British Eagle International Airlines was a major
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
independent
[independent from ]government-owned corporation
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
s airline that operated from 1948 until it went into
liquidation
Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...
in 1968. It operated scheduled and charter services on a domestic, international and transatlantic basis over the years.
History
Formation and early operations
Harold Bamberg, a former
wartime pilot,
[Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle), p. 32] formed the airline on 14 April 1948 with a nominal capital of
£100 as Eagle Aviation Ltd at
Aldermaston
Aldermaston is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. In the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1015. The village is in the Kennet Valley and bounds Hampshire to the south. It is approximately from Newbury, Basingstok ...
. The initial fleet comprised two wartime bombers converted for carrying fruit and vegetables. The first aircraft to enter service was a converted
Halifax Mk 8 with the civil registration G-AJBL. It operated Eagle's first commercial flight, carrying a cargo of cherries from
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
to
Bovingdon.
It subsequently transported fruit from Italy and Spain for the
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
merchants. It was joined by a second Halifax, registered G-ALEF and christened ''Red Eagle''. Both aircraft saw extensive service along with a further two others during the
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...
.
The airline acquired Air Freight Ltd with three more Halifaxes later the same year. Eagle acquired three
Avro York
The Avro York was a British transport aircraft developed by Avro during the Second World War. The design was derived from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, several sections of the York and Lancaster being identical. Due to the importance of La ...
aircraft in late 1949, followed by eight others, and used these until early 1955 for both passenger and freight
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...
s. Eagle aviation moved to
Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...
in 1950. For most of its existence, the company's head office was located at 29 Clarges Street, London W1
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...
.
By 1951, Eagle Aviation had won its first regular
Government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
trooping contracts, including the first regular contract awarded by the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
for trooping flights between the
UK and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
starting in August 1951. This helped keep its fleet of six Halifaxes and nine Avro Yorks busy and provided employment for 100 people including 12 pilots.
[''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', p. 34] Operations moved to
Blackbushe Airport
Blackbushe Airport is an operational general aviation airport in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire. Built during the Second World War, Blackbushe is north of the A30 road between Camberley ...
in 1952, followed a year later by the launch of secondary scheduled services in association with
British European Airways
British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974.
BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The a ...
(BEA), from whom Eagle had purchased a large fleet of
Vickers Viking
The Vickers Viking was a British single-engine amphibious aircraft designed for military use shortly after World War I. Later versions of the aircraft were known as the Vickers Vulture and Vickers Vanellus.
Design and development
Resear ...
s.
[''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', p. 33][Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle), p. 33]
Start of scheduled operations
During 1953, Eagle Aviation's steadily growing passenger charter operations included for the first time aerial cruises around the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
.
Following Eagle's decision to sell the
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
s to rival UK independent
Skyways Skyways may refer to:
*Skyway, walk bridge
*Skyways (British airline), defunct British airline also known as Skyways Limited
* Skyways (Swedish airline), defunct Swedish airline also known as Skyways Express
* ''Skyways'' (TV series), Australian TV ...
for £160,000, the airline expanded from charter work into scheduled services from its new base at Blackbushe Airport, using Vickers Vikings. The first of these were acquired from Crewsair, another rival UK independent. Eagle, which by that time had set up Eagle Airways as a new company to run the scheduled side of the business (leaving Eagle Aviation in charge of all non-scheduled operations, including trooping flights), inaugurated its first scheduled service on 6 June 1953 from London (Blackbushe) to
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
(via
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
), followed by London—
Aalborg
Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's List of cities in Denmark by population, fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban population of 143,598 (1 July ...
and London—
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
.
It also began operating domestic flights within the UK and additional international services to secondary
western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
an destinations. Eagle's expansion was supported by 22 Vickers Vikings that had been retained from an earlier purchase of 37 former BEA examples.
Entry into package holiday market
In 1954, the
Ministry of Aviation
The Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply.
...
granted Eagle permission to operate a limited programme of a new type of low-fare service that combined air travel and overseas holiday accommodation at a cost substantially below the aggregate of each individual component if purchased separately. This new concept enabled the airline to circumvent regulatory restrictions that prevented private airlines from competing with their state-owned counterparts. It also helped increase
fleet utilisation.
When the
Thomas Cook & Son
Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. In 1851, Cook arrange ...
travel agency declined Eagle's offer to take on the role of the airline's tour operator, Eagle acquired the
Sir Henry Lunn Ltd travel agency chain. This made the airline one of the pioneers of the British package holiday industry and probably marked the first occasion in the UK an airline became vertically integrated with its own in-house tour operator (i.e. where an airline owns or is owned by a tour operator or both are part of an integrated travel group)
British Eagle also acquired the Polytechnic Touring Association in the 1950s and formed
Lunn Poly
Lunn Poly was, at one time, the largest chain of travel agents in the United Kingdom.
History
The company originated from two successful travel agencies established in the 1890s, the Polytechnic Touring Association and Sir Henry Lunn Travel. B ...
from the two agencies in the mid-1960s.
Eagle's first
inclusive tour (IT) flights operated to destinations in Italy and Spain (including
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...
). To make its packages more affordable and increase sales, Lunn began offering
hire purchase
A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment (e.g., 40% of the total) and repaying the balance of the price of the asset pl ...
facilities.
Between 1955 and 1960, many of the airline's aircraft carried the Eagle Airways operating name.
By 1957, the summer IT programme included for the first time 15-day, all-inclusive packages to Spain's
Costa Brava
The Costa Brava (, ; "Wild Coast" or "Rough Coast") is a coastal region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Whilst sources differ on the exact definition of the Costa Brava, it can be regarded as stretching from the town of Blanes, northeast ...
. These combined flights to
Perpignan
Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...
in
Southern France
Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...
with onward
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Coac ...
connections, with prices starting from £32.50 for travel on Mondays (£36 for weekend travel).
1957 was also the year Eagle joined IATA.
[''Aeroplane'' — "IATA: the view from the top, The question of charters, Harold Bamberg, chairman, British Eagle", Vol. 115, No. 2928, p. 4, Temple Press, London, 29 November 1967]
Branching out
On 26 July 1957, Eagle formed an overseas subsidiary, named Eagle Airways (Bermuda), in preparation for the launch of
transatlantic scheduled services between Bermuda and New York, using
Viscount 800 turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...
aircraft. Within a year of launching its first transatlantic scheduled route, the airline's
North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe a ...
scheduled operation extended to
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
and
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
.
[Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle), pp. 33/4]
Acquisition of first imported aircraft
In 1958, Eagle acquired the first three of an eventual six Douglas DC-6s for long-range charter and scheduled operations. These were the airline's first
pressurised aircraft. They were also its first imported aircraft (the initial batch of three had been sourced from the
US). This acquisition marked an important change regarding UK airlines' aircraft procurement policies as new legislation permitted (for the first time) that aircraft imported from abroad – usually
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
models – could be paid for in
dollar
Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, ...
s.
