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Air Foyle HeavyLift was an aviation company based in
Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. It specialised in heavy air cargo services. It was the worldwide sales agent for
Antonov Airlines Antonov Airlines is a Ukrainian cargo airline, a division of the Antonov aviation company. It operates international charter services in the oversized-cargo market. Its main base is Hostomel Airport near Kyiv. In the aftermath of the Battle o ...
of
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. This relationship ceased in June 2006, and Antonov Airlines now operates a joint venture marketing company Ruslan International with
Volga-Dnepr Volga-Dnepr Airlines, LLC (russian: ООО «Авиакомпания «Волга-Днепр») is an airline based in Ulyanovsk, Russia. It specializes in providing air charter services by operating a unique fleet of twelve Antonov An-124 (lar ...
JS Cargo Airlines of Russia.


History

The company's Chairman and joint CEO was Christopher Foyle, also Chairman of
Foyle's W & G Foyle Ltd. (usually called simply Foyles) is a bookseller with a chain of seven stores in England. It is best known for its flagship store in Charing Cross Road, London. Foyles was once listed in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the w ...
bookshop.
Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...
27 March 2007
Air Foyle started operations as an executive air charter company with one
Piper Aztec The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...
aircraft in 1978. It grew its fleet of Aztec, Navajo and Chieftain aircraft by carrying passenger, cargo and aerial survey flights. In 1979 it pioneered the overnight carriage of courier traffic between the UK and Europe operating a nightly flight between Luton and Brussels for Skypak (later a TNT company). In 1985 it started providing larger cargo aircraft to
TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
, by then its principal cargo customer, using wet leased
Handley Page Dart Herald The Handley Page Dart Herald is a 1950s British turboprop passenger aircraft. Design and development In the mid-1950s Handley Page developed a new fast short-range regional airliner, intended to replace the older Douglas DC-3, particularly in ...
aircraft operating nightly from Birmingham to Nuremberg and Hannover and these were later replaced by a
BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC-111/BAC 1-11) was an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-se ...
jet cargo aircraft and then by a Boeing 737-200QC aircraft wet leased from
Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish , meaning "air fleet" compare Welsh 'llynges awyr') is the flag carrier of Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 2015 and it is now a wholly owned subsidiary ...
. When TNT announced that it would order 72
British Aerospace 146 The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Manufacture by Avro International ...
aircraft converted to freighters, Air Foyle won the contract to operate these aircraft on behalf of TNT, then an Australian company. This operation commenced in May 1987 with one BAe 146 aircraft and rapidly expanded to ten such aircraft which Air Foyle then operated for thirteen years for TNT on a nightly schedule from various airports in the UK and mainland Europe into TNT's hub in Cologne and later
Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
. In 1985 Air Foyle took delivery of the first production Edgley EA-7 Optica aerial observation aircraft. Subsequently, while being operated by Hampshire Police this aircraft was destroyed in a fatal accident. In 1994 Air Foyle won a contract to operate one
Lockheed L-100 Hercules The Lockheed L-100 Hercules is the civilian variant of the prolific C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft made by the Lockheed Corporation. Its first flight occurred in 1964. Longer L-100-20 and L-100-30 versions were developed. L-100 pro ...
and one
Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comm ...
aircraft on permanent 24/7 standby for
Oil Spill Response Limited Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) is a British firm specializing in managing oil spills. The company was founded in 1985 and employs about 300 people at nine locations. Shareholders are all major oil companies such as BHP Billiton, Chevron Corpor ...
, to provide immediate response on a worldwide basis in the event of a major oil spillage. Adopting the TNT aircraft management principle, Air Foyle and then its sister passenger airline Air Foyle Passenger Airlines operated a variety of aircraft including Boeing 707-300F, 737-200, 737-300, 727-200, Airbus A320 and A300 for a number of airline and virtual airline customers including
EasyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...
, Sunseeker, Sabre,
Virgin Express N.V. Virgin Express S.A. was a Belgian airline created within the Virgin Group. It operated flights mainly to southern Europe from its hub at Brussels Airport. Ticket sales were mainly through the Internet. The airline merged with SN Brussels Ai ...
,
Debonair Debonair or Debonaire may refer to: * Debonair (airline), a British airline that operated from 1996 to 1999 * ''Debonair'' (magazine), an Indian men's magazine * ''Debonair'' (play), a 1930 British play by Frank Vosper * Beechcraft Debonair, a ...
,
Color Air Color Air AS was the first Norwegian low-cost airline. It operated from Oslo Airport, Gardermoen in 1998 and 1999 with a fleet of three Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Color Air was a brand extension of Color Line, which shared a common owner in the ...
, and
Air Scandic Air Scandic was an airline from Jersey, Channel Islands, operating charter flights for various UK tour operators, most of which operated out of Manchester Airport. Fleet Over the years, Air Scandic operated the following aircraft types: ...
from 1993 until 2000.


