British Eagle International Airlines
| British Eagle International Airlines | |
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| IATA code : | EG |
| ICAO code : | EG |
| Call sign : | EAGLE |
| Founding: | 1948 |
| Operation stopped: | 1968 |
| Seat: |
London United Kingdom
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| Home airport : | London Heathrow Airport |
| Fleet size: | 27 |
| Aims: | Europe, Bahamas , Bermuda , Tunisia |
| British Eagle International Airlines ceased operations in 1968. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
British Eagle International Airlines ( British Eagle on the outside ) was a British airline that filed for bankruptcy in 1968 . The company was originally founded as Eagle Aviation in 1948 and then operated under the names Eagle Airways and Cunard Eagle Airways . In addition to scheduled flights and freight transport, the company also carried out civil and military charter services .
history
Eagle Aviation (1948 to 1953)
The company was founded on April 14, 1948 by the former RAF pilot Harold Bamberg under the name Eagle Aviation as a cargo airline to import fruit from the Mediterranean to Great Britain. Initially, the company was based on the Bovingdon military airfield in Hertfordshire . Flight operations began on May 9, 1948 between Bovingdon and Verona ( Italy ) with a Handley Page Halifax bomber that had been converted into a transporter and which Bamberg had taken over from Air Freight . When the Western Allies needed additional aircraft for the Berlin Airlift in the same year , he was able to conclude a military charter contract with the Royal Air Force for the first time . On October 9, 1948, a second Halifax was acquired. In the same month, both machines were used from Wunstorf Air Base on supply flights to West Berlin . At the end of 1948 the company received two more Halifaxes and then relocated their operations base to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport . After the airlift was closed, the RAF base at Aldermaston in Berkshire became the company's new home airfield.
In 1949, Eagle Aviation took over three Avro Yorks from the British Overseas Airways Corporation ( BOAC ), which enabled the transport of cargo or up to 46 passengers. The machines were mainly used on civilian heavy haulage and, on behalf of the RAF, on military connecting flights to Singapore , Kenya and the Middle East . When Blue-Line Airways, based at Nottingham / Tollerton Airport , went bankrupt in August 1949 , Eagle Aviation took over the majority of its fleet consisting of Auster Autocrat , Avro Anson , Douglas DC-3 and Percival Proctor . The state-owned British European Airways (BEA) then commissioned the company with the reopening of the liner service between Nottingham and Jersey . At the same time, Eagle Aviation carried out its first tourist charter flights for British tour operators in the Mediterranean region and, after the RAF base Aldermaston was closed in April 1950, relocated its operations to Luton Airport . In the summer of 1950, the company used, among other things, a Douglas DC-3 in wet lease for (the first) Air Malta on their regular routes from Valletta to Catania , Cairo and Rome . In addition, freight orders were flown for BOAC . In September 1950, the company took over Trent Valley Aviation, based in Nottingham / Tollerton, with its De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide and Douglas DC-3 machines . After the accident of the last remaining Halifax, only Avro York was used on long-haul flights from November 1950. Three more machines of this type were acquired from the inventory of the Argentine Flota Aerea Mercante Argentina . In 1951, Eagle Aviation was able to conclude long-term contracts with the RAF and then regularly transported military personnel to British bases overseas.
After the British government had created the legal requirements that private companies were allowed to offer scheduled services on routes that were not yet operated by the state airlines BOAC and BEA , Eagle Aviation moved its home base to Blackbushe Airport in 1952 and opened its base there named Eagle Aircraft Services, a maintenance center in which machines from other companies were also overhauled. In the fall of 1952, the company put the first two Vickers Viking airliners into service. At the same time, all five Avro Yorks were sold to Skyways , which meant that Eagle Aviation only owned short-haul aircraft.
