Airport to continental
destinations. The latter aircraft operated most of the airline's schedules serving the grass airfields.Ipswich, Portsmouth and Rochester Although IT operations generated about half its revenues by that time, making Channel one of the UK's foremost contemporary charter operators, senior management preferred to think of it as primarily a scheduled carrier, keeping in mind their longer-term corporate ambitions
to operate more domestic links from Southend and to extend the network's reach beyond the Channel
coast and Paris to new destinations in Europe
and North Africa
.
In September 1966, Channel Airways announced its first jet aircraft
order comprising four BAC One-Eleven 400 series plus two options. That order was worth £
5.5m
. These aircraft were the first jets
to join the fleet, the first of which arrived at the company's Southend base on 15 June 1967.entering service the following day Nineteen sixty-six was also the year Channel arranged a 21-year lease on the grass field at Ipswich
.
By May 1967, Channel Airways had taken delivery of the remaining ex-Continental
Viscount 812s. By that time, it had also retired and sold the last 700s and placed a follow-on order for another two One-Eleven 400s.
The first Hawker Siddeley Trident 1E series jetliner
arrived at Channel Airways's Southend base in March 1968, by which time the airline's remaining One-Elevens were being delivered. Nineteen sixty-eight was also the year Channel reduced its outstanding jet aircraft orders due to the difficult economic situation in the UK during that time, especially the sterling devaluation
and a tightening of the existing exchange control regime that limited passengers to £50 a trip. This resulted in cancellation of three remaining orders each for Tridents and One-Elevens and only two and threethe first BAC One-Eleven was traded in for the second examples respectively joining the airline's fleet.
The introduction of these jet aircraft enabled Channel Airways to become a major provider of charter airline seats to the leading package tour operators in the UK from bases at Southend, Stansted, Bristol
, Cardiff, East Midlands, Manchester and Teesside
. Channel Airways also held lucrative contracts to carry package tour holiday makers from West Berlin to holiday resorts in the Mediterranean
and the Canary Islands
on behalf of major West German
tour operators. This had resulted in one of the airline's jets being permanently based at the city's Tegel Airport until its demise. The build-up of Channel's jet fleet also resulted in Stansted becoming the main operating base as these aircraft suffered range
and payload restrictions at Southend due to its short runway.
Channel's increasing dependence on the IT market made it a highly seasonal airline, with pronounced peaks and troughs in activity and aircraft utilisation. Each year, the end of the winter trough was followed by a six-week period of intense activity starting in April, when the company's aircraft were contracted by Clarksons
to ferry British tourists to and from Rotterdam for the Dutch bulbfield season from ten UK departure points. The end of this season in mid-May also marked the beginning of the actual summer season, when the firm's planes commenced flying holidaymakers from the UK to Majorca, the Spanish
mainland and Morocco
under contract to the leading contemporary providers of package holiday
s in the UK. Flights to other Mediterranean resorts — chiefly in Italy
and other Adriatic
regions — started the following month. During the peak period in July and August, aircraft operated round-the-clock, plying scheduled routes during the day and serving IT destinations at night. The resulting increase in utilisation meant that aircraft spent as little as 40 minutes on the ground. By mid-September, the IT programme began winding down, with flights to Italy ending first due to its short holiday season. Flights to Majorca and certain Spanish mainland destinations continued right until the end of the summer charter season in late-October. To avoid having aircraft sit idly on the ground during the lean winter months,apart from the brief peak around Christmas and New Year when ad hoc charters and a small number of year-round scheduled services replaced the intensive summer IT programme and busy summer schedule, spare capacity was leased out. In addition, all heavy maintenance
was scheduled to take place during this period.
The rapid growth in Channel's IT business furthermore resulted in establishment of Mediterranean Holidays as its in-house tour operating
subsidiary. This enabled the airline to take maximum advantage of the booming
package holiday market while at the same time reducing its dependence on third party tour operators.
Channel Airways held the record for operating the UK charter airline industry's tightest seating configurations. For example, it managed to fit as many as 88 seats into its Douglas DC-4s, 139 seatsseven abreast in the forward cabin into its Trident 1Es, as many as 99 seatssix abreast; this seating arrangement was exclusive to the second and third example and required the aircraft's modification with two additional over-wing
emergency exit
s each side of the fuselage, the only short-bodied One-Elevens to have this into its One-Eleven 400s and as many as 83 and 56 seats62 without galley into its Viscount 810s and HS 748s respectively. These were the highest-density seating configurations of any of the aforementioned aircraft types' operators.
Channel Airways also became known for pressing into service aircraft it had acquired second-hand with only minimal changes to the previous operators' aircraft liveries
, i.e. merely taping over those operators' names with its own.
By the end of the decade, Channel Airways had established itself as one of the UK's leading, contemporary independent airlines, operating domestic and international scheduled passenger and freight services from East Midlands, Ipswich, Norwich, Stansted, Southend, Portsmouth and Bournemouth
to the Channel Islands, Rotterdam, Ostend, Paris, Rimini
, Palma
and Barcelona
. Between 1966 and 1968, it recorded annual profits in excess of £500,000. The Scottish Flyer was the name of a twice-daily multi-stop, bus stop type scheduled service Channel operated with modified, 69-seat Viscount 812s featuring a large baggage compartment inside the aircraft's cabin. This service ran for a brief period from January until November 1969 between Southend and Aberdeen, with six four to five minute long, engine-running intermediate stops, including Luton
, East Midlands, Leeds
/Bradford
, Teesside
, Newcastle and Edinburgh
.
4B series in the early-1970s resulted in a significant increase in Channel Airways's charter capacity. By that time, charter flights accounted for 60% of the airline's revenue.
