BKS Air Transport

BKS Air Transport
IATA code :	BK
ICAO code :	BK
Call sign :	BEEKAYESS
Founding:	1952 (as BKS Aero Charter )
Operation stopped:	1970
Merged with:	Northeast Airlines
Seat:	Southend Airport , UK
Home airport :	Southend Airport , United Kingdom , later also Newcastle Airport
Fleet size:	12
Aims:	Europe
BKS Air Transport merged with Northeast Airlines in 1970 . The information in italics relates to the last status before the takeover.

BKS Air Transport was a British charter and scheduled airline that emerged from the renaming of BKS Aero Charter in late 1953 . On November 1, 1970, the company was renamed Northeast Airlines and, as a subsidiary of British European Airways , was fully integrated into British Airways , which had been created in the meantime, at the end of March 1976 .

history

Douglas DC-3 of the BKS, Manchester 1954

The company was originally founded on February 7, 1952 as BKS Aero Charter , named after the first letter of its founders James B arnby, TD 'Mike' K eegan and Cyril S tevens.

The founders and flight captain JP Falconer were able to take a Douglas DC-3 with them instead of cash payments when they left their former company Crewsair , with which they could already charter a cargo of cattle from Southend-on-Sea airport to Milan and Florence on the day of the foundation . Other charter flights with ship crews or machines also took place in distant destinations such as Singapore and Aden .

After the only machine had already been sold in April, a used Avro Anson and two other DC-3s from the Royal Air Force were first procured .

During the following year 1953 three more Douglas DC-3s were procured. This also enabled the first IT charter flights for a tour operator between Southend and Corsica to be carried out. Passenger charter flights were even carried out as far as Karachi ( Pakistan ). Moreover carried BKS freight within Europe and in the Near and Middle East .

On May 18, 1953, the company began its first domestic service between Hartlepool near Newcastle and Northolt ( London ).

To illustrate the expansion from a charter to a scheduled airline, BKS Aero Charter was renamed BKS Air Transport at the end of 1953 .

Towards the end of 1954, British European Airways (BEA) began to downsize its huge fleet of 73 Vickers Vikings and to offer parts of them on the used aircraft market. The management of BKS considered this type of aircraft to be ideal for their charter flight operations, while the DC-3 should continue the scheduled flights. On December 16, 1954, the first of four Vickers Vikings joined the fleet, which shortly thereafter completed its first mission on a newspaper transport flight from Southend to Hanover. Over the Christmas and New Years holidays, the plane was rented by the Department of Defense to transport soldiers and their families from their bases in Germany to the UK. In 1955, in addition to three other Vikings, two Airspeed Consul also used came to the fleet. One of them ( aircraft registration G-AGON ) was not used in flight operations, but only served as a spare parts donor.

On November 16, 1956, an airlift began to evacuate refugees after the Hungarian uprising . BKS and Vickers Vikings flew over 500 refugees from Linz and Vienna in 13 flights at cost to Blackbushe Airport near London, some to Southend and Luton . Since the fuel supply in Linz mostly did not work, the return flight was already filled in on the outward flight in Frankfurt . The airlift ended on December 14, 1956.

In 1957 the subsidiary BKS Air Survey was founded. It took over the implementation of aerial photographs and survey flights from the parent company. Alternating Douglas DC-3s, five Airspeed Consul , two Avro Anson and various single-engine aircraft were used.

When British European Airways (BEA) began to sell their Airspeed Ambassador aircraft , BKS acquired the first of a total of 5 Ambassadors in July 1957, which, like the first operator BEA, were called Elizabethan . BKS was one of the few users of this medium-haul aircraft, which was built in just 23 copies. On August 9, 1957, the first machine on the route from Newcastle to Dublin was used for the first time and replaced the DC-3 there. BKS converted its Ambassadors to 55 lighter seats and was able to reduce the curb weight by around 360 kilograms.