Eagle Airways (1953 to 1960)
On June 6, 1953, Eagle Aviation opened its first line route from Blackbushe Airport via Munich to Belgrade . From July 1, 1953, the company carried out its liner services externally as Eagle Airways , while the charter and military flights initially continued to operate under the name Eagle Aviation . In the same year scheduled connections to Aalborg and Gothenburg were started. The company then put a large number of Vickers Vikings purchased second-hand into service, which were also used on civil and military charter flights. Because the cabin interiors of the civil and military Vikings differed from each other, they were internally named Mayfair and Troopmaster .
In early 1955, the company's fleet consisted of ten Vickers Vikings and two Douglas DC-3s. At that time, Eagle Airways offered scheduled flights from Blackbushe to Belgrade, Innsbruck and Luxembourg . In addition, Munich and Vienna were served as scheduled from Manchester and Birmingham . The company also carried out seasonal charter services to other European destinations, including Pisa , Turin , Valencia , Mallorca and Corsica . Although the scheduled traffic was in deficit and had to be offset by income from civil and military charter flights, the company opened additional routes to Basel , Bergen , Dinard , Frankfurt , Hamburg , Copenhagen , La Baule , Ostend and Palma in the second half of the 1950s de Mallorca , Pisa, Rimini and a first national connection from Blackbushe to the Channel Island of Jersey. In 1959 a profit was made in line operations for the first time.
In early 1957, the governor of Bermuda promised the company route rights between the British overseas territory and New York , although the BOAC subsidiary British West Indian Airways operated this route in parallel. For this purpose, Harold Bamberg founded the Hamilton- based subsidiary Eagle Airways Bermuda on July 26, 1957 , which began operations on May 1, 1958 with a brand new Vickers Viscount 805 from Kindley Field Airport to Idlewild Airport . The scheduled flights were particularly popular with American vacationers and achieved a high occupancy rate. Because the tickets were paid for in US dollars, the company got foreign currency and was able to finance the purchase of an almost brand-new Douglas DC-6 in August 1958 ; a second DC-6 entered service a month later. Eagle Airways was the first British airline to use this type. In March 1959, the Bermuda Society opened additional routes from Kindley Field Airport to Baltimore , Washington and Montreal ( Canada ).
Because BOAC did not offer any flights between London and Bermuda, the overseas territory granted the subsidiary liner rights to Great Britain on September 15, 1958. The approval of the British government was granted a year later, after which Eagle Airways Bermuda was able to take up transatlantic flights to London from December 13, 1959 with a leased Douglas DC-6 of the parent company. Eagle Airways thus became a competitor of BOAC on the North Atlantic routes . Although the British company did not have its own route rights, it was able to offer connections from London to the USA and Canada via the Bermudian subsidiary, with Kindley Field airport serving as a hub . After establishing a further subsidiary in Nassau , Eagle Airways also began scheduled services from London via Bermuda to the Bahamas in the spring of 1960 . For this purpose, a first Bristol Britannia was leased from Cubana . In addition, the Bahamas-based subsidiary received route rights to Miami in January 1960 . The scheduled flights aroused the interest of the shipping company Cunard Steamship Company , which had been recording a steady decline in passengers in transatlantic shipping for years and was therefore aiming to acquire a stake in an airline.
Cunard Eagle Airways (1960 to 1963)
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When Harold Bamberg was looking for an investor in early 1960 to modernize the fleet and advance the expansion of the company, the Cunard Steamship Company took a 60 percent stake in the airline, which was then renamed Cunard Eagle Airways on April 19, 1960 . After the takeover, Bamberg remained active as managing director and continued to hold a minority stake in the company. At the same time, Blackbushe Airport was closed, after which the operational base had to be relocated to London Heathrow Airport .
