Air Transport Company

Compagnie Air Transport - CAT
Bristol 170 Mk.32 of the CAT, Le Touquet , 1969
IATA code :	(without)
ICAO code :	TF
Call sign :	(unknown)
Founding:	1946
Operation stopped:	1970
Seat:	Paris
Home airport :	Paris-Orly Airport
Fleet size:	6th
Aims:	National and international
Compagnie Air Transport - CAT ceased operations in 1970. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Compagnie Air Transport - CAT (. Also Cie Air Transport) was a French airline with headquarters in Paris .

history

The Compagnie Air Transport - CAT was founded in 1946 and in the meantime ceased operations twice for longer periods of time until it was finally dissolved in 1970. Therefore, three operating periods can be distinguished:

I. Period, 1946-1951

CAT initially used Caen-Carpiquet Airport as its base . Air France acquired a stake in the company. Compagnie Air Transport worked with the Cie. Générale Trans-Saharienne (CGTS) , which was founded in Algeria in 1935 and primarily served the route Algiers - Colomb-Bechar - Gao - Niamey - Bako. CGTS was incorporated into CAT in 1948 or 1949.

A number of aircraft, including at least three Bristol 170s , were leased to the Société Indochinoise de Transports Aériens (SITA) or operated temporarily for them, including in French Indochina .

On October 12, 1951, CAT ceased operations. Air France took over a Douglas DC-3 and a Bristol 170 Freighter from the remaining aircraft .

II period, 1952-1953

In May 1952 operations were resumed. Four-engine medium -haul aircraft of the type Sud-Est SE.161 Languedoc, which were rented by Air France, and three Douglas DC-3 and Douglas DC-4 were used . CAT used Le Touquet and Paris-Orly airports as main bases .

On May 23, 1953, it merged with the Compagnie Générale des transports aériens (CGTA), also founded in 1946, to form the Compagnie Générale de Transports Aériens Air Algérie (CGTA-AA) .

III. Period, 1956-1970

ATL-98 Carvair of the CAT, Southend 1967

The Compagnie Air Transport was brought back to life by the French national railway company SNCF and shipping companies. From the airports of Le Touquet and Nîmes-Garons , flight operations were reopened in 1957, initially with a Bristol 170. The aircraft, acquired by Silver City Airways on February 6, 1957 , was used in cooperation with this British airline in the English Channel ferry service for passenger cars.

However, the aircraft was scrapped on November 4, 1958 when approaching Le Touquet, fortunately without personal injury. As a result, operations were not resumed until 1961, again in cooperation with Silver City Airways, from which CAT bought or leased several Bristol 170 Mk.32s and two Aviation Traders ATL- 98s from April 1961 . Two more ATL-98s were acquired from the Luxembourg company Interocean Airways .

The cooperation with Silver City Airways continued even after its transition to British United Air Ferries (BUAF) and later renaming to British Air Ferries (BAF). In 1970 Compagnie Air Transport finally ceased operations.

Destinations

In the first few years, apart from charter flights, individual scheduled services were also operated within North Africa and from Caen to Paris, Lille and London, to which the routes from Lille to Manchester and from Deauville to London were soon added. Starting in January 1949, there was a daily flight from Caen to Bovingdon , on which around five tons of this cheese were transported on behalf of the French Camembert Export Association. This operation was jokingly referred to as the "Camembert Airlift". In 1949 flights from France to Algiers, Casablanca , Oran and Tunis were carried out, with mainly machines, motor vehicles, textiles and fruit and vegetables being transported. Passengers were also carried on a larger scale on the route from Marseille to Tunis.

From 1962 the routes from Le Touquet and Calais to Lydd Ferryfield and Cherbourg to Bournemouth were flown, mainly as ferry services for passenger cars across the English Channel . With Bristol 170, for example, a lively ferry flight operation was carried out here in 1964 in cooperation with BUAF. In addition to Le Touquet, Ostend , Calais , Deauville , Cherbourg and Dinard were also available as departure airports on the continental side . From there one flew to the following destinations in Great Britain: Lydd , Southend and Bournemouth-Hurn . The Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey were served from there as well as from Bournemouth.