In January 1971, Channel Airways received UK, US
and Canadian
permission to operate transatlantic "affinity group" charters. A pair of long-haul Boeing 707
s were to be purchased to commence North Atlantic operations to the United States
and Canada
later that year.
During the first week of December 1971, Channel Airways sold both of its Trident 1Es to BEA to counter the increase in unit cost
s resulting from low utilisation of these aircraft.each aircraft was utilised for only 894hr in 1971, the lowest of any type operated (One of the aircraft was leased to BEA's Newcastle-based regional subsidiary Northeast Airlines
while the other was operating the corporation
's regional routes from Birmingham
to the Continent
.)
In early-1972, former Channel Airways director Captain Peter Lockwood acquired a pair of ex-American Airlines
BAC One-Eleven 400s for his new charter company, Orientair, to take over Channel's lucrative German
charter contracts. When Orientair's plan to assume Channel Airways's position in Berlin
ran into difficulties, Dan-Air
took over these contracts, resulting in an expansion of that airline's Berlin operation.
Lack of fleet standardisationat the time the airline went into receivership, its fleet comprised 13 aircraft of five different types and low, all-year round aircraft utilisation due to seasonal peaks and troughs in its charter and scheduled markets drove up Channel's unit costs while low charter rates and poor yields on short-haul scheduled routes served in competition with British Air Ferries
from Southend depressed revenues. To bring costs in line with revenues, Channel Airways announced the closure of its Stansted engineering base and the return of its headquarters to Southend at the end of January 1972. A week later, Channel's main lender, Barclays Bank, appointed a receiver
and put the airline up for sale while operations continued. Potential buyers' lack of interest in Channel Airways as a going concern
forced the break-up of the company. As a result, all jet services ceased on 15 February 1972. Operations ceased completely at the end of that month. Permanent cessation of operations was followed by withdrawal of Channel Airways's air operator's certificate
at the end of March 1972.
Following Channel Airways's demise, Dan-Air acquired the failed carrier's Comet 4Bs and its licence to operate year-round scheduled services from Bournemouth
to Guernsey and Jersey while British Airways Regional Division
acquired a One-Eleven 400 previously in service with Channel. In addition, the last three remaining former Channel Airways Viscounts were sold together with the aircraft's entire spares inventory to newly formed Alidair. Ipswich Aerodrome
, previously owned by Channel Airways, was sold to Lonmet Aviation.
An Aviation Traders ATL 98 Carvair
was on order.
Channel Airways employed 180 people at this time.
Channel Airways employed 600 people at this time.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1946 as East Anglian Flying Services.
The newly formed airline initially operated aerial joy rides with a single, three-seater aircraft from an airstrip on the Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
coast. Scheduled services began in 1947, following the move to Southend (Rochford) Airport
London Southend Airport
London Southend Airport or Southend Airport is a regional airport in the district of Rochford within Essex, England.During the 1960s, Southend was the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. It remained London's third-busiest airport in terms of passengers handled until the end of the 1970s,...
earlier that year, while inclusive tour (IT) charter flights started in 1948. Rapid business growth saw seven additional aircraft join the fledgling airline's fleet by the end of that year.
The introduction of exchange controls
Foreign exchange controls
Foreign exchange controls are various forms of controls imposed by a government on the purchase/sale of foreign currencies by residents or on the purchase/sale of local currency by nonresidents.Common foreign exchange controls include:...
in the early 1950s resulted in a major contraction of the travel market, in turn compelling East Anglian to cease all operations other than pleasure flying. Following a recovery in demand, aircraft and employees that had been surplus to requirements during the slump were respectively brought back into service and re-hired. By that time, the airline had also opened a second base at Ipswich Airport
Ipswich Airport
Ipswich Airport is a former airfield on the outskirts of Ipswich, Suffolk England.-History:The site of Ravens Wood was purchased by the Ipswich Corporation in 1929 with the intention of creating a municipal airport for Ipswich, with construction starting in the following year. The airport was...
and obtained its first long-term scheduled service licence. The latter part of the 1950s saw East Anglian updating its fleet with post-war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
aircraft designs.
Fleet modernisation continued in the early 1960s with the addition of Viking
Vickers VC.1 Viking
The Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines...
, DC-3
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
and DC-4
Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
equipment. In October 1962, East Anglian Flying Services became Channel Airways. The following year saw the acquisition of Channel's first turbine-powered aircraft.
Channel entered the jet age
Jet age
The Jet Age is a period of history defined by the social change brought about by the advent of large aircraft powered by turbine engines. These aircraft are able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older piston-powered propliners, making transcontinental and inter-continental travel...
in June 1967 with the arrival of its first BAC One-Eleven
BAC One-Eleven
The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
400 at Southend
London Southend Airport
London Southend Airport or Southend Airport is a regional airport in the district of Rochford within Essex, England.During the 1960s, Southend was the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. It remained London's third-busiest airport in terms of passengers handled until the end of the 1970s,...
. In March 1968, Channel Airways became the first independentindependent from government-owned corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
s airline in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to operate the Hawker Siddeley Trident
Hawker Siddeley Trident
The Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident was a British short/medium-range three-engined jet airliner designed by de Havilland and built by Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s and 1970s...
. Channel's new jet
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
s were contracted to major tour operator
Tour operator
A tour operator typically combines tour and travel components to create a holiday. The most common example of a tour operator's product would be a flight on a charter airline plus a transfer from the airport to a hotel and the services of a local representative, all for one price. Niche tour...
s in the UK and West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
from bases at Southend, London Stansted
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
, other British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
airports and Berlin Tegel in what used to be West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
prior to German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. During that time, Channel moved its main operating and engineering base as well as its head office from Southend to Stansted
London Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
to enable regular jet operations to more distant destinations with a full commercial payload from the latter's longer runway.