After Great Britain had created a new instrument for the allocation of route rights in 1960 with the Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB), Cunard Eagle Airways applied for a permit for direct flights between London and New York. When the British Department of Transport gave assurances that the line rights would be granted, the company ordered two brand new Boeing 707-400s on March 21, 1961 with an option to purchase a third aircraft. The state airline BOAC protested against the award and lodged an objection, whereupon the approved route rights were withdrawn from Cunard Eagle Airways before the ordered aircraft were delivered. Due to the confused situation, the management of the shipping company Cunard started confidential talks with BOAC at the end of 1961 to discuss the possibilities of a cooperation. From this, the airline BOAC-Cunard emerged in June 1962 . At this joint venture which was Cunard Steamship Company with 30 percent and BOAC owns 70 percent.
In the meantime, Cunard Eagle Airways put their first Boeing 707 into service on March 27, 1962. The aircraft, registered with the Bermuda subsidiary, was initially used in shuttle traffic between Bermuda and New York. On May 5, 1962, the machine carried out its first transatlantic liner service from London via Bermuda to Miami. As part of the agreement with BOAC , the Bahamas and Bermuda-based subsidiaries of Cunard Eagle Airways were merged into the new sister company BOAC-Cunard at the end of June 1962 . Also had Cunard Eagle Airways its Boeing 707 and all transatlantic routes cede to this company. Through the cooperation with the state-owned BOAC , the Cunard Steamship Company had achieved its original goal of offering direct flights between London and New York. The shipping company was not interested in the remaining European route network of Cunard Eagle Airways . When the shipping company was considering selling Cunard Eagle Airways to British United Airways in early 1963, Harold Bamberg bought back 60 percent of the company's shares and on February 14, 1963, became the majority owner of the company again.
British Eagle International Airlines (1963 to 1968)
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After the takeover, the company was renamed British Eagle International Airlines and operated under the brand name British Eagle . As managing director of Cunard Eagle Airways , Harold Bamberg had applied for route rights for national scheduled flights from the ATLB. However, the granted rights have not yet been used, and the European route network had hardly been expanded in the past three years because Cunard had concentrated on transatlantic traffic . After the end of the 1963 summer season, during which British Eagle was able to utilize its fleet to full capacity, in particular with charter flights, the company opened its first national route from London Heathrow Airport to Glasgow on November 3, 1963 in competition with BEA ; scheduled flights from London to Belfast and Edinburgh began a day later. Initially, five Bristol Britannia were used on the national routes, which British Eagle had rented from BOAC .
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In order to enlarge the route network, British Eagle entered into a cooperation with the Liverpool- based airline Starways in November 1963 and bought this company completely in January 1964. The company's Vickers Viscount were then painted in the colors of the British Eagle , but had to be operated under the Starways brand name until mid-1964 for legal reasons . The subsidiary took over the maintenance of all Bristol Britannia and Vickers Viscount. In addition, the shipyard in Liverpool equipped two Britannia with loading gates for the first time, making them usable as freight machines. In February 1965, British Eagle temporarily suspended its national liner services from London due to insufficient capacity utilization. After the company was granted more frequencies on the routes by the ATLB, scheduled flight operations were resumed on July 5, 1965.
British Eagle won a tender from the RAF in the spring of 1964 and was able to carry out long-term military charter flights to Singapore and Hong Kong . In addition, the company was commissioned by the Qantas airline in the summer of 1964 to sub-charter British immigrants to Australia . By mid-1965, the company carried out a total of 51 of these contract flights with aircraft of the type Bristol Britannia. On May 9, 1966, the first two leased BAC 1-11 were put into service on the route from London to Manchester . After the takeover of further aircraft, this type was also used on international scheduled and charter flights, including the newly opened routes to Tunis and Djerba . In addition, individual jet planes were operated temporarily for KLM , Swissair and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). From April 1967 British Eagle used the BAC 1-11 on all scheduled flights departing from London, only the connection to Innsbruck continued to be flown with turboprop aircraft.