In 1966, CAT also operated an intensive car ferry service to Corsica, with flights from Nîmes-Garons and Nice to Bastia and Ajaccio on offer.

fleet

Fleet at the end of operations

When operations ceased in 1970, CAT still had the following aircraft in its fleet:

• 3 × Aviation Traders ATL-98
• 3 × Bristol 170 Mk.32

Previously deployed aircraft

A Caudron C. 449 Goéland

CAT operated the following aircraft types, broken down according to the individual activity periods:

I. Period, 1946-1951

• 4 × Beechcraft 18
• 6 × Bristol 170 Mk.21
• 5 × Caudron C. 449 Goéland
• 3 × Douglas DC-3
• 3 × Fiat G.212
• 1 × North 1203 Norecrin

II period, 1952-1953

• 3 × Douglas DC-3
• 3 × Douglas DC-4
• 2 × Sud-Est SE.161 Languedoc

III. Period, 1956-1970

• 1 × Bristol 170 Mk.21
• 6 × Bristol 170 Mk.32
• 4 × Aviation Traders ATL-98

Incidents

From 1948 to the cessation of operations in 1970, CAT suffered five total aircraft losses, killing 40 people:

• On April 11, 1948, a Bristol 170 Mk.21 ( aircraft registration F-BENG ) flew after take-off from Gibraltar airport on a cargo flight to Casablanca near Algeciras in the mountains. The pilots had not made the prescribed left turn immediately after take-off, but had flown straight ahead until they collided with the terrain at a height of around 800 meters. All three crew members were killed.

• On July 29, 1950, a Bristol 170 Mk.21 (F-BENF) crashed on the flight from Algiers Airport to Gao (Mali) near Tanezrouft (Mali). An explosion in the fuel tank of the right wing or its breakage due to material fatigue of the rivets used there are assumed to be possible causes. All 4 crew members and 22 passengers were killed.

• On November 4, 1958, a Bristol 170 Mk.21 (F-BHVB) hit an obstacle on its approach to Le Touquet Airport . The resulting damage resulted in the landing gear collapsing when it touched down and the aircraft was a total loss. There was no personal injury.

• On March 8, 1967, an Aviation Traders ATL-98 from Compagnie Air Transport (F-BMHU) lost altitude again when taking off from Karachi Airport and crashed onto a road bridge, destroying rickshaws and a truck. The take-off weight of the fully loaded machine was too high for the prevailing weather conditions. Four of the six crew members and seven people on the ground were killed.

• On July 11, 1969, a Bristol 170 Mk.32 (F-BLHH) parked at Touquet Airport was rammed by an airport excavator and damaged in such a way that the machine had to be written off. People were not harmed.

See also

• Former Airlines List (Europe)

Web links

Commons : Compagnie Air Transport  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Air Britain, Francaise branch: Le Trait d'Union (French) No 37, September 1974, pp. 21-23.
2. ^ Derek A. King: The Bristol 170 . Air-Britain (Historians), Staplefield, 2011, ISBN 978-0-85130-405-2 , pp. 128-130.
3. ↑ King 2011, p. 157.
4. ^ Leonard Bridgman (Ed.): Jane's All The World's Aircraft, 1952-1953. Sampson Low, Marston & Company, London 1952, p. 18.
5. ↑ Trait d'Union No 37, p. 21.
6. ↑ King 2011, p. 208.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Trait d'Union No 37, p. 23.
8. ↑ Ulrich Klee and Frank Bucher: jp-markings-66 . Zurich 1966, p. 10.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Silver City Airways, fleet information on CAT (English), accessed on September 21, 2017
10. ↑ King 2011, p. 129.
11. ↑ CAT flight plans
12. ↑ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp aircraft-markings 70 . Uitikon 1970, pp. 32-33.
13. ↑ Trait d'Union No 37, pp. 20-23.
14. ↑ rzjets, Compagnie Air Transport (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
15. ^ John Stroud: European Transport Aircraft since 1910. Putnam & Company, London 1966, p. 420.
16. ^ Accident statistics Compagnie Air Transport - CAT , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
17. ^ Accident report Bristol 170 F-BENG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
18. ↑ King 2011, p. 221.
19. ^ Accident report Bristol 170 F-BENF , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
20. ↑ King 2011, p. 196.
21. ^ Accident report Bristol 170 F-BHVB , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
22. ↑ King 2011, p. 188.
23. ^ Accident report ATL-98 F-BMHU , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
24. ^ Tony Eastwood and John Roach: Piston Engine Airliner Production List . The Aviation Hobby Shop, West Drayton, 1996, ISBN 0-907178-61-8 , p. 11.
25. ^ Accident report Bristol 170 F-BLHH , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 18, 2017.
26. ↑ King 2011, p. 262.