A bus stop scheduled service linking the airline's Southend base with Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
via six intermediate points briefly operated in the late-1960s with modified Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
s.
The addition of five Comet
De Havilland Comet
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
4Bs in 1970 marked a major expansion of Channel's jet operation, making it a leading contemporary UK charter airline, with IT operations accounting for more than half of its business.
Low utilisation of the Trident
Hawker Siddeley Trident
The Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident was a British short/medium-range three-engined jet airliner designed by de Havilland and built by Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s and 1970s...
fleet resulted in the type's disposal in December 1971, followed by closure of the Stansted engineering base and return of the head office to Southend. The company's deteriorating trading position and diminishing prospects led to growing financial difficulties. This forced Channel Airways to cease operations in February 1972.
Formative era
Channel Airways was one of the earliest, post-World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
British independent airlines. Former Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
squadron leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
Reginald "Jack" Jones founded Channel Airways in June 1946 as an aerial joy ride business, which was incorporate
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
d as East Anglian Flying Services on 16 August 1946. The new airline was majority-owned by Jones and his family, who held more than 80% of its shares.
Commercial operations commenced on 16 August 1946 with a single, early-1930s vintage, three-seat Puss Moth
De Havilland Puss Moth
|-See also:-References:* Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919 . London, Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-10010-7-External links:*...
, offering joy rides at 10s a time from a landing strip near the Kent seaside town of Herne Bay
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
. Soon after, this aircraft also operated air taxi
Air taxi
An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...
flights to destinations all over the UK.
On 5 January 1947, East Anglian moved its base across the Thames estuary
Thames Estuary
The Thames Mouth is the estuary in which the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea.It is not easy to define the limits of the estuary, although physically the head of Sea Reach, near Canvey Island on the Essex shore is probably the western boundary...
to Southend Municipal Airport
London Southend Airport
London Southend Airport or Southend Airport is a regional airport in the district of Rochford within Essex, England.During the 1960s, Southend was the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. It remained London's third-busiest airport in terms of passengers handled until the end of the 1970s,...
near Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, only four days after its re-opening as a civil airport. The move to Southend Airport led to the introduction of a regular Southend—Rochester feeder service, East Anglian's first scheduled route.
Nineteen forty-eight was the year East Anglian operated its first IT charter flight from Southend
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...
to Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
in conjunction with two British travel agents. By winter 1948, a huge expansion of the fledgling airline's pleasure flying and charter business resulted in acquisition of seven additional aircraft. These included five de Havilland Dragon Rapide
De Havilland Dragon Rapide
The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide was a British short-haul passenger airliner of the 1930s.-Design and development:Designed by the de Havilland company in late 1933 as a faster and more comfortable successor to the DH.84 Dragon, it was in effect a twin-engined, scaled-down version of the...
s, a Miles Aerovan
Miles Aerovan
-See also:-Bibliography:* Amos, Peter. and Brown, Don Lambert. Miles Aircraft Since 1925, Volume 1. London: Putnam Aeronautical, 2000. ISBN 0-85177-787-0....
and an Airspeed Courier
Airspeed Courier
|-See also:-External links:**...
. One of East Anglian's engagements at the time included a one-off round-trip to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
carrying a party of schoolboys, which was operated by a Miles Aerovan lacking radio
Radio navigation
Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position on the Earth. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially...
equipment and an autopilot
Autopilot
An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. An autopilot can refer specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear for boats, or auto guidance of space craft and missiles...
.
Following a successful first year on the Southend—Ostend charter run, East Anglian obtained a scheduled service licence for the route, as well as a Southend—Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
scheduled licence.
The 1950s
Government restrictions on overseas travel and the introduction of exchange controls in 1951 caused a severe contraction of the travel market, resulting in the collapse of numerous small independent airlines in the UK. The industry's grave situation necessitated drastic cutbacks at East Anglian to ensure its survival. All commercial activities other than pleasure flying ceased and only two full-time employees remained on the company's payrollPayroll
In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, wages, bonuses and deductions. In accounting, payroll refers to the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time. Payroll plays a major role in a company for several reasons...
— Jones himself and an office boy
Boy
A boy is a young male human , as contrasted to its female counterpart, girl, or an adult male, a man.The term "boy" is primarily used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions or both...
.
Following a gradual pickup in demand, East Anglian brought back into service aircraft that had been laid up during the slump, re-hired laid-off employees and, in 1953, obtained a lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
on the grass airfield at Ipswich Airport as a secondary base for its charter operations and a future feeder point on its scheduled network. During that period, East Anglian was awarded its first long-term scheduled licencevalid for seven years on the Southend—Ostend route. Additional scheduled services were launched from Southend and Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
as well as from Portsmouth to Jersey while some Southend—Jersey services featured additional stops in Rochester, Shoreham
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
and Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
. A Southend—Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
link followed in 1956.
During the late-1950s, East Anglian began the process of augmenting and eventually replacing pre-war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
aircraft designs such as the Dragon Rapide with more modern equipment, starting with the acquisition of three de Havilland Dove
De Havilland Dove
The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs...
s from West African Airways Corporation
West African Airways Corporation
West African Airways Corporation, or WAAC for short, was a 12-year lived airline jointly owned and operated by four West African governments of the British Empire, namely The Gambia, the Gold Coast , Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The carrier was headquartered at the Airways House in Ikeja, Nigeria,...
. By the end of 1957, a year that saw nearly 30,000 passengers fly with East Anglian, two Bristol 170s
Bristol Freighter
The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner, although its best known use is as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances.-Design and development:The...
had joined the fleet. These aircraft were the airline's first bulk carriers.
The 1960s
During the early-1960s, East Anglian added several Vickers VikingVickers VC.1 Viking
The Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines...
s and Douglas DC-3
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
s as well as a single Douglas DC-4
Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
, quickening the pace of its fleet modernisation programme.