In 1965, the company ordered two Boeing 707-365C to take up scheduled connections to Australia and Hong Kong. The route rights granted were, however, similar to five years earlier, withdrawn at the urging of BOAC before flight operations began, whereupon the first aircraft delivered in December 1967 was used in wet lease for Middle East Airlines (MEA) from the beginning of 1968 . The order for the second machine has been canceled. In 1967, British Eagle again established two subsidiaries in Hamilton and Nassau, through which it was able to start transatlantic charter flights from London to Bermuda and the Bahamas from the spring of 1968. The company acquired two Boeing 707-138B from Qantas . At the same time British Eagle received route rights for charter connections to Nairobi and Mombasa (Kenya) from the British side .
At the beginning of 1968 the ATLB warned of the threat of underfunding of the company. The bank Kleinwort Benson was ready to grant a further loan in the amount of one million British pounds, but made this loan dependent on personnel changes in the management , which the company did not want to accept. After British Eagle lost most of its military contract service to BKS Air Transport during the year and the number of tourist charter flights also declined, the economic situation deteriorated rapidly. At the end of October 1968, a complaint by BOAC led to the withdrawal of transatlantic route rights. British Eagle planned to continue long-haul flights to the Bermuda and Bahamas from Luxembourg. When the company needed more funding at the end of the 1968 summer season to bridge the winter months with little demand, no lenders were found. On November 6, 1968, British Eagle ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy.
fleet
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Fleet at the end of operations
At the time of the cessation of operations, the fleet consisted of seven BAC 1-11, three Boeing 707, thirteen Bristol Britannia, a De Havilland Dove and three Vickers Viscount.
Previously deployed aircraft
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Incidents
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- On 20 November 1950 a cargo type aircraft crashed Handley Page Halifax ( air vehicle registration G-AIAP ) after taking off from Dum Dum Airport in Calcutta ( India ab). Two of the six crew members were killed.
- On August 24, 1952, engine no. 1 had to be shut down on an Avro York C.1 of Eagle Aviation (G-AGNZ) after taking off from Berlin-Gatow airport ( Germany ). During the return to the take-off airfield, however, a fire quickly spread in the engine, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in a field near Potsdam. One of the three crew members of the cargo flight was killed.
- On December 20, 1953, a Vickers Viking 1B (G-AHPO) was recorded as a total loss after a landing accident on an icy runway at Nuremberg Airport . The three-person crew of the cargo flight survived.
- On May 1, 1957, a Vickers Viking 1B (G-AJBO) crashed near Blackbushe Airport after the left engine failed during takeoff. The machine hit the runway threshold 1200 meters. Of the 35 occupants, only one survived.
- On February 26, 1958, a Vickers Viking 1 (G-AGRT) parked on the RAF El Adem base in Libya was destroyed by fire.
- On December 22, 1959, a Vickers Viking 1B (G-AMGG) came off the track when landing at Inezgane airfield near Agadir ( Morocco ) due to a blown tire. All 36 occupants survived the accident. Due to the amount of damage, the machine was written off as a total loss.
- On March 26, 1961, a Douglas DC-6 (G-APOM) burned down after a landing accident at Shannon Airport ( Ireland ). The machine was on a training flight. All six crew members survived.
- On August 9, 1961, a Vickers Viking 3B (G-AHPM) crashed into a mountain 54 kilometers northeast of Stavanger ( Norway ). The pilots had deviated from the usual approach route on the way from London Heathrow to Stavanger Airport . All 39 inmates were killed.
- On February 29, 1964, a Bristol Britannia (G-AOVO) flew on British Eagle Flight 802 in poor visibility conditions against Mount Glungezer . The machine was on the approach to Innsbruck . In this most serious aircraft accident in Austria to date, all 83 occupants were killed.
- On April 20, 1967, the pilots of a Bristol Britannia of the British Eagle (G-ANCG) carried out an emergency landing on a foam carpet at Manston Airport after a hydraulic failure . The machine touched down with the landing gear retracted and was irreparably damaged. All 11 crew members and 54 passengers survived.
