Trek Airways was an airline based in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

that operated from August 1953 until April 1994. Trek Airways Boeing 747SP Krier

History

Founded in 1953 by retired German Generalmajor Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin (1904–1997), Trek Airways was the only South African airline apart from SAA to fly international services. At the beginning, flights were operated from

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 ...

to South Africa with one over-night stop. The aircraft used at the time was the

Vickers VC.1 Viking The Vickers VC.1 Viking is a British twin-engine short-range airliner derived from the Vickers Wellington bomber and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey. After the Second World War, the Viking was a ...

. Since the Viking did not have the range for the operations, they were replaced by the

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 1960s ...

and

Lockheed L-749A Constellation The Lockheed L-749 Constellation is the first Lockheed Constellation to regularly cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop. Although similar in appearance to the L-649 before it, the L-749 had a larger fuel capacity, strengthened landing gear, and even ...

. Later on it operated the

Lockheed L-1649 Starliner The Lockheed L-1649 Starliner was the last model of the Lockheed Constellation line of airliners. Powered by four Wright R-3350 TurboCompound engines, it was built at Lockheed's Burbank, California plant from 1956 to 1958. Design and develop ...

. Trek operated from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

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 ...

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

with two or three intermediate stops. In 1964 an arrangement with

Luxair Luxair, legally ''Luxair S.A., Société Luxembourgeoise de Navigation Aérienne'', is the flag carrier airline of Luxembourg with its headquarters and hub at Luxembourg Airport. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Europe, North Af ...

was made whereby Luxair would carry connecting passengers to other European airports. It was in 1968 that the first

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, je ...

was used when a

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 20, ...

was introduced, but with the embargo of South African registered aircraft due to

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, Trek had to suspend flights for a period of time. Those operations were re-established in 1991 and once again a co-operation with Luxair was established whereby Trek used a Luxair/Luxavia

Boeing 747SP The Boeing 747SP (for ''Special Performance'') is a shortened version of the Boeing 747 wide-body airliner, designed for a longer range. Boeing needed a smaller aircraft to compete with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar t ...

painted in the old Trek color scheme. It was also during this time that Trek founded a subsidiary called Flitestar using

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

and ATR-72 aircraft. In 1991, politics changed again and the South African Government deregulated its aviation policy. Trek Airways applied for and was granted a license for a South African domestic service, in direct competition to SAA. Flitestar was born operating Airbus A320s. On 11 April 1994, Trek ceased all operations.Hengi,

Fleet details

* Boeing 747-SP

Bibliography

* William Buckland "Paddy" Rorke: ''Trek Airways – A South African Adventure'', Athena Press, 2007

References

External links

TimeTableImagesTrek photos at AirnersNetDC-4 accident no fatalitiesTrek Airways website in South Africa
{{Authority control Defunct airlines of South Africa Airlines established in 1953 Airlines disestablished in 1994 1953 establishments in South Africa 1994 disestablishments in South Africa