The three remaining Vickers Viking were sold in 1957, one of them to Deutsche Flugdienst as D-AHAF on January 27, 1957. The other two Vickers Vikings were sold to Continental Air Services , the last of which was handed over on December 3, 1957.

BKS received its first Bristol 170 Freighter on October 17, 1958. The machine entered service on December 15, initially for a contract with Vauxhall Motors to transport cars and spare parts from Luton to Belfast . On the way back, mostly fresh Irish vegetables were transported. Further freight lines were established to Belfast, Cardiff , Dublin, Düsseldorf , Leeds, London, Newcastle and Rotterdam. In addition to transport flights with fruit, vegetables and cattle, the lucrative market for racing horse transport was opened up. The fleet comprised four machines of this type over time.

As early as 1959, Bristol 170s were used to transport Black Knight missiles from the manufacturer Saunders-Roe on the Isle of Wight to Woomera in Australia . For this purpose, an additional tank with a capacity of 455 liters was built into the nose flaps. The normal fuel capacity of 4255 liters has been increased by around 10%. The route ran over the Philippines and New Guinea; the flight lasted 12 days, which is not surprising given a cruising speed of 141 knots (262 km / h) and an extended range of just 550 NM (1020 kilometers) thanks to the additional tank .

When it became apparent that other airlines had great success with "ferry flights", where passenger cars and their occupants were transported from Great Britain to continental Europe or Ireland, BKS also began to participate in the business. The first route was opened with two Bristol 170s from Liverpool to Dublin on April 25, 1960. At the end of the first ferry season in the fall of 1960, up to ten flights a day had been carried out.

Hawker-Siddeley HS 748 of the BKS, London-Heathrow 1954

On 29 May 1961, the first four-engine was Turboprop machine of the type Vickers Viscount delivered initially hired and placed into service on June 3 for a charter flight from Southend to Dijon . On June 6, it was first used on the main route from Newcastle to London. In the same year, the three Viscounts that were now available could also be used on vacation flights to Perpignan and Palma de Mallorca . This laid the foundation for a Viscounts fleet of 20 aircraft over the years. However, at the end of 1961, all three machines were returned to the owners. It was not until 1966 that Viscounts returned to the fleet, initially on routes departing from Leeds.

Bristol Britannia of the BKS, Southend 1956

On October 1, 1962, the first (rented) Hawker-Siddeley HS 748 (Avro 748) was put into operation. In February 1965, BKS received the first of two brand new machines of the same type. From October 1, 1962, the HS 748 initially replaced the Douglas DC-3 on the Leeds – London route, which had opened on October 3, 1960. The switch to the faster and more comfortable aircraft type led to a doubling of the number of passengers and a load factor of 80% on this route in a very short time. An HS 748 was last used in March 1968.

The then by far largest aircraft type of BKS Air Transport, the Bristol Britannia equipped with four turboprop engines , was first put into service on April 24, 1964 for passenger services. A total of four Britannias were used.

On June 10, 1964, a cooperation agreement was concluded with the state-owned British European Airways (BEA), which led to the takeover of initially 30% of the BKS capital by BEA; the proportion was increased to 50% in November 1966. One Ambassador was converted into a cargo aircraft in November 1964 , followed by two more in October 1967.

The last Bristol 170 was taken out of service and parked on April 4, 1965. She was sold to the Irish Aer Turas in March 1966 .

On September 14, 1967, BKS Air Transport was then completely taken over by BEA, but initially retained its identity.

The last flight of an Airspeed Ambassador in passenger service took place on October 31, 1967. This type remained in service as a freighter until October 1969. The last DC-3 was also decommissioned in 1967.

In the summer of 1968, BEA took over six Viscounts from the larger 800 series.

The first Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident jet aircraft was delivered brand new on February 4, 1969. On April 1st, the type was launched between London and Newcastle. The second machine was first used on April 9, 1969, on a charter flight from Newcastle to Palma de Mallorca .

On September 30, 1969, the foundation base in Southend was closed; the focus of activity had meanwhile shifted to Newcastle and London-Heathrow.