The lack of access to
foreign exchange to finance overseas aircraft purchases prior to the change in legislation had compelled all private UK airlines to equip their fleets either with British-built civilian/ex-military aircraft or
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
-surplus, foreign-built military transport planes that had served with the
RAF Transport Command
RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 1967 ...
— mainly
Douglas Dakotas. Their state-owned counterparts had to seek Government dispensation to import foreign aircraft, which was only granted when no suitable British alternatives were available. These measures had been designed during the early post-war years to conserve as much of
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
's scarce
US dollar
The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...
-denominated
foreign exchange reserves
Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence ...
as possible.
Pioneering of low-fare scheduled services in the western hemisphere
Eagle Airways (Bermuda) launched commercial operations in May 1958 between Bermuda and New York, competing head-on with three of the world's most powerful airlines – BOAC,
Pan Am
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United State ...
and
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida.
E ...
. Other regional services in the
western hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
followed. Stimulated by low fares, traffic volumes on the Nassau—Miami and Bermuda—
JFK sectors grew such that it was possible to run a four-times-a-day
Viscount
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicia ...
shuttle on the former and a similar, thrice-daily operation on the latter profitably. This increased Eagle's, as well as the overall British market share on these routes.
This success provided the impetus for Eagle Airways (Bermuda) to launch weekly low-fare through-plane scheduled services to London with all-
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Coac ...
-configured
DC-6Cs. The use of a foreign-registered aircraft on the London route enabled it to circumvent restrictive licensing provisions (including those contained in the forthcoming Civil Aviation (Licensing) Act, 1960) as it only applied to UK aircraft. Bermuda's status as a
British colony
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
furthermore meant that no reciprocal approvals from overseas authorities were needed. Eagle's new direct Bermuda—London flights were a cheaper and faster alternative to BOAC's
DC-7C services which routed via New York. However, the terms of the licence permitting Eagle to operate scheduled services on this route required it to share its revenues with BOAC.
In November 1958, Eagle applied to the Air Transport Advisory Council (ATAC), the contemporary UK Government department in charge of air transport economic regulation, for permission to offer low fares on existing and planned scheduled routes to
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...
,
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = "Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gibr ...
,
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, Singapore, the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
, the Caribbean as well as
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
and
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...
. For instance, Eagle's £19 proposed fare to Malta compared with BEA's £52.60 and its £199 Singapore fare compared with a £351 fare charged by BOAC. This marked the first occasion on which a private British airline sought approval to offer scheduled fares that undercut the equivalent published fares of the state-owned airlines by a substantial margin. Eagle's low fares were designed to increase the British market share on routes the state airlines had monopolised by stimulating demand. The airline argued that the British economy as a whole would benefit if it was granted permission to offer these fares, as a consequence of additional foreign exchange earnings accruing to the UK
Exchequer
In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty’s Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's '' current account'' (i.e., money held from taxation and other government revenu ...
that resulted from boosting Britain's share of total traffic. Loss-making BEA and BOAC lodged objections with ATAC against Eagle's low-fare proposals, which were upheld.
[''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', p. 131] By the spring of 1959, Eagle Airways (Bermuda) was operating scheduled passenger flights with
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner.
The Vi ...
805 turboprop aircraft between Bermuda and
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
,
Washington, D.C. and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the U.S. as well as between Bermuda and
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
in Canada.
Breaking even on scheduled operations
Following six years of losses, Eagle managed to
break even on what it claimed to be Britain's biggest network of independent-operated scheduled services comprising 12 routes to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
by 1959.
By the late 1950s, all aircraft carried the ''Eagle Airways'' name.
The early 1960s (1960–1963)
Following Blackbushe's closure to commercial
air traffic in 1960, Eagle moved its base to London Heathrow, then simply known as
''London Airport''.
Eagle along with
British United Airways
British United Airways (BUA) was a private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British airline formed as a result of the merger of Airwork Services and Hunting-Clan Air Transport in July 1960, making it the largest whol ...
(BUA) — its principal contemporary independent competitor – had successfully
lobbied
In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...
the Government to bring about a change in legislation that had given their state-owned counterparts a virtual monopoly on scheduled services. This resulted in the Civil Aviation (Licensing) Act of 1960, which abolished BEA's and BOAC's
statutory monopoly on principal domestic and international scheduled routes and – theoretically – gave the independents equal opportunities to develop such routes in their own right. Eagle concurred with BUA and
Caledonian Airways
Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British charter airline formed in April 1961. It began with a single 104-seat Douglas DC-7C leased from the Belgian flag carrier Sabena.''Fly ...
— an independent upstart that would subsequently compete with it head-to-head for a licence to operate
transatlantic scheduled services — that running a fully fledged scheduled operation was the only way to build an airline with a long-term, stable future. It argued that the non-scheduled nature of its business – mainly trooping, ''ad hoc'' charters and IT flying – made planning ahead difficult because of extreme seasonality and generally low margins. Therefore, Eagle saw its future primarily as an international scheduled passenger and freight carrier with transatlantic ambitions.
[''Aeroplane – British United's expanding universe'', Vol. 116, No. 2965, pp. 4, 5, Temple Press, London, 14 August 1968][''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', p. 150]
The Cunard era
Cunard Eagle Airways
In March 1960, the
Cunard Steamship Company
Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...
bought a 60%
shareholding
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...
for £30 million, resulting in a change of name to Cunard Eagle Airways. The support from this new
shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...
enabled Cunard Eagle to become the first British independent airline to operate pure
jet airliner
A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have two or four jet engines; three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Airliners are commonly clas ...
s, as a result of a £6 million order for two new
Boeing 707-420
The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
passenger aircraft.
The order had been placed (including an option on a third aircraft) in expectation of being granted traffic rights for transatlantic scheduled services.
The airline took delivery of its first
Bristol Britannia
The Bristol Type 175 Britannia is a retired British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the Commonwealth. During development two prototypes were lost and the turboprop engines proved ...
aircraft on 5 April 1960 (on lease from
Cubana).
Cunard's acquisition of a controlling stake in Eagle resulted in Bamberg's appointment as their new aviation director, hoping that his knowledge of the industry would help them to capture a significant share of the 1 million people that crossed the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
by air in 1960. This was the first time more passengers chose to make their transatlantic crossing by air than sea.
In April 1960, the Government approved a range of new ''Colonial Coach'' fares for travel by British residents only on
cabotage
Cabotage () is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country. It originally applied to shipping along coastal routes, port to port, but now applies to aviation, railways, and road transport as well.
Cabotage rights ar ...
routes linking the UK with its
remaining colonies. Despite opposition from IATA, British airlines – including British IATA members – were free to introduce them from 1 October 1960 as UK authorities controlled fares at both ends. Apart from Eagle, the beneficiaries included BEA, BOAC, BUA and Skyways.
