Britavia

Britavia
IATA code :	(without)
ICAO code :	(unknown)
Call sign :	BRITAVIA
Founding:	1945
Operation stopped:	1959
Seat:	Blackbushe Airport
Home airport :	Blackbushe Airport
Fleet size:	5
Aims:	National and international
ceased operations in 1959. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Britavia was a British holding company as well as an airline based at Blackbushe Airport , which ceased operations in July 1959. Its roots lie in British Aviation Services Limited, which was founded in 1945 . In the spring of 1954, a new parent company with this name was created, which became the parent company of Britavia and other airlines. The holding British Aviation Services Limited existed until January 1962.

history

British Aviation Services as a company (1945 to 1949)

British Aviation Services Limited was founded in November 1945 as a subsidiary of the British Aviation Insurance Group. On behalf of the insurance group, it should ensure the proper delivery of used or brand-new aircraft, carry out the transfer flights and offer the insurance customers technical support during the acceptance of the machines on site. Among the first orders, the delivery was one of three flying boats of the type Short Sandringham to the Argentine airline Dodero. The company was also responsible for the transfer of the Airspeed Consul aircraft to Malaysia, with which Malayan Airways began operations in the spring of 1947. In 1946, British Aviation Services, together with local investors, founded a subsidiary of the same name in Malta , which became the first Air Malta at the end of 1948.

After the British mining company Zinc Corporation had founded Silver City Airways on November 25, 1946 , British Aviation Services was entrusted with its management and the execution of its flights. Douglas DC-3 and Avro Lancastrian aircraft were used on the company's international charter flights , which included South Africa and Australia . Silver City Airways, which received its first Bristol 170 freighter in 1947 , was bought by British Aviation Services in 1948. It remained as a subsidiary and then used an increasing number of Bristol 170s, primarily in the scheduled ferry traffic between Lympne and Le Touquet for the transport of cars across the English Channel . In addition, the subsidiary continued to perform charter services and supply flights during the Berlin Airlift . While the operational flight operations in the following period were almost exclusively left to Silver City Airways, British Aviation Services concentrated more on aircraft maintenance at the end of the 1940s and opened branches in Northern Rhodesia for this purpose . As part of a restructuring of the group of companies, British Aviation Services Limited was converted into a holding company in June 1949 and was given the name Britavia Limited.

Britavia as a holding (1949 to 1954)

Britavia Limited (Ltd.) acquired Aquila Airways in March 1953 , which remained as a further subsidiary and continued its flying boat operations. Because the capacity of the airfield in Lympne used by Silver City Airways in the English Channel ferry service was no longer sufficient, the holding company Britavia Ltd. In September 1953 the construction of the private airport Ferryfield near the British town of Lydd was commissioned, which opened in July 1954 and became the new starting point for ferry flights.

At the beginning of 1954, the entire Britavia group of companies was bought up by the General Steam Navigation Company , which was active in the English Channel ferry traffic and belonged to the British shipping company P&O . The change of ownership and the almost simultaneous acquisition of another airline, Air Kruise, led to a profound restructuring of the group of companies in the spring of 1954: a new holding company called British Aviation Services Ltd. was established as the parent company . founded, whereby the previous holding Britavia Ltd. became a subsidiary of this new parent company. British Aviation Services Ltd. founded in 1954. In contrast to the original company of the same name, did not operate any flights under its own name and took over the management of the Group's own airlines Aquila Airways, Silver City Airways and the newly created Britavia.

Britavia as an airline and British Aviation Services as a holding (1954 to 1962)

Britavia Handley Page Hermes IV, Blackbushe 1954

The new subsidiary Britavia, based at Blackbushe Airport , was responsible for the execution of charter flights within the group and received the first of originally six Handley Page Hermes from the BOAC portfolio to start operations on July 13, 1954 . Another Hermes was subsequently put into service as a replacement for a crashed aircraft (see incidents) in the fall of 1956. Britavia used the machines in charter traffic on domestic flights as well as on international flights to various destinations in Europe, Africa, the Far East and the USA. In addition, Britavia carried out many trooping flights on behalf of the Royal Air Force . These were flights by civilian airliners and cargo planes under military aircraft registration numbers .

The holding British Air Services Ltd. established in 1954 (BAS) acquired two regional airlines in May 1956 with the Isle of Man- based Manx Airlines and at the end of 1956 with the Blackpool- based Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, which, like Air Kruise, Aquila Airways, Britavia and Silver City Airways, initially received as independent subsidiaries stayed. At that time the BAS group operated a fleet of eight Bristol 170 Mk.21s, fourteen Bristol 170 Mk.32 Superfreighters, two De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide , one De Havilland DH.86 Express , seven Douglas DC-3s, five Handley Page Hermes (used by Britavia) and three Short Solent flying boats (used by Aquila Airways). In March 1957, British Air Services Ltd. Dragon Airways based at Newcastle Airport , which was merged with Silver City Airways. This resulted in their non-independent “Northern Division”. Through its new branch, Silver City Airways offered international scheduled connections from Blackpool and Newcastle, including to Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. At the end of 1957, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation was also part of the “Northern Division”, followed by Manx Airlines the following year. The Lympne-based Air Kruise was also merged with Silver City Airways in 1958 and formed their new “Passenger Division”, which was responsible for the transport of passengers on the ferry routes between Great Britain and France. The BAS subsidiary Aquila Airways ceased operations on October 1, 1958 and was dissolved shortly afterwards, so that the holding company British Air Services Ltd. at the end of 1958 only owned the two airlines Britavia and Silver City Airways.

