British Eagle
Encyclopedia
British Eagle International Airlines was a major British
independentindependent from government-owned corporation
s airline that operated from 1948 to 1968.
Founded as Eagle Aviation, it was originally based at Aldermaston
before moving to Luton
(1950), Blackbushe
(1952) and, eventually, London Heathrow
(1960). For most of its existence, the company's head office was located in Central London
.
Eagle Aviation began operations in 1948 with two converted Handley Page Halifax
es used for cargo operations. The same year, the fledgling airline joined the Berlin Airlift
.
Trooping flights commenced in 1951.
Operations moved to Blackbushe Airport
in 1952, followed a year later by the launch of secondary scheduled services in association with British European Airways
(BEA), from whom Eagle had purchased a large fleet of Vickers Viking
s.
Package holiday
s to Italy
and Spain
were offered from 1954, in association with in-house tour operator
Sir Henry Lunn Ltd
.
Eagle became a member of the International Air Transport Association
(IATA) in 1957, the year it formed its first overseas subsidiary to operate scheduled services between Bermuda
and New York
.
Eagle's acquisition of three Douglas DC-6
s in 1958 marked the first time it had been permitted to import aircraft. Low-fare scheduled services between Bermuda and New York launched in earnest later that year. These were followed by through-plane services between Bermuda and London
using the recently imported DC-6
s in an all-economy
configuration.
Operations moved to Heathrow
in 1960 as a result of Blackbushe's closure to commercial traffic.
The Cunard Steamship Co's acquisition of a controlling stake in Eagle in March 1960 resulted in the creation of a joint venture company trading as Cunard Eagle, with Eagle founder Harold Bamberg being appointed as aviation director.
The new majority shareholder's support enabled Cunard Eagle to order two new Boeing 707
jet aircraft
in May 1961. The following month, the airline became the first UK independent to be licensed as a scheduled carrier between Heathrow and John F. Kennedy Airport
(JFK) in New York. However, a subsequent appeal to the Aviation Minister
against this decision by British Overseas Airways Corporation
(BOAC) resulted in revocation of Cunard Eagle's transatlantic
scheduled licence in November.
Pure jet
operations began on 27 March 1962, the first by a British independent airline.
The establishment of BOAC-Cunard, a new £
30m company the Cunard Steamship Co jointly owned with BOAC, in June 1962 absorbed Cunard Eagle's new jet fleet and scheduled long-haul routes, resulting in cessation of the independent's jet operations.
Harold Bamberg's disenchantment with Cunard brought about his resignation from the BOAC-Cunard board
in 1963, followed by a decision to regain control of Eagle by buying back Cunard's majority shareholding in the airline. This led to reconstitution of the company as British Eagle International Airlines the same year.
Following the airline's relaunch as an independent entity, scheduled services commenced between Heathrow and Glasgow
in November 1963. This was the first time a UK independent airline was permitted to compete with BEA on a domestic trunk route.
British Eagle further expanded its UK domestic scheduled network when it took over Starways
and its Liverpool
routes on 31 December 1963.
Poor load factors and arbitrary frequency restrictions resulted in British Eagle's temporary suspension of all domestic scheduled flights in February 1965.
Limited resumption of UK domestic scheduled services on Heathrow—Glasgow in July 1965 was followed by the relaunch of commercial jet operations between Heathrow and Glasgow
on 9 May 1966.
Successful completion of the repurchase of Cunard's shareholding
at the beginning of 1967 left Harold Bamberg solely in charge of British Eagle.
An unsuccessful bid for transatlantic scheduled traffic rights in 1967-68 was followed by the airline's resumption of long-haul jet operations to the Caribbean
on a charter basis in February 1968, the highlight of its 20th year of existence.
Complaints from BOAC led to the revocation of British Eagle's Caribbean charter licence at the end of the 1968 summer season.
The unexpected loss of the Caribbean licence, the end of trooping and migrant
contracts, a decline in overseas travel as a result of the devaluation of sterling
and stricter exchange control
s as well as the poor state of the economy in general, and bad decisions by senior management
undermined the airline's trading position and confidence in its future. Subsequent withdrawal of its main backer's support forced the cessation of operations on 6 November 1968, followed by voluntray liquidation two days later.
pilot, formed the airline on 14 April 1948 with a nominal capital of £100 as Eagle Aviation Ltd. The initial fleet comprised two wartime Handley Page Halifax bombers converted for freighting fruit and vegetables. The first aircraft to enter service was a converted Halifax
Mk 8 bearing the registration G-AJBL. That aircraft operated Eagle's first commercial flight, carrying a cargo of cherries from Verona
to Bovingdon
. It subsequently transported fruit from Italy and Spain for the Covent Garden
merchants. It was joined by a second, registered G-ALEF and christened Red Eagle. Both aircraft saw extensive service during the Berlin Airlift along with two subsequently acquired examples. The airline acquired Air Freight Ltd with three more Halifaxes later the same year. Eagle acquired three Avro York
aircraft in late 1949, followed by eight others, and used these until early 1955 for both passenger and freight charters.