From 1 October 1960, all-coach DC-6Cs plying the London—Bermuda—Nassau route were replaced with
Britannia
Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Grea ...
s featuring a 98-seat, three-class layout comprising 14
first-class, 66
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
and 18 ''Skycoach'' seats (British residents only). Like its predecessors, these were
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, es ...
n-registered. An additional weekly all-''Skycoach'' operation using a 113-seat
Britannia 310 commenced on 10 October 1960. All revenues – including those from first-class passengers – were shared with BOAC. Schedules were complemented by additional Britannia and DC-6 charters during the peak summer season.
Operations moved to
Heathrow
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...
in 1960 as a result of Blackbushe's closure to commercial traffic.
The
Cunard Line
Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival Corporation & plc#Carnival United Kingdom, Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its ...
acquired a controlling stake in Eagle in March 1960 which resulted in the creation of a
joint venture company
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
trading as Cunard Eagle. Eagle's founder Harold Bamberg was appointed as aviation director of the company. The new support enabled Cunard Eagle to order two new
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 2 ...
jet aircraft
A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines.
Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, jet ...
in May 1961. In June 1961, Cunard Eagle became the first independent airline in the UK to be awarded a licence by the newly constituted Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB)
[''Aircraft'' (Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle), p. 35] to operate a scheduled service on the prime Heathrow – New York JFK route, using Boeing 707 jets and Bristol Britannia turboprops at a frequency of one round-trip per day. The licence was valid for 15 years – from 31 August 1961 to 31 July 1976. The airline also won the right to serve
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
,
Glasgow Prestwick,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
, Baltimore,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and Washington. The carriage of passengers on UK domestic sectors and of mail on all sectors was denied. Similarly, requests for traffic rights to
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Montreal,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
and
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
were turned down. This decision angered BOAC, which was losing money at the time. It appealed to Aviation Minister
Peter Thorneycroft, who was empowered to accept or reject the ATLB's recommendations and to uphold or quash appeals against its decisions. The state airline cited its order for 45
Standard and Super VC10 long-haul jets and an earlier ministerial promise not to permit another British competitor on this route in support of its appeal. The appeal was upheld, resulting in revocation of Cunard Eagle's licence in November 1961.
[Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle), pp. 34/5][''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', pp. 99, 148] In the meantime the airline acquired two further Britannia aircraft in March and May 1961, both ex-
Canadian Pacific Air Lines
Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, it served domestic Canadian ...
aircraft.
[
On 27 February 1962, Cunard Eagle took delivery of its first jet aircraft – a Boeing 707-465 bearing the Bermudan registration VR-BBW. Exactly one month later, on 27 March 1962, commercial 707 operations commenced, initially supplementing Cunard Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Viscount schedules on the Bermuda – New York JFK run on an ''ad hoc'' basis. This made Cunard Eagle the first British independent airline to operate jet services with fare-paying passengers.]
On 5 May 1962, the airline's first 707 inaugurated scheduled jet services from London Heathrow to Bermuda and Nassau. The new jet service – marketed as the ''Cunarder Jet'' in the UK and as the ''Londoner'' in the western hemisphere — replaced the earlier Britannia operation on this route. Cunard Eagle succeeded in extending this service to Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
despite the loss of its original transatlantic scheduled licence and BOAC's claim that there was insufficient traffic to warrant a direct service from the UK. A load factor of 56% was achieved at the outset. Inauguration of the first British through-plane service between London and Miami also helped Cunard Eagle increase utilisation of its 707s.
BOAC-Cunard
BOAC countered Eagle's move to establish itself as a full-fledged scheduled transatlantic competitor on its Heathrow—JFK flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...
route by forming BOAC-Cunard as a new £30 million joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
with the Cunard Steamship Co. BOAC contributed 70% of the new company's capital and eight Boeing 707s. Cunard Eagle's long-haul scheduled operation — including the two new 707s – was absorbed into BOAC-Cunard before delivery of the second 707, in June 1962.[BOAC-Cunard eventually operated a fleet comprising 11 707-436/465s, two 707-336Cs and four Super VC10s][''Aeroplane – World Transport Affairs: C.E.A. hands over mid-Atlantic service'', Vol. 104, No. 2659, p. 12, Temple Press, London, 4 October 1962] BOAC-Cunard lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
d any spare aircraft capacity to BOAC to augment the BOAC mainline fleet at peak times. As part of this deal, BOAC-Cunard also bought flying hours from BOAC for using the latter's aircraft in the event of capacity shortfalls. This maximised combined fleet utilisation. The joint fleet use agreement did not cover Cunard Eagle's European scheduled, trooping and charter operations.[''Aeroplane – B.O.A.C. buys Cunard off the North Atlantic'', Vol. 103, No. 2643, p. 4, Temple Press, London, 14 June 1962]
Although Bamberg was appointed to the board of BOAC-Cunard, he became disenchanted with Cunard's corporate culture
Historically there have been differences among investigators regarding the definition of organizational culture. Edgar Schein, a leading researcher in this field, defined "organizational culture" as comprising a number of features, including a ...
. He resigned from BOAC-Cunard's board in 1963 while continuing as managing director
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
of Cunard Eagle Airways. His growing disenchantment with BOAC-Cunard's culture resulted in the decision to reconstitute Eagle by buying back control from Cunard.[Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle), p. 34]
Reconstitution of the company
Having raised his holding to 60% in February 1963, on 9 August, the airline's official name changed to British Eagle International Airlines Ltd (the name Bamberg had given the new holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
on 1 March). It had a fully paid-up share capital of £1,000,000. Initial equipment included Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner.
The Vi ...
and Bristol Britannia turboprop planes. From 16 September, a new livery
A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...
displaying the ''British Eagle'' name in full on the company's aircraft was adopted. This was a legal requirement following BEA's objection to Bamberg's original plan to incorporate the abbreviation ''BEIA'' into the new livery to avoid confusion between them.
Launch of competitive UK domestic scheduled services
In November 1963, British Eagle launched daily scheduled services between London Heathrow and Glasgow Renfrew with 103-seater, two-class Britannias. The inaugural London—Glasgow service – operated by ex-BOAC Britannia 310 ''Enterprise'' — was followed by daily two-class Britannia services from Heathrow to Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
the next day. Two Britannia aircraft were leased from BOAC to provide additional capacity.[ This was the first time an independent airline was allowed to compete with the ]corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...
s on the main UK domestic trunk routes and only the fourth time there was direct competition between private and state-owned airlines on domestic trunk routes anywhere.[this already existed in ]Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
It was also the first time a scheduled airline had offered a separate first class cabin on a UK domestic route. As British Eagle was restricted to a single daily round-trip on each route, it sought to differentiate itself from BEA. While BEA served these routes with 132-seat Vickers Vanguards in an all-tourist configuration with minimal onboard catering, British Eagle provided full catering on all flights. This included top-quality wines as well as the use of Wedgwood
Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapid ...
china and fine-quality glassware in first class. British Eagle differentiated itself by introducing assigned seating and "trickle loading".[whereby passengers take their seats in the aircraft after checking in instead of awaiting their departure inside the airport terminal] The former was a first for a UK scheduled domestic carrier while the airline claimed to have started the latter in the UK as well. Although British Eagle provided a standby aircraft to maintain the integrity of its schedules, flights were timed to provide eight-hours' work per day for one aircraft to maximise utilisation. BEA, whose frequencies were not restricted, responded to the challenge on its three most important domestic routes by scheduling additional flights that departed and arrived at the same time or within 10 minutes of its rival's scheduled departure and arrival times. This had the effect of "sandwiching" British Eagle's flights. BEA's response also included the introduction of trickle loading and subsequent introduction of full onboard catering as well as a separate first class cabin.[''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', p. 101]
Acquisition of Starways
On 31 December 1963, British Eagle took over Liverpool-based Starways
Starways was a British airline which operated from 1948 until 1963. The company offered freight transport, passenger charter services and serviced internal and international scheduled routes.