On 29 October 1962, East Anglian Flying Services officially changed its name to Channel Airways. (Although the Channel Airways name had appeared on the company's aircraft for some time prior to it becoming official, the old name was retained as the officially registered name until the somewhat similarly sounding Channel Air Bridge
Channel Air Bridge
Channel Air Bridge was a private British independentindependent from government-owned corporations airline specialising in cross-Channel vehicle-cum-passenger ferry services. Freddie Laker started Channel Air Bridge as a sister airline of Air Charter on a provisional basis in 1954. Operations...
name became defunct to avoid any confusion.) By that time, Channel Airways operated frequent scheduled passenger and freight services from Southend, Ipswich and Rochester
Rochester Airport, England
Rochester Airport is a small airfield located south of Rochester, Kent, England, with the River Medway from the end of runway 34, from Chatham and its Historic Dockyard and the Medway area....
to the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
, Rotterdam, Ostend and Paris as well as from Portsmouth
Portsmouth Airport (UK)
Portsmouth Airport was situated at the northeast corner of Portsea Island on the south coast of England and was one of the last remaining commercial grass runway airports in the United Kingdom.-Location:...
to the Channel Islands. The airline also held licences to operate vehicle ferry services from Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
to Dublin, Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, Jersey and Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
as well as from Southend to Jersey and Bilbao. It furthermore applied for traffic rights to operate a vehicle ferry service between Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and Dublin. Moreover, the company ran regular, 52-seat luxury express coach
Coach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
services linking Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
with Ipswich as well as Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, Basingstoke
Basingstoke
Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...
and Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
with Portsmouth. In addition, IT and general passenger and freight charter services, which accounted for a growing share of the firm's business, were operated while rival independent airline Tradair became a wholly owned subsidiary of Channel Airways on 31 December 1962.
In 1963, Channel Airways acquired its first turboprop
Turboprop
A turboprop engine is a type of turbine engine which drives an aircraft propeller using a reduction gear.The gas turbine is designed specifically for this application, with almost all of its output being used to drive the propeller...
airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
, a Vickers Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
700 series inherited from Tradair. That year also marked the beginning of the airline's large-scale expansion into IT charters. This saw the operation of a Douglas DC-4 in a high-density, 88-seat layout from Manchester and other UK airports to Ostend.
The arrival of Channel's first turbine-powered aircraft coincided with the introduction of a new "Golden"-themed livery
Aircraft livery
Aircraft livery is a paint scheme applied to an aircraft, generally to fuselage, wings, empennage , or jet engines. Most airlines have a standard paint scheme for their aircraft fleet, usually prominently displaying the airline logo or name. From time to time special liveries are introduced, for...
that was subsequently adopted for all Viscounts, HS 748s, One-Elevens
BAC One-Eleven
The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
and Tridents, with minor variations for each sub-fleet. This was one of the few marketing gimmicks in which the airline indulged and marked a major departure from its refusal to build a brand identity or to engage in prestige promotion to keep costs down.
By the mid-1960s, Channel Airways had acquired another nine Viscount 700s. Seven of these were former British European Airways
British European Airways
British European Airways or British European Airways Corporation was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. The airline operated European and North African routes from airports around the United Kingdom...
(BEA) aircraft while the remaining two were sourced from Bahamas Airways and Starways
Starways
Starways was a British airline from 1948 to 1963.-History:The airline was formed in 1948 to undertake freight and passenger charters from Liverpool Airport...
respectively. In addition to these aircraft, Channel also purchased eleven Viscount 812s from Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
and four new Hawker Siddeley 748s to support a rapidly growing number of IT flights and regional scheduled services along the UK's South Coast, between the South Coast, the Channel Islands and the Continent
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
, as well as from Manchester Airport to continental
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
destinations. The latter aircraft operated most of the airline's schedules serving the grass airfields.Ipswich, Portsmouth and Rochester Although IT operations generated about half its revenues by that time, making Channel one of the UK's foremost contemporary charter operators, senior management preferred to think of it as primarily a scheduled carrier, keeping in mind their longer-term corporate ambitions
Strategic management
Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...
to operate more domestic links from Southend and to extend the network's reach beyond the Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
coast and Paris to new destinations in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
.
In September 1966, Channel Airways announced its first jet aircraft
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
order comprising four BAC One-Eleven 400 series plus two options. That order was worth £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
5.5m
Million
One million or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian millione , from mille, "thousand", plus the augmentative suffix -one.In scientific notation, it is written as or just 106...
. These aircraft were the first jets
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
to join the fleet, the first of which arrived at the company's Southend base on 15 June 1967.entering service the following day Nineteen sixty-six was also the year Channel arranged a 21-year lease on the grass field at Ipswich
Ipswich Airport
Ipswich Airport is a former airfield on the outskirts of Ipswich, Suffolk England.-History:The site of Ravens Wood was purchased by the Ipswich Corporation in 1929 with the intention of creating a municipal airport for Ipswich, with construction starting in the following year. The airport was...
.
By May 1967, Channel Airways had taken delivery of the remaining ex-Continental
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines was a major American airline now merged with United Airlines. On May 3, 2010, Continental Airlines, Inc. and UAL, Inc. announced a merger via a stock swap, and on October 1, 2010, the merger closed and UAL changed its name to United Continental Holdings, Inc...
Viscount 812s. By that time, it had also retired and sold the last 700s and placed a follow-on order for another two One-Eleven 400s.