When the military contract flights ended in 1959, the economic situation for the BAS subsidiary Britavia deteriorated significantly. The five Handley Page Hermes were transferred to their sister company Silver City Airways on June 15, 1959. At the same time, the airline Britavia ceased operations.

The parent company British Air Services Limited then remained as the parent company of Silver City Airways. At the beginning of 1962 the shipping company P&O (owner of the holding BAS) and the airline British United Airways (BUA) decided to cooperate. The latter was the owner of the Channel Air Bridge, which also used its aircraft to transport vehicles across the English Channel, competing with Silver City Airways. In order to merge the two companies active in ferry traffic, a new parent company, Air Holdings Limited, was founded, into which British Air Services Limited and its last subsidiary merged in January 1962. At the same time, BUA also brought the Channel Air Bridge into this new parent company. Under the changed ownership structure, Silver City Airways continued to operate under its own brand until the end of 1962. At the beginning of 1963 it was merged with its new sister company Channel Air Bridge, from which British United Air Ferries emerged .

fleet

The following types of aircraft were used by the airline Britavia between 1954 and 1959 and its original company British Aviation Services between 1945 and 1949:

• Airspeed Consul (British Aviation Services)
• Avro Lancastrian (British Aviation Services operated for Silver City Airways)
• Beechcraft Model 18 (British Aviation Service)
• Douglas DC-3 (British Aviation Services operated for Silver City Airways)
• Handley Page Hermes (Britavia)
• Lockheed L-14 Super Electra (British Aviation Services)
• Lockheed L-18 Lodestar (British Aviation Services)

The aircraft types operated by the subsidiaries Air Kruise, Aquila Airways, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, Manx Air and Silver City Airways belonging to the group are not taken into account.

Incidents

At the airline Britavia there were two accidents with total loss of the aircraft:

• On August 5, 1956, a Handley Page Hermes IVA ( aircraft registration G-ALDK ) had an accident while attempting to land on the wrong airfield ( Drigh Road Air Force Station instead of Karachi International Airport ) in Karachi . All 72 people on board survived, but the plane was destroyed.

• On November 5, 1956, a Handley Page Hermes IVA (G-ALDJ) collided with trees during the approach to Blackbushe. Of the 80 people on board, 7 were killed.

See also

• List of former airlines

Subsidiaries of British Aviation Services

• Aquila Airways
• Manx Airlines
• Silver City Airways

literature

• Maurice J. Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., Staplefield, W Sussex 2014, pp. 96-97, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Flight International, December 20, 1945 (in English), accessed on August 26, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b} Aero Transport Data Bank, Britavia , accessed on August 26, 2017
3. ^ Flight International, February 13, 1947 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
4. ↑ Flight International, December 9, 1948 , accessed September 11, 2017
5. ^ Flight International, December 19, 1946 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
6. ↑ Flight International, December 18, 1947 , accessed August 26, 2017
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Flight International, February 19, 1954 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
8. ↑ Flight International, October 7, 1947 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
9. ↑ Flight International, September 9, 1948 (in English), accessed August 26, 2017
10. ↑ Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, 2001
11. ↑ London Ashford Airport, The History of Lydd Airport , accessed September 1, 2017
12. ↑ Silver City Airways, route network map of the ferry services in 1956 (in English), accessed on September 1, 2017
13. Jump up ↑ Flight International, October 14, 1955 , accessed August 27, 2017
14. ↑ Flight International, December 3, 1954 (in English), accessed August 27, 2017
15. ^ "Britavia", Flight International, April 17, 1959, p. 532 (English), accessed on August 23, 2017.
16. ↑ Flight International, December 21, 1956 , accessed August 27, 2017
17. ↑ Flight International, March 29, 1957 (in English), accessed August 29, 2017
18. ↑ World History, Manx charter, Manx Airlines (in English), accessed on August 27, 2017
19. ↑ World History, Manx charter, Manx Airlines (in English), accessed on August 27, 2017
20. ↑ Tony Merton Jones: British Independent Airline since 1946, Vol. 4 . Merseyside Aviation Society & LAAS International, Liverpool & Uxbridge 1977, ISBN 0-902420-10-0 , p. 395.
21. ↑ Flight International, February 1, 1962 (in English), accessed August 29, 2017
22. ↑ Flight International, July 19, 1962 , accessed August 29, 2017
23. ↑ Britavia accident statistics , Aviation Safety Network , accessed on 23 August 2017.
24. ^ Accident report HP Hermes G-ALDK , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 23, 2017.
25. ^ Accident report HP Hermes G-ALDJ , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 23, 2017.