Soviet deal

In 1989, following two years of negotiations with the Soviets, Air Foyle became the worldwide General Sales Agent of the Antonov Design Bureau of Kyiv and became responsible for the marketing and sales and commercial and operational management of Antonov's fleet of
AN-124 The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukraini ...
heavy cargo aircraft. Between 1998 and 2000 Air Foyle bid an AN-124 solution for the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
Short-Term Strategic Airlift (STSA) procurement. After a protracted procurement process, Ministers in the Ministry of Defence chose a very much more expensive
Boeing C-17 The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...
solution. Air Foyle believed it had been misled during the procurement process about the basis for decision on the procurement. The
Comptroller and Auditor General An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations. Fr ...
later concluded that the procurement process was "that the Department has not fully followed its own preferred practice in evaluating the Short Term Strategic Airlift proposals, but there is no evidence of illegality." In July 2001 Air Foyle HeavyLift became the worldwide General Sales Agent of the Antonov Design Bureau of Kyiv, a function previously held from July 1989 by Air Foyle, one of the two 50% shareholders in Air Foyle Heavylift. Air Foyle Heavylift was not only responsible for the sales and marketing of charters and leases of Antonov's fleet of Antonov An-124-100,
Antonov An-225 The Antonov An-225 Mriya ( uk, Антонов Ан-225 Мрія, lit=dream' or 'inspiration; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was ...
and
Antonov An-22 The Antonov An-22 "Antei" (, ''An-22 Antej''; English ''Antaeus'') (NATO reporting name "Cock") is a heavy military transport aircraft designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Powered by four turboprop engines each driving a pa ...
heavylift cargo aircraft, but also for their complete commercial and operational management. Antonov terminated the joint venture on 30 June 2006 to allow it to pursue a joint marketing venture with its erstwhile Russian competitor
Volga-Dnepr Volga-Dnepr Airlines, LLC (russian: ООО «Авиакомпания «Волга-Днепр») is an airline based in Ulyanovsk, Russia. It specializes in providing air charter services by operating a unique fleet of twelve Antonov An-124 (lar ...
under the name Ruslan International, in which it has a 50% stake. Air Foyle and Air Foyle HeavyLift ceased trading in July 2006, AFH closed for business on 31 July 2006.


See also

*
Antonov Airlines Antonov Airlines is a Ukrainian cargo airline, a division of the Antonov aviation company. It operates international charter services in the oversized-cargo market. Its main base is Hostomel Airport near Kyiv. In the aftermath of the Battle o ...
*
List of defunct airlines of the United Kingdom This is a list of defunct airlines of the United Kingdom. See also * List of airlines of the United Kingdom * List of airports in the United Kingdom and the British Crown Dependencies References

* * {{List of defunct airlines ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Air Foyle Heavylift Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Defunct cargo airlines Airlines established in 2001 Airlines disestablished in 2006 Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations 2001 establishments in England 2006 disestablishments in England British companies established in 2001 British companies disestablished in 2006 Cargo airlines of the United Kingdom