Jetliner
Jetliner are an alternative rock band from the USA. They focus on melodic piano based rock and have been compared to Queen and early Elton John, being heavily influenced by early 70s rock. Composed of Adam Paskowitz of The Flys, son of Doc Paskowitz, on piano and lead vocals, Jeff Kluesner on...
arrived at Channel Airways's Southend base in March 1968, by which time the airline's remaining One-Elevens were being delivered. Nineteen sixty-eight was also the year Channel reduced its outstanding jet aircraft orders due to the difficult economic situation in the UK during that time, especially the sterling devaluation
Sterling Area
The sterling area came into existence at the outbreak of World War II. It was a wartime emergency measure which involved cooperation in exchange control matters between a group of countries, which at the time were mostly dominions and colonies of the British Empire...
and a tightening of the existing exchange control regime that limited passengers to £50 a trip. This resulted in cancellation of three remaining orders each for Tridents and One-Elevens and only two and threethe first BAC One-Eleven was traded in for the second examples respectively joining the airline's fleet.
The introduction of these jet aircraft enabled Channel Airways to become a major provider of charter airline seats to the leading package tour operators in the UK from bases at Southend, Stansted, Bristol
Bristol Airport
Bristol Airport may refer to:* Bristol Airport, serving Bristol, England, United Kingdom ** Bristol Airport , a docu-soap based on events at Bristol Airport...
, Cardiff, East Midlands, Manchester and Teesside
Durham Tees Valley Airport
Durham Tees Valley Airport is an international airport in north east England, located southeast of Darlington, about southwest of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. The airport serves County Durham and parts of North Yorkshire, and is in Middleton St George in the borough of Darlington...
. Channel Airways also held lucrative contracts to carry package tour holiday makers from West Berlin to holiday resorts in the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
and the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
on behalf of major West German
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
tour operators. This had resulted in one of the airline's jets being permanently based at the city's Tegel Airport until its demise. The build-up of Channel's jet fleet also resulted in Stansted becoming the main operating base as these aircraft suffered range
Range (aircraft)
The maximal total range is the distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing, as limited by fuel capacity in powered aircraft, or cross-country speed and environmental conditions in unpowered aircraft....
and payload restrictions at Southend due to its short runway.
Channel's increasing dependence on the IT market made it a highly seasonal airline, with pronounced peaks and troughs in activity and aircraft utilisation. Each year, the end of the winter trough was followed by a six-week period of intense activity starting in April, when the company's aircraft were contracted by Clarksons
Clarksons Travel Group
Clarksons Travel Group was a package tour operator in the UK during the 1960s and early 1970s. The company ran into financial difficulties and was taken over by its major supplier of air travel, Court Line...
to ferry British tourists to and from Rotterdam for the Dutch bulbfield season from ten UK departure points. The end of this season in mid-May also marked the beginning of the actual summer season, when the firm's planes commenced flying holidaymakers from the UK to Majorca, the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
mainland and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
under contract to the leading contemporary providers of package holiday
Package holiday
A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday. Transport can be via charter airline to a foreign country...
s in the UK. Flights to other Mediterranean resorts — chiefly in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and other Adriatic
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
regions — started the following month. During the peak period in July and August, aircraft operated round-the-clock, plying scheduled routes during the day and serving IT destinations at night. The resulting increase in utilisation meant that aircraft spent as little as 40 minutes on the ground. By mid-September, the IT programme began winding down, with flights to Italy ending first due to its short holiday season. Flights to Majorca and certain Spanish mainland destinations continued right until the end of the summer charter season in late-October. To avoid having aircraft sit idly on the ground during the lean winter months,apart from the brief peak around Christmas and New Year when ad hoc charters and a small number of year-round scheduled services replaced the intensive summer IT programme and busy summer schedule, spare capacity was leased out. In addition, all heavy maintenance
Aircraft maintenance checks
Aircraft maintenance checks are periodic checks that have to be done on all aircraft after a certain amount of time or usage. Airlines and other commercial operators of large or turbine-powered aircraft follow a continuous inspection program approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in the...
was scheduled to take place during this period.
The rapid growth in Channel's IT business furthermore resulted in establishment of Mediterranean Holidays as its in-house tour operating
Tour operator
A tour operator typically combines tour and travel components to create a holiday. The most common example of a tour operator's product would be a flight on a charter airline plus a transfer from the airport to a hotel and the services of a local representative, all for one price. Niche tour...
subsidiary. This enabled the airline to take maximum advantage of the booming
Boom and bust
A credit boom-bust cycle is an episode characterized by a sustained increase in several economics indicators followed by a sharp and rapid contraction. Commonly the boom is driven by a rapid expansion of credit to the private sector accompanied with rising prices of commodities and stock market index...
package holiday market while at the same time reducing its dependence on third party tour operators.
Channel Airways held the record for operating the UK charter airline industry's tightest seating configurations. For example, it managed to fit as many as 88 seats into its Douglas DC-4s, 139 seatsseven abreast in the forward cabin into its Trident 1Es, as many as 99 seatssix abreast; this seating arrangement was exclusive to the second and third example and required the aircraft's modification with two additional over-wing
Overwing exits
Overwing exits are found on passenger aircraft to provide a means of passenger evacuation onto the wing, where they either continue off the trailing edge by sliding down the extended flaps or by using an evacuation slide that deploys when the exit is opened....
emergency exit
Emergency exit
An emergency exit in a structure is a special exit for emergencies such as a fire: the combined use of regular and special exits allows for faster evacuation, while it also provides an alternative if the route to the regular exit is blocked by fire, etc....
s each side of the fuselage, the only short-bodied One-Elevens to have this into its One-Eleven 400s and as many as 83 and 56 seats62 without galley into its Viscount 810s and HS 748s respectively. These were the highest-density seating configurations of any of the aforementioned aircraft types' operators.
Channel Airways also became known for pressing into service aircraft it had acquired second-hand with only minimal changes to the previous operators' aircraft liveries
Aircraft livery
Aircraft livery is a paint scheme applied to an aircraft, generally to fuselage, wings, empennage , or jet engines. Most airlines have a standard paint scheme for their aircraft fleet, usually prominently displaying the airline logo or name. From time to time special liveries are introduced, for...