History
The airline was formed at Blackpool in ...
. This gave it access to a fast-growing network of regional scheduled routes from Liverpool – including the busy London route – and to several IT contracts from locally based tour operators. British Eagle's ability to control the important Liverpool—London route strengthened its position in the UK's internal air travel market generally and on the main domestic trunk routes from Heathrow in particular. The Starways fleet – two Vickers Viscounts, three Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960 ...
s and three DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner
manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II.
It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...
s – was not included in the takeover and subsequently disposed of. Instead, to provide sufficient capacity to operate the combined airline's flying programme, British Eagle purchased an additional three Viscount 700s. Despite losing £80,000 during its first year of operation, the reconstituted airline gradually regained profitability.
The later years and closure (1964–1968)
In January 1964 the airline acquired two Britannia aircraft (ex-Transcontinental SA) for modification to freighters. Following modification they entered service in July 1964 in support of the UK's Blue Steel missile programme ferrying equipment and personnel to the Woomera Test Range
The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a d ...
in Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
.[
]
Integration of Starways
On 1 January 1964, British Eagle – Starways began operating the Liverpool—Heathrow route at a frequency of three flights a day in each direction. Two of these were non-stop, using both Britannias and Viscounts. An additional Viscount service routed via Chester Airport
Chester Airport is a public use airport located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Chester, a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. It is privately owned by Whelen Aviation. It is included in ...
. The same day, the new airline combine assumed the former Starways operation between Liverpool and Glasgow. The remaining Starways routes were taken over by 1 April. By that time, the joint Eagle – Starways fleet comprised 18 aircraft, consisting of 10 Britannias, five Viscounts and three DC-6s. Of these, three Viscounts were stationed at Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
.
Temporary withdrawal of UK domestic services
By October 1964, British Eagle had accumulated a deficit of £300,000 on its domestic scheduled operations. Load factors on the Belfast route averaged only 13%. Persistent refusal of British Eagle's requests for a frequency increase led to Bamberg's decision to suspend his airline's domestic operations as of 20 February 1965.[''Fly me, I'm Freddie!'', p. 100]
Return to profitability
British Eagle's financial and traffic results for 1964 were published at the start of 1965. These showed that after writing off losses of up to £350,000 for the development of domestic scheduled services, the airline earned an operating surplus of £853,700. The retained net profit amounted to £101,500. This represented 2% of total assets
In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can ...
employed (£4.9 million), after allowing for depreciation
In accountancy, depreciation is a term that refers to two aspects of the same concept: first, the actual decrease of fair value of an asset, such as the decrease in value of factory equipment each year as it is used and wear, and second, the ...
and other charges. This set of figures marked the first profitable period of operation following reconstitution.
Limited resumption of UK domestic services
Following the suspension of British Eagle's scheduled operations on the three main domestic trunk routes from Heathrow to Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
, BUA applied to the ATLB to have these licences transferred to itself. BUA wanted to operate the former British Eagle routes with its new 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 ...
s from its Gatwick base at similar frequencies (10–12 round-trips per week). It argued that its proposed services were primarily intended as domestic feeders for its growing international scheduled and non-scheduled operations at Gatwick, that this was supported by contemporary Government policy giving preference to that airport's development to improve utilisation and enable it to become profitable, and that it would relieve congestion at Heathrow. BUA furthermore argued that the use of a different London terminal serving a distinct catchment area would divert little traffic from BEA, thereby minimising the competitive impact on the corporation. In addition to requesting revocation and transfer of British Eagle's licences for London—Glasgow, London—Edinburgh and London—Belfast, BUA also sought scheduled service licences for London—Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
and London—Manchester (to be operated from Gatwick as well).
BUA's attempt to have British Eagle stripped of its licences to operate scheduled services on the three main UK domestic trunk routes resulted in the latter's decision to resume operations on Heathrow—Glasgow on 5 July 1965, at a frequency of three return flights per day. Two of these operated non-stop while the remaining one routed via Liverpool. Combining its licences for unrestricted frequencies between Heathrow and Liverpool, a maximum of two daily return flights on Heathrow—Glasgow as well as 17 weekly Liverpool—Glasgow round-trips, enabled British Eagle to operate the Heathrow—Glasgow route at a higher frequency.
Preparations to restart jet operations
By early 1965, British Eagle had a fleet of 24 turboprop aircraft in service, comprising 17 Bristol Britannia 300s – out of a total of 23 that were eventually operated – and seven Vickers Viscount 700s. By the end of that year, the airline's turnover had increased by 37% to almost £12 million and net profit had recovered to £350,000. In addition, Bamberg announced an order for three series 300 One-Elevens including a further three options, heralding Eagle's comeback as a jet operator.
Part of the come back strategy was to provide London passengers a better experience with its check in facility in Knightsbridge, it required a coach service to Heathrow, this resulted the acquisition of Rickards Coaches and the purchase of twenty new luxury coaches, around 9,000 passengers a week used this service.
By late 1965, British Eagle placed an order for two Boeing 707-320Cs. The aircraft, which were to be delivered in early 1967, were primarily intended for passenger and freight charters to the Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The t ...
and Australia. To avoid paying the 14% tax the British Government had imposed on imported, new foreign aircraft to protect competing British models, the airline needed to persuade the Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
that there was no equivalent home-grown alternative. It also cited the Board's earlier decision to approve BOAC's application for an import duty
A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...
waiver
A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.
Regulatory agencies of state departments or the federal government may issue waivers to exempt companies from certain regulations. For example, a United St ...
on two new Boeing 707-336Cs as a precedent. Despite being offered a mixed-traffic version of the Super VC10 and acknowledging that aircraft's superior passenger appeal, British Eagle favoured the 707-320C because of its greater payload
Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of ...
and range. This made the 707 a more attractive aircraft for the kind of charter operations envisaged.