- On August 9, 1968, a Vickers Viscount (G-ATFN) crashed on British Eagle Flight 802 near Langenbruck as a result of a structural failure of both wings. The machine hit the federal highway 9 . All 48 occupants were killed in the accident.
Trivia
- Several machines used by British Eagle have been preserved as museum aircraft, including a Douglas DC-6A / C ( registration G-APSA , c / n 45497), which was acquired as the third aircraft of this type in January 1959. The machine, which was in an airworthy condition until 2008 , is owned by Air Atlantique . The Democratic Republic of the Congo uses one of the Boeing 707-138B, which entered service in 1968, as a government aircraft.
- From January 1966, the company used a Bristol Britannia for the South African tour operator TFC Orient on 16-day round trips from Johannesburg via Luanda ( Angola ) to Rio de Janeiro ( Brazil ). British Eagle was the first to operate commercial flights between South Africa and South America .
See also
literature
- Maurice J Wickstead: Airlines of the British Isles since 1919 . Staplefield, W Sussex, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 2014, ISBN 978-0-85130-456-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b The History of Eagle Aviation Ltd. 1948-1953
- ^ Home of the Eagle, Eagle Bases in the UK
- ^ Flight International, January 5, 1950
- ^ A b Airlines of the British Isles since 1919, Maurice J Wickstead, 2014
- ^ Flight International, August 31, 1950
- ^ Flight International, October 10, 1952
- ^ Flight International, January 8, 1952
- ^ Flight International, November 28, 1952
- ^ Flight International, June 12, 1953
- ^ Flight International, November 6, 1953
- ^ A b The History of Eagle Airways 1953-1960
- ^ Flight International, March 11, 1955
- ^ Eagle Airways, flight plan 1958
- ↑ Fly me, I'm Freddie! Roger Eglin, 1980
- ^ Flight International, April 19, 1959
- ^ Flight International, January 29, 1960, pp. 147-149
- ^ Flight International, January 29, 1960, pp. 161-162
- ↑ Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, 2001
- ^ The Regulation of Air Transport, KM Gwilliam, 2007
- ↑ a b c Cunard Queens, Cunard Eagle Airways
- ^ Flight International, February 21, 1960
- ^ Flight International, September 26, 1963
- ^ Flight International, February 26, 1964
- ^ Flight International, December 26, 1963
- ^ Flight International, July 9, 1964
- ^ Flight International, June 10, 1965
- ^ Flight International, April 9, 1964
- ^ High Corridors: Qantas, 1954-1970, John Gunn, 1988
- ^ Flight International, June 1, 1967
- ↑ Boeing 707 Type 365C c / n 19590, G-ATZD
- ^ Flight International, April 18, 1968
- ^ A b The History of British Eagle International Airlines 1963-1968
- ^ Flight International, November 21, 1968
- ^ Flight International, November 7, 1968
- ^ Eagle Aircraft By Type
- ↑ G-AIAP, Handley Page 61 Halifax 8, c / n 1354
- ↑ Air-Britain Aviation World (English), September 2016 p. 110.
- ^ Accident report Avro York G-AGNZ , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 27, 2019.
- ^ Accident report Viking 1B G-AHPO , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 8, 2017.
- ^ Accident report Viking 1B G-AJBO , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 22, 2016.
- ^ Accident report Viking 1 G-AGRT , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 8, 2017.
- ^ Accident report Viking 1B G-AMGG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 8, 2017.
- ^ Accident report DC-6A G-APOM , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 27, 2019.
- ^ Accident report Viking 3B G-AHPM , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 22, 2016.
- ^ Accident report Britannia G-ANCG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 27, 2016.
- ↑ Accident report Viscount 700 G-ATFN , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 10, 2019.
- ↑ Home of the Eagle, Where are they now?
- ^ Southern Africa's Travel and Trade
- ↑ Flight Schedule January 14th - January 29th 1966
Airlines from the United Kingdom , British Overseas Territories and the Crown possessions of the British Crown