, i.e. merely taping over those operators' names with its own.
By the end of the decade, Channel Airways had established itself as one of the UK's leading, contemporary independent airlines, operating domestic and international scheduled passenger and freight services from East Midlands, Ipswich, Norwich, Stansted, Southend, Portsmouth and Bournemouth
Bournemouth Airport
Bournemouth Airport is an airport located north-northeast of Bournemouth, in southern England...
to the Channel Islands, Rotterdam, Ostend, Paris, Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
, Palma
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
and Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. Between 1966 and 1968, it recorded annual profits in excess of £500,000. The Scottish Flyer was the name of a twice-daily multi-stop, bus stop type scheduled service Channel operated with modified, 69-seat Viscount 812s featuring a large baggage compartment inside the aircraft's cabin. This service ran for a brief period from January until November 1969 between Southend and Aberdeen, with six four to five minute long, engine-running intermediate stops, including Luton
London Luton Airport
London Luton Airport is an international airport located east of the town centre in the Borough of Luton in Bedfordshire, England and is north of Central London. The airport is from Junction 10a of the M1 motorway...
, East Midlands, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
/Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, Teesside
Teesside
Teesside is the name given to the conurbation in the north east of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham and surrounding settlements near the River Tees. It was also the name of a local government district between 1968 and 1974—the County Borough of...
, Newcastle and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
The 1970s and closure
The introduction of five ex-BEA de Havilland CometDe Havilland Comet
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
4B series in the early-1970s resulted in a significant increase in Channel Airways's charter capacity. By that time, charter flights accounted for 60% of the airline's revenue.
In January 1971, Channel Airways received UK, US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
permission to operate transatlantic "affinity group" charters. A pair of long-haul Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
s were to be purchased to commence North Atlantic operations to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
later that year.
During the first week of December 1971, Channel Airways sold both of its Trident 1Es to BEA to counter the increase in unit cost
Unit cost
The unit cost of a product is the cost per standard unit supplied, which may be a single sample or a container of a given number. When purchasing more than a single unit, the total cost will increase with the number of units, but it is common for the unit cost to decrease as quantity is increased...
s resulting from low utilisation of these aircraft.each aircraft was utilised for only 894hr in 1971, the lowest of any type operated (One of the aircraft was leased to BEA's Newcastle-based regional subsidiary Northeast Airlines
Northeast Airlines (UK)
Northeast Airlines - formerly BKS Air Transport - was an airline based in the United Kingdom that operated as BKS from 1951 until 1970. NEA's operations and fleet were merged into British Airways in 1976.-BKS:...
while the other was operating the corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
's regional routes from Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
to the Continent
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
.)
In early-1972, former Channel Airways director Captain Peter Lockwood acquired a pair of ex-American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
BAC One-Eleven 400s for his new charter company, Orientair, to take over Channel's lucrative German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
charter contracts. When Orientair's plan to assume Channel Airways's position in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
ran into difficulties, Dan-Air
Dan-Air
Dan-Air was a leading private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations airline based in the United Kingdom....
took over these contracts, resulting in an expansion of that airline's Berlin operation.
Lack of fleet standardisationat the time the airline went into receivership, its fleet comprised 13 aircraft of five different types and low, all-year round aircraft utilisation due to seasonal peaks and troughs in its charter and scheduled markets drove up Channel's unit costs while low charter rates and poor yields on short-haul scheduled routes served in competition with British Air Ferries
British United Air Ferries
British United Air Ferries was a wholly private, British independentindependent from government-owned corporations car and passenger ferry airline based in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. It specialised in cross-Channel ferry flights carrying cars and their owners between its numerous bases...
from Southend depressed revenues. To bring costs in line with revenues, Channel Airways announced the closure of its Stansted engineering base and the return of its headquarters to Southend at the end of January 1972. A week later, Channel's main lender, Barclays Bank, appointed a receiver
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
and put the airline up for sale while operations continued. Potential buyers' lack of interest in Channel Airways as a going concern
Going concern
A going concern is a business that functions without the threat of liquidation for the foreseeable future, usually regarded as at least within 12 months.-Definition of the 'going concern' concept:...
forced the break-up of the company. As a result, all jet services ceased on 15 February 1972. Operations ceased completely at the end of that month. Permanent cessation of operations was followed by withdrawal of Channel Airways's air operator's certificate
Air Operator's Certificate
An air operator's certificate is the approval granted from a national aviation authority to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and system in place to ensure the safety of its employees and the general public...
at the end of March 1972.
Following Channel Airways's demise, Dan-Air acquired the failed carrier's Comet 4Bs and its licence to operate year-round scheduled services from Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
to Guernsey and Jersey while British Airways Regional Division
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
acquired a One-Eleven 400 previously in service with Channel. In addition, the last three remaining former Channel Airways Viscounts were sold together with the aircraft's entire spares inventory to newly formed Alidair. Ipswich Aerodrome
Ipswich Airport
Ipswich Airport is a former airfield on the outskirts of Ipswich, Suffolk England.-History:The site of Ravens Wood was purchased by the Ipswich Corporation in 1929 with the intention of creating a municipal airport for Ipswich, with construction starting in the following year. The airport was...
, previously owned by Channel Airways, was sold to Lonmet Aviation.
Fleet details
Throughout its 26-year existence the following aircraft types formed part of the Channel Airways fleet:- Airspeed CourierAirspeed Courier|-See also:-External links:**...
- Aviation Traders CarvairAviation Traders CarvairThe Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair was a large piston-engine transport aircraft. It was a Douglas DC-4-based air ferry developed by Freddie Laker's Aviation Traders Limited , with a capacity of 25 passengers and five cars, loaded at the front.-Design and development:Freddie Laker's idea to...