Until October 1970, the company operated its flights under its own name. On November 1 of the same year, it was renamed Northeast Airlines .

This was initially run as a subsidiary of British European Airways (BEA), but was fully integrated into the new parent company British Airways on March 31, 1976 .

Destinations

Line routes were opened in 1954 from Leeds , Newcastle and Southend to the British Isles of Jersey , the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight , as was the first regular international flight connection between Southend and Ostend . In the same year charter flights took place to Basel , Lourdes and Paris as well as via Corsica to Mallorca .

BKS also carried out newspaper transports to Germany and military charter flights for the Royal Air Force .

Over the next several years Newcastle Airport became the company's main base, while activities in Southend gradually declined. Most routes were flown from Newcastle, including a line to Düsseldorf from 1956 .

On April 1, 1957, BKS became the first private British airline to operate a scheduled service to Dublin ; From August 9, 1957, Airspeed Ambassador machines were also used.

In the summer flight schedule for 1963, BKS offered international scheduled flights from Leeds, London and Newcastle to Amsterdam , Basel , Bergen , Biarritz , Bilbao , Dublin, Düsseldorf, Ostend and Stavanger .

In the 1967/68 winter season, Vickers Viscount also served more distant holiday destinations. These included Seville , Lisbon , Marrakech as well as Las Palmas and Tenerife in the Canary Islands .

During the summer of 1968 BKS was able to win orders for its first inclusive tour charter flights . On behalf of the tour operator Wallace Arnold, founded in 1912, holiday flights were carried out from Leeds to Rimini , Ibiza , Gerona , Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.

fleet

Fleet at the end of operations

When it changed its name in 1970, BKS Air Transport was using the following types of aircraft:

• 4 × Bristol Britannia (temporarily stored)
• 2 × Hawker Siddeley Trident
• 6 × Vickers Viscount

Previously deployed aircraft

Before that, BKS Air Transport also used the following types of aircraft:

• Airspeed Ambassador
• Airspeed Consul
• Oyster 5 , oyster 4
• Avro Anson
• Hawker-Siddeley HS 748 (Avro 748)
• Bristol 170
• Douglas DC-3
• Fairchild F24 Argus
• Miles Gemini
• Vickers Viking

Basic data

In 1952, the DC-3 flew a total of 483,700 payload kilometers and carried 3,750 passengers.

At the end of 1953 there were 50 employees, including 9 flight captains. With a cargo load factor of 65%, 7717 passengers were carried.

In 1954 the company carried 11,235 passengers.

In 1959, the company carried more than 69,000 passengers with a load factor of 61% on domestic routes.

Incidents

From the foundation in 1952 to the transition to Northeast Airlines in 1970, BKS Air Transport suffered 4 total write-offs of aircraft. Ten people were killed in two of them. Full list:

• On October 17, 1961, a Douglas DC-3 ( aircraft registration number : G-AMVC ) crashed in poor visibility before landing in Carlisle for an unexplained cause. The machine that took off from Leeds was on a transfer flight. All four occupants were killed in the accident.

This Airspeed Ambassador (G-AMAD) , which had been converted into a horse transporter, had an accident in 1968 when landing at London-Heathrow

• On April 9, 1963, an Avro Anson (G-ALXH) of the BKS Air Survey developed smoke in the aircraft and engine failure shortly after take-off from Leeds. When attempting an outland landing, the aircraft collided with a high-voltage line, hit and had to be written off as a total loss. The three occupants survived the accident.

• On July 3, 1968, an Airspeed Ambassador (G-AMAD) had an accident while landing at London Heathrow Airport . The cargo plane carried eight horses from Deauville . Shortly before touchdown, the flap on the left wing retracted due to material fatigue, which triggered an uncontrollable rolling movement. The aircraft swerved to the left, with the wing tip touching the ground. The machine collided with two parked Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident and a Vickers Viscount of the BEA and then hit a terminal building. There were three crew members and five horse attendants on board the cargo plane, of whom only two survived the accident (see also the accident involving an Airspeed Ambassador at London Heathrow Airport ) .