Aden evacuation
British Eagle played a part in the British evacuation of Aden in 1967. The 2008 book "From Barren Rocks...to Living Stones" by Jon Magee records how one of its fleet, a Britannia, intended for a run to the Far East was commandeered at short notice as the emergency escalated.
Future fleet plans
The plan British Eagle developed in early 1966 for its future fleet requirements aimed to have 25 aircraft in service by the end of the decade, envisaging the operation of 15 jet aircraft – including two widebodies — and 10 turboprop planes. The former were to comprise two Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, ...
freighters, five 707-320Cs for the carriage of both passengers and cargo and eight BAC One-Elevens – the last three of which were to be Quick Change (QC) models that could either be used as passenger or freight carriers. The latter were to consist of 10 Britannias. The end of a number of Ministry of Defence contracts in 1966 saw the airline with surplus aircraft and two Britannias were sold to Air Spain.[
]
Inauguration of Heathrow's first domestic jet schedules
The simultaneous arrival at Glasgow of BEA's first Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
4B revenue service and a British Eagle BAC One-Eleven proving flight from Heathrow on 2 May 1966 coincided with the opening of the city's new Abbotsinch Airport
gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu
, image = Glasgow Airport logo.svg
, image-width = 200
, image2 = GlasgowAirportFromAir.jpg
, image2-width = 250
, IATA = GLA
, ICAO = EGPF
, type = Public
, owner = AGS Airports
, hub =
* eas ...
. This event was followed by British Eagle's first Heathrow—Glasgow One-Eleven revenue service on 9 May, making it the second British independent airline after BUA to operate scheduled jet services on domestic trunk routes. Although BUA's services preceded BEA's and British Eagle's by four months, this occasion marked the first time jets were used to operate scheduled services on a domestic trunk route from Heathrow. It also marked the first time parallel jet competition was introduced on a UK domestic trunk route,[as opposed to indirect jet competition provided by BUA's ''InterJet'' services from Gatwick] as well as the fourth time such competition was introduced anywhere.[following its prior introduction on internal routes in the US, Australia and Japan] British Eagle initially operated its scheduled domestic jet services with a pair of 200 series One-Elevens leased from the Central African Airways
Central African Airways (CAA) was a supranational airline corporation serving as flag carrier for Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (respectively the present day countries of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi), which were organised ...
, pending delivery of the UK carrier's first three One-Eleven 300s between the end of May and July. British Eagle marketed its 79-seat, all-tourist
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...
Heathrow—Glasgow One-Eleven jet services as a better and faster alternative to BEA's Comet 4B services and as a less time-consuming option compared with BUA's Gatwick—Glasgow ''InterJet'' One-Eleven service.
New business opportunities
In addition to operating the new One-Elevens on its own scheduled and non-scheduled services, British Eagle also offered its new short-haul jets to other airlines on a contract basis. These were mainly wet lease
Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...
s. KLM
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...
, Scandinavian Airlines
Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmar ...
and Swissair
Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.
It was formed from a merger between Bal ...
were among the airline's most prominent wet lease customers. By 1966, annual passenger numbers had increased to 944,488 (up from 153,000 in 1963) while profits had reached £585,000.
Completion of company reorganisation
The end of 1966 also saw the completion of the Eagle group of companies' reorganisation. This had resulted in setting up Eagle International Airlines as a new group holding company. Apart from British Eagle International Airlines, other subsidiaries included British Eagle (Liverpool)—the former Starways, Eagle Aircraft Services, Knightsbridge Air Terminal and Sky Chefs, the group's own catering
Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio.
History of catering
The earliest account of major servi ...
company. This period furthermore saw Bamberg regaining 100% control of the Eagle group, as a result of his exercising an option to buy back Cunard's remaining 40% interest in British Eagle.
Deteriorating business environment
1967 was a bad year for the British travel industry. The brief Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 ...
between Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and its Arab neighbours caused a temporary spike in oil prices while both the military coup
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
in Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
and new Spanish access restrictions to Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = "Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gibr ...
resulted in fewer people visiting these places. In addition, the value of sterling dropped by 14.7%, as a result of many Arab countries
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...
switching their sterling balances in London to dollars and moving them to Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Z ...
. These events were responsible for a sharp reduction in the IT business's annual rate of expansion—down to 12% to just over a million passengers after three years of spectacular growth. This in turn led to the implementation of a major cost-reduction programme at British Eagle following an estimated drop of 20% in projected summer holiday traffic, as a result of the challenging economic conditions. As a consequence, flightdeck personnel numbers were reduced by 48 (out of a total of 246).
Applications for transatlantic scheduled rights
In 1967, British Eagle—as well as BUA, Caledonian and Transglobe—also applied to the ATLB for licences to operate scheduled and non-scheduled services in competition with BOAC on several long-haul routes. British Eagle sought a 15-year licence for a London – New York passenger service to be operated with Boeing 707-320Cs from 1 April 1969 between either Heathrow or Stansted
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...
and JFK at an initial frequency of two daily return flights during summer (April—October) and one round-trip per day in winter (November—March). Similar licences were sought to operate to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
/San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
and Toronto/Montreal with Chicago as an intermediate stop. In addition, the airline sought licences for a London—Bermuda—Nassau— Kingston/Montego Bay
Montego Bay is the capital of the parish of St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore, all of which form the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, h ...
mid-Atlantic and Caribbean service, with Chicago as an intermediate stop between London and Bermuda or Nassau. There were also plans to seek licences for a transatlantic all-cargo service between London, New York and six other points on the East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...
, as well as for a mixed passenger/cargo service between London and Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
. As the latter was an unrestricted cabotage route, British Eagle intended to seek approval for a £125 one-way fare that would have undercut the existing fare by £83. At the forthcoming ATLB hearings, British Eagle planned to back up its case with detailed traffic statistics showing a marked decline in Britain's traffic share over a period of five years on routes shared with foreign flag carriers where BOAC was the sole British flag carrier. These figures indicated that in the case of the transatlantic scheduled air market between Britain and the United States, the American market share rose by 10% between 1962 and 1966 while the British share fell by 7% within that period. British Eagle wanted to use these findings to argue that licensing a second British scheduled carrier on these routes would substantially benefit the British economy by strengthening Britain's overall competitive position vis-à-vis overseas rivals in a dollar-earning market and thus complement rather than damage BOAC. British Eagle's applications competed with BUA's, Caledonian's and Transglobe's. BUA sought unrestricted frequencies across the North Atlantic to several destinations in the US and Canada, beginning with a thrice-weekly Gatwick—Belfast—JFK VC10 service. It also wanted to extend its existing South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
n routes via Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
and the Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
to Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologic ...
, hoping to convert this into a supersonic
Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...
operation by the early 1970s. Caledonian sought transatlantic scheduled services linking its main operating bases at Gatwick and Prestwick
Prestwick ( gd, Preastabhaig) is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about south, an ...
in the UK with a number of destinations in the US and Canada, with particular emphasis on the West Coast of the United States
The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...
to take full advantage of its growing fleet of long-range Boeing 707-320Cs. Transglobe Airways sought to operate scheduled passenger/cargo services from its Gatwick base to points on the US and Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
west coasts.