- BAC One-ElevenBAC One-ElevenThe British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
400 - Bristol Wayfarer
- de Havilland CometDe Havilland CometThe de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
4B - de Havilland DoveDe Havilland DoveThe de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs...
- de Havilland Dragon RapideDe Havilland Dragon RapideThe de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide was a British short-haul passenger airliner of the 1930s.-Design and development:Designed by the de Havilland company in late 1933 as a faster and more comfortable successor to the DH.84 Dragon, it was in effect a twin-engined, scaled-down version of the...
- de Havilland HeronDe Havilland HeronThe de Havilland DH.114 Heron was a small, propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged, conventional low-wing monoplane with tricycle...
- de Havilland Puss MothDe Havilland Puss Moth|-See also:-References:* Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919 . London, Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-10010-7-External links:*...
- de Havilland Tiger MothDe Havilland Tiger MothThe de Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and was operated by the Royal Air Force and others as a primary trainer. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk in 1952, when many of the surplus aircraft...
- Douglas C-47 Skytrain/Douglas DC-3 DakotaDouglas DC-3The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
- Douglas C-54 Skymaster/DC-4Douglas DC-4The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
- Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Srs 2
- Hawker Siddeley TridentHawker Siddeley TridentThe Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident was a British short/medium-range three-engined jet airliner designed by de Havilland and built by Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s and 1970s...
1E - Miles AerovanMiles Aerovan-See also:-Bibliography:* Amos, Peter. and Brown, Don Lambert. Miles Aircraft Since 1925, Volume 1. London: Putnam Aeronautical, 2000. ISBN 0-85177-787-0....
- Percival ProctorPercival ProctorThe Percival Proctor was a British radio trainer and communications aircraft of the Second World War. The Proctor was a single-engine, low-wing monoplane with seating for three or four, depending on the model.-Design and development:...
- Vickers VikingVickers VC.1 VikingThe Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines...
- Vickers ViscountVickers ViscountThe Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
700/800.
Fleet in 1962
In April 1962, the Channel Airways fleet comprised 15 aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Bristol 170 Freighter Mark 21 Bristol Freighter The Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner, although its best known use is as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances.-Design and development:The... |
2 |
| Douglas DC-4 Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role... |
2 |
| Douglas DC-3 Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made... |
6 |
| Vickers Viking Vickers VC.1 Viking The Vickers VC.1 Viking was a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines... |
3 |
| de Havilland DH 104 Dove De Havilland Dove The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs... |
2 |
| Total | 15 |
An Aviation Traders ATL 98 Carvair
Aviation Traders Carvair
The Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair was a large piston-engine transport aircraft. It was a Douglas DC-4-based air ferry developed by Freddie Laker's Aviation Traders Limited , with a capacity of 25 passengers and five cars, loaded at the front.-Design and development:Freddie Laker's idea to...
was on order.
Channel Airways employed 180 people at this time.
Fleet in 1971
In May 1971, the Channel Airways fleet comprised 25 aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Hawker Siddeley Trident 1E Hawker Siddeley Trident The Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident was a British short/medium-range three-engined jet airliner designed by de Havilland and built by Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s and 1970s... |
2 |
| BAC One-Eleven 400 BAC One-Eleven The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s... |
2 |
| de Havilland Comet 4B De Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design... |
5 |
| Vickers Viscount 800 Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world... |
9 |
| de Havilland DH 114 Heron De Havilland Heron The de Havilland DH.114 Heron was a small, propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugged, conventional low-wing monoplane with tricycle... |
6 |
| de Havilland DH 104 Dove De Havilland Dove The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs... |
1 |
| Total | 25 |
Channel Airways employed 600 people at this time.
Accidents and incidents
There are six recorded accidents involving East Anglian Flying Services/Channel Airways aircraft. One of these resulted in the loss of lives of fare-paying passengers. The airline's six accidents are detailed below:- On 28 July 1959, an East Anglian Flying Services Vickers Viking (registration G-AHPH) was written off at Southend Airport as a result of being damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at the end of a non-scheduled passenger flight. On approachFinal approachFinal approach may refer to:* Final approach , the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing* Final Approach , a thriller starring James Sikking* Final Approach , a TV action thriller starring Dean Cain...
to Southend, the aircraft's right-hand main gear indicator did not show "green", thereby failing to confirm that the gear was down and locked. The pilot in commandPilot in commandThe pilot in command of an aircraft is the person aboard the aircraft who is ultimately responsible for its operation and safety during flight. This would be the "captain" in a typical two- or three-pilot flight crew, or "pilot" if there is only one certified and qualified pilot at the controls of...
of the aircraft attempted an emergency landingEmergency landingAn emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.-Types of emergency landings:...
on the grass parallel to the runway after noticing that the emergency gear extension system was inoperable. Following touch-down, the right main gear collapsed and the aircraft swung to the right, damaging it beyond repair. None of the 39 occupants (three crew and 36 passengers) were injured.
- On 6 May 1962, a Channel Airways Douglas C-47A-1-DK (registration G-AGZB) operating a scheduled passenger flight from JerseyJerseyJersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
to PortsmouthPortsmouthPortsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
collided with a cloud-covered hill1962 Channel Airways Dakota accidentThe 1962 Channel Airways Dakota accident occurred on 6 May 1962 when a Channel Airways Douglas C-47A Dakota registered G-AGZB operating a scheduled passenger flight from Jersey to Portsmouth collided with a cloud-covered hill at St Boniface Down near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, the aircraft was...
at St Boniface DownSt Boniface DownSt Boniface Down is a chalk down on the Isle of Wight, England. It is located close to the town of Ventnor, in the southeast of the Island, and rises to , the Island's highest point, north of the town...
near VentnorVentnorVentnor is a seaside resort and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies underneath St Boniface Down , and is built on steep slopes and cliffs leading down to the sea...
on the Isle of WightIsle of WightThe Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
in Southern EnglandSouthern EnglandSouthern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...