• On July 26, 1969, the nose landing gear of an Airspeed Ambassador (G-ALZR) broke on landing at London Gatwick Airport . Due to the amount of damage, the cargo aircraft was recorded as a total loss; the eight people on board were not injured.

See also

• Former Airlines List (Europe)

literature

• Richard J. Church: The Avro 748 . Air-Britain Publishing, Staplefield, 2017, ISBN 978-0-85130-492-2 .
• Tony Merton Jones: British Independent Airline since 1946, Vol. 3 . Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS International, Liverpool & Uxbridge 1976, ISBN 0 902 420 09 7 .
• Derek A. King: The Bristol 170 . Air-Britain (Historians), Staplefield, 2011, ISBN 978 0 85 130 405 2 .
• Rayner GC Kittle: The Vickers Viscount . Air-Britain (Historians), Tonbridge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-85130-401-4 .
• Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 .

Web links

Commons : BKS Air Transport  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Wickstead 2014, p. 81.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Merton Jones 1976, p. 321.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Merton Jones 1976, p. 322.
4. ^ Bernard Martin: The Viking, Valetta and Varsity , Air-Britain, Tonbridge 1975, ISBN 0 85130 038 3 , p. 27.
5. ^ Reg Baram: Airlines & Airliners: Vickers Viking . The Aviation Hobby Shop, West Drayton, no year, p. 10.
6. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, pp. 321 and 331.
7. ↑ Martin 1975, p. 13.
8. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, p. 323.
9. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, pp. 323 and 330-331.
10. ^ HA Taylor: Airspeed Aircraft since 1931. Putnam Aeronautical Books, London 1991, ISBN 0 85177 848 8 , p. 127.
11. ↑ Taylor 1991, p. 129.
12. ↑ Martin 1975, p. 25.
13. ^ Baram, Vickers Viking , p. 10.
14. ↑ ^{a b c d} King 2011, p. 120.
15. ^ Leonard Bridgman (Ed.): Jane's All The World's Aircraft, 1952-53. Sampson Low, Marston & Company, London 1952, p. 47.
16. ^ Rayner GC Kittle: The Vickers Viscount . Air-Britain (Historians), Tonbridge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-85130-401-4 , p. 122.
17. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, pp. 324 and 331.
18. ^ Alan J. Wright: Vickers Viscount . Ian Allan, Shepperton 1992, ISBN 0 7110 2070 1 , p. 78.
19. ↑ Wickstead 2014, at 82.
20. ↑ Church 2017, p. 97.
21. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, p. 326.
22. ↑ ^{a b} Kittle 2008, p. 122.
23. ↑ ^{a b c} Wickstead 2014, p. 83.
24. ↑ King 2011, p. 121.
25. ↑ Jennifer M. Gradidge: The Douglas DC-1 / DC-2 / DC-3: The First Seventy Years, Volume One . Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 2006, ISBN 0-85130-332-3 , p. 217.
26. ↑ ^{a b} Merton Jones 1976, p. 330.
27. ↑ Wickstead 2014, p. 337.
28. ↑ BKS route network, summer 1963 (English), accessed on June 10, 2020.
29. ^ John WR Taylor: Civil Aircraft Markings Twentieth Edition . Ian Allan. London 1970, SBN 7110 0145 6.
30. ↑ rzjets: BKS Air Transport (English), accessed on June 9, 2020.
31. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, p. 326.
32. ↑ Accident statistics BKS Air Transport , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 9, 2020.
33. ↑ Merton Jones 1976, pp. 330-331.
34. ^ Aviation Safety Network, DC-3 G-AMVC October 17, 1961
35. ^ Accident report Avro Anson G-ALXH , Aviation Safety Network WikiBase , accessed on June 9, 2020.
36. ^ Accident report Airspeed Ambassador G-AMAD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 9, 2020.
37. ↑ Accident report Airspeed Ambassador G-ALZR , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 9, 2020.