Caledonian objected to the other independent airlines' applications. BOAC opposed all the independents' applications.
Before the route licensing hearings began, the BOT directed the ATLB to prejudge the four contenders' applications in order to concentrate only on those that stood a reasonable chance of success under existing bilateral
Bilateral may refer to any concept including two sides, in particular:
*Bilateria, bilateral animals
*Bilateralism, the political and cultural relations between two states
*Bilateral, occurring on both sides of an organism ( Anatomical terms of l ...
arrangements. As far as British Eagle was concerned, the applications seeking licences for scheduled/non-scheduled services to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...
with Chicago as an intermediate stop were not heard. These were withdrawn prior to the hearings' commencement on 16 January 1968.
BUA withdrew its own applications but objected to British Eagle's and Caledonian's. Transglobe withdrew its applications as well. British Eagle and Caledonian objected to each other's applications.
The ATLB heard British Eagle's applications, Caledonian's counter applications and BOAC's objections in early 1968. Following the conclusion of the transatlantic scheduled licensing hearings in mid-1968, the ATLB rejected British Eagle's and Caledonian's applications. It felt that the independents generally lacked the financial strength to acquire the then latest widebodied and supersonic transport
A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupol ...
(SST) aircraft for their proposed services and that these airlines had insufficient economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...
to enable them to compete with BOAC and the American carriers on a level playing field. It also felt that it would take the independents too long to make these services profitable. In British Eagle's case, the ATLB was impressed with the airline's well-equipped and competent engineering organisation but questioned its ability to finance the envisaged expansion because it considered the company seriously undercapitalised for its existing operations.
Bureaucratic obstacles
Meanwhile, British Eagle's unhappiness at the Government's refusal to exempt it from paying duty on its new Boeing 707-365Cs led to a decision to postpone from February to December 1967 delivery of the first aircraft, swapping the second aircraft's delivery position for the first and arranging to take delivery of the second in mid-1968. The airline estimated that this delay had cost it US$1m in lost North Atlantic revenue. It also pointed out that this would have been enough to pay for the duty. The unresolved dispute between British Eagle and the BOT over the payment of import duty on two new 707-365Cs held up the first aircraft's delivery at the beginning of February 1968, with HM Customs demanding payment of £440,000 before releasing the aircraft. The dispute was resolved with the airline agreeing to pay the duty once the Bermudan-registered aircraft was operating in British Eagle livery
A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...
. This was not going to be the case for at least another year as the aircraft had been wet-lease
Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...
d to Middle East Airlines
Middle East Airlines – Air Liban S.A.L. ( ar, طيران الشرق الأوسط ـ الخطوط الجوية اللبنانية ''Ṭayyarān al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ – al-Khuṭūṭ al-jawiyyah al-lubnāniyyah''), more commonly known as Middle ...
(MEA) as of 1 March. British Eagle had made operating the aircraft in its own colours dependent on the outcome of the applications to the ATLB for licences to operate scheduled and non-scheduled services between London and New York as well as London, Bermuda and Nassau from 1 April 1969. The airline had held out the prospect of placing a follow-on order for an additional two 707-365Cs in the case of these applications being approved and relevant licences awarded.
Return to the western hemisphere
In addition to taking delivery of the first of a pair of brand-new 707-365Cs ordered directly from Boeing, British Eagle also began operating two second-hand, shorter-fuselage 707-138Bs sourced from Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founde ...
. The latter aircraft were used to operate a new Caribbean charter programme. The arrival at Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
of Boeing 707-138B G-AVZZ ''Endeavour'' on a pre-inaugural IT flight in February 1968 marked the airline's return to the Bahamian capital six years after Cunard Eagle's transatlantic operations had been absorbed into BOAC-Cunard. These services were subsequently extended to Jamaica, Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
and Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estima ...
.
20th anniversary
By the time of its 20th anniversary on 14 April 1968, British Eagle ranked fourth among the five major contemporary UK airlines (behind BEA, BOAC and BUA, and ahead of Caledonian).[''High Risk: The Politics of the Air'', p. 189] The airline's 24 aircraft included eight jets, six of which had been acquired direct from their manufacturers. These included a Boeing 707-365C leased out to MEA and five BAC One-Eleven 300 series. Kleinwort Benson
Kleinwort Benson was a leading investment bank that offered a wide range of financial services from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. Two families, the Kleinworts and the Bensons, founded two different merchant banks in ...
were the owners of the 707-365C and two second-hand -138Bs that had been acquired from Qantas, while Kuwait Finance Agency, the overseas investment arm of the Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...
government, and British Aircraft Corporation
The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 19 ...
(BAC) respectively owned three and two of the five One-Elevens. British Eagle operated all of these aircraft under lease purchase agreements with the owners. By that time, the company's scheduled service network included routes from London Heathrow to Liverpool, Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
, Newquay, Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
, Dinard
Dinard (; br, Dinarzh, ; Gallo: ''Dinard'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, northwestern France.
Dinard is on the Côte d'Émeraude of Brittany. Its beaches and mild climate make it a holiday destination, and this ...
, La Baule
La Baule-Escoublac (; br, Ar Baol-Skoubleg, ), commonly referred to as La Baule, is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department, Pays de la Loire, western France.
A century-old seaside resort in southern Brittany with villas, casino, luxury h ...
, Lourdes
Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Châ ...
, Perpignan, Gerona, Palma de Mallorca
Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca ...
, Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...
, Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ci ...
, Rimini
Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...
, Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...
, Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...
, Djerba
Djerba (; ar, جربة, Jirba, ; it, Meninge, Girba), also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at , in the Gulf of Gabès, off the coast of Tunisia. It had a population of 139,544 ...
and Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
. The firm also operated a large number of inclusive tour flights from Heathrow and other British airports. Lunn Poly was its largest tour operator customer.
Waning prospects
The introduction of the £50 foreign exchange limit per passenger had caused a major contraction in the UK package tour holiday market during 1968. This left British Eagle with surplus charter capacity, especially for the main summer season. In common with other UK independent airlines that faced the same problem, such as Dan-Air
Dan-Air (Dan Air Services Limited) was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo and passenger ...
, Invicta International Airlines
Invicta International Airlines Ltd was a charter airline based at Manston Airport in the United Kingdom. It operated non-scheduled passenger and freight services between 1965 and 1982.
Company history 1960s
Invicta International Airlines was fo ...
and Laker Airways, British Eagle redeployed this surplus capacity to the burgeoning West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
charter market, where access was restricted to US, UK and French airlines. This resulted in British Eagle stationing a Bristol Britannia at West Berlin's Tegel Airport
Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Berlin-Tegel „Otto Lilienthal“) was the primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienth ...
for the duration of the 1968 summer season.