, resulting in the aircraft's destruction and the deaths of twelve of the 18 occupants (all three crew members and nine out of 15 passengers) on board. The C-47 had descended to 1,000 feet — well below the safe minimum height — while approaching Portsmouth in low cloud and drizzly weather conditions. The poor weather conditions made it impossible for the flightdeck crew to spot the hill in its vicinity and to take evasive action, as a result of which the aircraft struck high ground and burst into flames. This was Channel Airways's first and only fatal accident.
- On 3 May 1967, a Channel Airways Vickers Viscount 812 (registration G-AVJZ) was damaged beyond repair during a test flight to renew the aircraft's Certificate of Airworthiness as a result of propellerPropeller (aircraft)Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
no. 4 being feathered shortly after takeoff from Southend Airport, causing the aircraft to enter an uncontrolled turn and scrape the ground with its right wingtip. This, in turn, caused the plane to crash into a wire fence compound, catch fire and kill two Aviation TradersAviation Traderswas a war-surplus aircraft and spares trader formed in 1947. In 1949, it began maintaining aircraft used by some of Britain's contemporary independent airlines on the Berlin Airlift. In the early 1950s, it branched out into aircraft conversions and manufacturing. During that period it also became a...
workers on the ground. Although the aircraft was a complete write-off, none of the three crew members on board was hurt.
- On 15 August 1967, two Channel Airways Hawker Siddeley HS 748-222 Srs. 2 (registration: G-ATEH and G-ATEK) were substantially damaged in separate landing accidents at Portsmouth AirportPortsmouth Airport (UK)Portsmouth Airport was situated at the northeast corner of Portsea Island on the south coast of England and was one of the last remaining commercial grass runway airports in the United Kingdom.-Location:...
that occurred within two hours of each other. The first of these, involving HS 748-222 G-ATEK, occurred at 11.48 local time. The aircraft was operating that day's scheduled service from Southend to Paris via Portsmouth. Following a circling approach to Portsmouth Airport, it touched down normally ca. 330 ft left of grass strip 36's centre-line. The pilot flying the aircraft selected ground fine propeller pitch during landing followed by continuous application of the wheel brakes. Initially, the aircraft decelerated normally. However, at an advanced stage of the landing roll, the flightdeck crew realised that the remaining distance might not be sufficient for the plane to stop. To keep within the airfield's boundary, the flightdeck crew attempted to swing the aircraft to the left. Although this caused the aircraft to turn in the desired direction, it began sliding sideways, finally coming to a halt on an earth embankment. Despite extensive damage to the aircraft, there was no post-crash fire and none of the 23 occupants (four crew, 19 passengers) were injured. The subsequent accident investigation established inadequate braking as a result of inadequate friction provided by the aerodrome's very wet grass covering a hard, dry and almost impermeable sub-soil. Accident investigators also cited the flighdeck crew's failure to take into account the additional landing distance that was required to land an HS 748 safely on the wet grass strip as an important contributory factor. The second mishap, involving HS 748-222 G-ATEH, occurred at 13.34 local time. The aircraft was operating that day's scheduled service from Guernsey to Portsmouth. A visual approach to Portsmouth Airport's grass strip 07 resulted in an unsuccessful attempt to land. A second attempt was made, resulting in the aircraft landing on strip 07. Immediately after touchdown, selection of ground fine propeller pitch was followed by application of brakes. Although this caused the aircraft to decelerate initially, subsequent braking proved ineffective due to the wet grass. As a consequence, the aircraft broke through the perimeter fence alongside the main road in the aerodrome's northeast corner, coming to a halt across the road. Despite extensive damage to the aircraft, there was no post-crash fire and none of the 66 occupants (four crew, 62 passengers) were injured. The subsequent accident investigation established inadequate braking as a result of inadequate friction provided by the aerodrome's very wet grass covering a hard, dry and almost impermeable sub-soil. Accident investigators also cited the flighdeck crew's failure to take into account the additional landing distance that was required to land an HS 748 safely on the wet grass strip as an important contributory factor. Both aircraft were subsequently repaired and returned to service.
- On 4 May 1968, a Channel Airways Vickers Viscount 812 (registration G-APPU) was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at Southend Airport at the end of a scheduled passenger flight. The Viscount touched down on Southend's runway 06 at too high speed. Braking proved ineffective because the pilot in command wrongly assumed that the aircraft was aquaplaning. Instead, he used the aircraft's parking brake in the ensuing emergency, in a futile attempt to arrest its speed. The plane ran off the runway and collided with an earth wall. There were 18 injuries among the 83 occupants (four crew, 79 passengers).
External links
- Channel Airways, The South East Echo, 2007
- Airline Profile: Number Thirty-One in the Series — Channel Airways, Flight International, 17 August 1967, p. 255
- Channel Airways ..., Flight International, 17 August 1967, p. 256
- 'No Radar on Sunday' — The Story of Channel Airways Dakota G-AGZB
- London Southend Airport — Information Leaflet
- Aviation Safety Network database – Channel Airways accidents/incidents
- 1960s Channel Airways flight attendant uniform
- contemporary timetable images
- Channel Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident 1E G-AVYB coming in to land at Berlin Tegel on July 9, 1971
- Channel Airways BAC One-Eleven 408EF G-AWEJ coming in to land at Berlin Tegel on July 9, 1971
- Channel Airways de Havilland Comet 4B G-APMB on the ground at Berlin Tegel on August 7, 1971 (this particular example subsequently joined Dan-Air’s fleet)