In mid-1968, BOAC applied to the ATLB seeking revocation of British Eagle's Caribbean charter licence due to alleged irregularities in the conduct of the tour services. BOAC's complaint included claims that British Eagle was abusing the terms and conditions of its inclusive tour licence by promoting services as if they were scheduled services. The ATLB found in BOAC's favour and revoked British Eagle's Caribbean licence at the end of the summer season. To circumvent UK regulatory restrictions, the airline proposed to replace its IT flights between the UK and the Caribbean with a scheduled service between Nassau and Luxembourg through its Bahamian subsidiary, Eagle International Airlines (Bahamas), as the ATLB's and BOT's jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
J ...
did not extend beyond the UK.
At the end of the 1968 summer season, British Eagle issued redundancy notices to 418 employees in London and Liverpool and announced the closure of its Speke
Speke () is a suburb of Liverpool. It is southeast of the city centre. Located near the widest part of the River Mersey, it is bordered by the suburbs of Garston and Hunts Cross, and nearby to Halewood, Hale Village, and Widnes. The rural ...
maintenance base. These economy measures were put in place to counter a major business downturn, as a result of a significant decline in the IT market following the introduction of stricter foreign exchange rules for overseas travel, the end of the Far East trooping and Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
n migrant contracts in March, and general economic problems.
Bankruptcy and aftermath
British Eagle and its sister companies ceased trading at midnight on 6 November 1968 due to growing financial problems and went into voluntary liquidation two days later. The airline's last-ever aircraft movement was the arrival of a Bristol Britannia from Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...
at Heathrow the following day. The financial crisis leading to the collapse of Britain's second-largest contemporary independent airline had been triggered by the devaluation of sterling and the tightening of the existing exchange control regime, which limited the amount of foreign exchange British holidaymakers were allowed to take out of the country as well as by the loss of the company's Caribbean licence. Poor decisions at senior
Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to:
* Senior (name), a surname ...
and executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive di ...
level, the end of the trooping and migrant contracts and economic difficulties had made British Eagle an increasingly unviable business.
The ATLB and some industry peers regarded the firm as seriously undercapitalised and saw this as a major cause of financial instability. The management's refusal to contemplate a fundamental change in the way the business was run, including a change in the top management itself, undermined the confidence of Hambros Bank
Hambros Bank was a British bank based in London. The Hambros bank was a specialist in Anglo-Scandinavian business with expertise in trade finance and investment banking, and was the sole banker to the Scandinavian kingdoms for many years. The Bank ...
, the airline's main creditor, in its prospects. These circumstances led to the withdrawal of Hambros's support.[''Aeroplane – Late News: Caledonian contract'', Vol. 115, No. 2931, p. 34, Temple Press, London, 20 December 1967][''Fly Me, I'm Freddie!'', pp. 99, 125] At the time of its bankruptcy, British Eagle operated 25 aircraft and employed a staff of 2,300, including 220 pilots. The failed company owed its creditors £5½ million; Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
and Esso
Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic ...
, who were owed £630,000 and £300,000 respectively, headed the list of creditors.
Following British Eagle's overnight collapse, other airlines moved quickly to take over the abandoned scheduled routes. Former rival Cambrian Airways
Cambrian Airways was an airline based in the United Kingdom which ran operations from Cardiff Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport between 1935 and 1974. It was incorporated into British Airways when BOAC, BEA, Cambrian and Northeast merge ...
assumed the Liverpool–Glasgow and Liverpool–Heathrow routes while BEA applied for the European routes from Heathrow. BUA added an extra daily round-trip between Gatwick and Glasgow and applied to serve some of the European routes as well. Dan-Air took over London–Newquay services, which it operated from Gatwick for one season from May 1969. Dan-Air also won the contest for the Travel Trust charter contracts for the 1969 summer season against stiff competition from BEA. These had originally been awarded to British Eagle and entailed operating Travel Trust's entire summer charter programme on behalf of its subsidiaries Lunn-Poly and Everyman Travel, the bankrupt airline's former in-house tour operators. These contracts provided additional work for four Dan-Air aircraft—two Comets and two One-Elevens. The latter were former American Airlines
American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...
aircraft and the first One-Elevens to join Dan-Air's fleet. The Heathrow scheduling committee's refusal to allow Dan-Air access to British Eagle's former main operating base resulted in Dan-Air opening a base at Luton for the Lunn-Poly/Everyman flying programmes from London. In addition to the 1969 summer programme, Travel Trust also awarded Dan-Air a "time charter
Time Charter (6 April 1979 – 7 July 2005) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won several major middle-distance races between 1982 and 1984. After winning twice as a two-year-old in 1981, she deve ...
" contract for the following three years (1970–1972).
This in turn resulted in Dan-Air acquiring two further One-Elevens that had originally been operated by British Eagle.[''Airliner World (The Last of Dan-Air's Comets – Dan-Air and the Comet)'', Key Publishing, Stamford, UK, November 2010, p. 70]
In addition to the two former British Eagle One-Eleven 300s Dan-Air acquired from Kuwait Finance to complement the ex-American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
pair of 400 series as well as two former BOAC Comet 4s that were fully employed on the Lunn-Poly/Everyman charters, the other jet aircraft the failed carrier had operated/ordered found new homes relatively quickly. In early 1969, Laker Airways leased the former Qantas Boeing 707-138Bs from Kleinwort Benson for Bermudan $8,500 a month to replace Britannias on a new series of transatlantic affinity group charter flights. Two years later, Laker Airways also acquired a One-Eleven 300 from Bahamas Airways that had originally been delivered to British Eagle. BOAC purchased for £4 million the 707-365C British Eagle had leased from Kleinwort Benson (subsequently subleased to MEA). Caledonian acquired the 707-365C that had originally been ordered by British Eagle and delivered to Airlift International in February 1967.
Fleet
The following aircraft types formed part of the fleet during Eagle's 20 years of operation:
* Airspeed Consul
*Auster Autocrat
The Auster J/1 Autocrat was a 1940s British single-engined three-seat high-wing touring monoplane built by Auster Aircraft Limited at Rearsby, Leicestershire.
History
As the end of the Second World War approached, the designers at Taylorcraft ...
*Avro Anson
The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) ...
*Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stir ...
– one loaned to Eagle by Ministry for photographic work, a second Lancaster was purchased for spares for the Yorks.
*Avro Lincoln
The Avro Type 694 Lincoln is a British four-engined heavy bomber, which first flew on 9 June 1944. Developed from the Avro Lancaster, the first Lincoln variants were initially known as the Lancaster IV and V; these were renamed Lincoln I and I ...
*Avro York
The Avro York was a British transport aircraft developed by Avro during the Second World War. The design was derived from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, several sections of the York and Lancaster being identical. Due to the importance of La ...
* Avro 748
*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 ...
*Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 2 ...
*Bristol Britannia
The Bristol Type 175 Britannia is a retired British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the Commonwealth. During development two prototypes were lost and the turboprop engines proved ...
*Bristol Freighter
The Bristol Type 170 Freighter is a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner. Its best known use was as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively s ...
*de Havilland Dove
The de Havilland DH.104 Dove is a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. The design, which was a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane, came about from the Brabazon Committee report which, ...
*de Havilland Dragon Rapide
The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its rel ...
*de Havilland Heron
The de Havilland DH.114 Heron is a small propeller-driven British airliner that first flew on 10 May 1950. It was a development of the twin-engine de Havilland Dove, with a stretched fuselage and two more engines. It was designed as a rugg ...
*Douglas C-54 Skymaster
The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian a ...
* Douglas Dakota
*Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with t ...
* Handley Page Halifax
*Miles Gemini
The Miles M.65 Gemini was a British twin-engined four-seat touring aircraft designed and built by Miles Aircraft at Woodley Aerodrome. It was the last Miles aircraft to be produced in quantity.
Development of the Gemini was conducted at a rapi ...
* Miles Hawk Trainer
* Percival Proctor
*Vickers Valetta
The Vickers Valetta is a twin-engine military transport aircraft developed and produced by the British manufacturing company Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. Developed from the Vickers VC.1 Viking compact civil airliner, it was an all-metal mid-wing m ...
*Vickers Viking
The Vickers Viking was a British single-engine amphibious aircraft designed for military use shortly after World War I. Later versions of the aircraft were known as the Vickers Vulture and Vickers Vanellus.
Design and development
Resear ...
*Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner.
The Vi ...
Fleet in 1950
In August 1950, Eagle Aviation's fleet comprised five aircraft.
Fleet in 1958
In April 1958, Eagle Airways's fleet comprised 19 aircraft.
Fleet in 1962
In April 1962, Cunard Eagle's had a fleet of 12 aircraft and employed 1,100 people.
Fleet in 1964
In April 1964, British Eagle's fleet comprised 15 aircraft and 940 people were employed.
Fleet in 1968
In April 1968, British Eagle's fleet comprised 23 aircraft and 2,500 people were employed.
Accidents and incidents
During its 20-year history the airline suffered five fatal and five non-fatal accidents.
* On 25 November 1950, an Eagle Aviation Handley Page Halifax C.8 (registration G-AIAP) operating under contract to BOAC and bound for Singapore crashed on takeoff from Calcutta Dum Dum Airport, killing two of the six crew members in the post-crash fire that destroyed the aircraft and its cargo.
* On the night of 1 May 1957, an Eagle Vickers Viking crashed at Blackbushe. It was operating a trooping flight to Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
under contract to the War Office. While returning to the airport to attempt an emergency landing
An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or involving a sudden need for a passenger or crew on board to term ...
two minutes after takeoff, its left wing tip struck the ground at Star Hill, from the runway threshold. This caused the aircraft to crash in an inverted position in a wood and catch fire. The crash and subsequent fire killed 34 of the aircraft's 35 occupants. Accident investigators established the probable cause of the accident as the failure by the captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
to maintain a safe altitude and airspeed when approaching to land on one engine after the reported failure of the port engine for undetermined reasons.
* On 9 August 1961, a Cunard Eagle Vickers 610 Viking 3B (registration: G-AHPM), named ''Lord Rodney'' and operating a non-scheduled passenger service originating at London Heathrow crashed near Stavanger
Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...
, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
on approach to the city's Sola Airport resulting in the deaths of all 39 on board (3 crew members and 34 schoolboys from The Archbishop Lanfranc School
The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy is a coeducational secondary school located in the Thornton Heath area of Croydon, South London, named after Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070 to 1089.
History
The school was founded in 1931 as a boys ...
in Thornton Heath
Thornton Heath is a district of Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is around north of the town of Croydon, and south of Charing Cross. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Thornton Heath was in the Co ...
, London, plus two members of the school's staff). The Norwegian accident report concluded that the pilot was off-course for unknown reasons. The aircraft crashed on Holteheia, a steep hill, approximately high and about north of the airport at about 16.23 hours.
* On 29 February 1964, Bristol 175 Britannia 312 registration: G-AOVO operating flight EG 802/6, a scheduled service from London Heathrow to Innsbruck, hit the steep eastern flank of the Glungezer mountain at an altitude of while making final approach
In aeronautics, the final approach (also called the final leg and final approach leg) is the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing, when the aircraft is lined up with the runway and descending for landing.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of ...
through cloud to Innsbruck Kranebitten Airport. The impact and subsequent avalanche killed all eight crew and 75 passengers on board. This was the airline's worst accident. The primary cause was the fatal decision to descend below the minimum safe altitude.
* On 20 April 1967, a British Eagle Bristol 175 Britannia 308F (registration: G-ANCG) operating a non-scheduled passenger service from London Heathrow to Kuwait made an emergency landing at RAF Manston
Royal Air Force Manston or more simply RAF Manston is a former Royal Air Force station located in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site was split between a commercial airport Kent International Airpo ...
after the flightdeck crew experienced problems locking down the aircraft's retracted undercarriage following takeoff from Heathrow. There were no fatalities among the 65 occupants (eleven crew and 54 passengers). Accident investigators established that the undercarriage's failure to lock down was caused by a loss of hydraulic fluid
A hydraulic fluid or hydraulic liquid is the medium by which power is transferred in hydraulic machinery. Common hydraulic fluids are based on mineral oil or water. Examples of equipment that might use hydraulic fluids are excavators and backhoe ...
from both the main and emergency systems. The hydraulic lines had been broken by the incorrect retraction sequence of the port bogie, itself caused by incorrect setup of a replaced sequence valve.
* On 9 August 1968, a British Eagle Vickers Viscount 739A (registration: G-ATFN) operating a scheduled service from London Heathrow to Innsbruck crashed in West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
on the Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
—Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
highway near Langenbrück in a slightly nose-down attitude
Attitude may refer to:
Philosophy and psychology
* Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value
* Metaphysics of presence
* Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a propo ...
. The aircraft broke up upon impact killing all 48 occupants (four crew, 44 passengers). Accident investigators established an electrical systems failure as the accident's probable cause. This meant that during the subsequent descent vital instruments for indicating the flight attitude showed increasingly incorrect readings resulting in loss of control.
See also
* 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
...
Notes and citations
;Notes
;Citations
References
*
*
*
*
*"Gone but not forgotten... British Eagle"
Aircraft
Vol 42, No 10, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, October 2009
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
''Flight International'', 18 April 1968
' Flight International'', 18 April 1968
''Flight International'', 1 June 1967
''Flight International'', 7 March 1968
Editorial, ''Flight International'', 14 November 1968
''Flight International'', 14 November 1968
''Flight International'', 14 November 1968
''Flight International'', 28 November 1968
British Eagle International Airlines at the Aviation Safety Network Database
britisheagle.net
{{Airlines of the United Kingdom
Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom
Airlines established in 1948
Airlines disestablished in 1968