By 1951, Eagle Aviation had won its first regular Government trooping contracts, including the first regular contract awarded by the War Office
for trooping flights between the UK
and Singapore
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.
. Following Eagle's decision to sell the York
s to rival UK independent Skyways for £160,000, the airline expanded from charter work into scheduled services from its new base at Blackbushe Airport, using Vickers Vikings. The airline, 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
(via Munich
), followed by London—Aalborg
and London—Gothenburg
. It also began operating domestic flights within the UK and additional international services to secondary western Europe
an destinations. Eagle's expansion was supported by 22 Vickers Vikings that had been retained from an earlier purchase of 37 former BEA examples.
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
.
Thomas Cook's refusal to accept Eagle's offer to take on the role of the airline's tour operator resulted in acquisition of the Sir Henry Lunn Ltd travel agency chain.later combined with the Polytechnic Touring Association to form Lunn Poly
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.whereby an airline owns or is owned by a tour operator or both are part of an integrated travel group
Eagle's first inclusive tour (IT) flights operated to destinations in Italy and Spain (including Majorca). To make its packages more affordable and increase sales, Lunn began offering hire purchase
facilities.
By 1957, the summer IT programme included for the first time 15-day, all-inclusive packages to Spain's Costa Brava
. These combined flights to Perpignan
in Southern France
with onward coach
connections, with prices starting from £32.50 for travel on Mondays (£36 for weekend travel).
Nineteen fifty-seven was als the year Eagle joined IATA.
scheduled services between Bermuda and New York, using Viscount
800 turboprop
aircraft. Within a year of launching its first transatlantic scheduled route, the airline's North Atlantic
scheduled operation extended to Montreal
, Baltimore
, Washington
and Nassau
.
d 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
models — could be paid for in dollars. 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
-surplus, foreign-built military transport planes that had served with the RAF Transport Command
— 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
's scarce US dollar-denominated foreign exchange reserves
as possible.
and Eastern Air Lines
. Other regional services in the western hemisphere
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 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
-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
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-7
C 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
, Gibraltar
, Malta
, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Caribbean as well as East
and West Africa
. 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
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.
on what it claimed to be Britain's biggest network of independent-operated scheduled services comprising 12 routes to Europe
by 1959. By the late 1950s, all aircraft carried the Eagle Airways name.
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
(BUA) — its principal contemporary independent competitor — had successfully lobbied
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
— 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.
In March 1960, the Cunard Steamship Company bought a 60% shareholding for £30m
, resulting in a change of name to Cunard Eagle Airways. The support from this new shareholder
enabled Cunard Eagle to become the first British independent airline to operate pure jet airliner
s, as a result of a £6m order for two new Boeing 707-420 passenger aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Conway
engines. The airline had placed this order (including an option on a third aircraft) in expectation of being granted traffic rights for transatlantic scheduled services.
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
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 routes linking the UK with its remaining colonies
. Despite opposition from IATA, UK 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
s featuring a 98-seat, three-class layout comprising 14 first-class
, 66 economy
and 18 Skycoach seats (British residents only). Like its predecessors, these were Bermuda
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.
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) 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
, Glasgow Prestwick, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston
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
, Montreal, Detroit and Chicago
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.
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 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 countered Eagle's move to establish itself as a full-fledged scheduled transatlantic competitor on its Heathrow—JFK flagship route by forming BOAC-Cunard as a new £30m joint venture
with 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 leased 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.
Although Bamberg was appointed to the board of BOAC-Cunard, he became disenchanted with Cunard's corporate culture
. He resigned from BOAC-Cunard's board in 1963 while continuing as managing director 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.
on 1 March). It had a fully paid-up share capital of £1,000,000. Initial equipment included Vickers Viscount
and Bristol Britannia turboprop planes. From 16 September, a new livery
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.
and Belfast
the next day. This was the first time an independent airline was allowed to compete with the corporation
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
, Australia
and Japan
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 Vanguard
s 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
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.
s and three DC-3
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 same day, the new airline combine assumed the former Starways operation between Liverpool and Glasgow. The remaining Starways routes were taken over by April 1. 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
.
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 employed (£4.9m), after allowing for depreciation
and other charges. This set of figures marked the first profitable period of operation following reconstitution.
, Edinburgh
and Belfast
, 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
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
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.
s including a further three options, heralding Eagle's comeback as a jet operator.
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
and Australia. To avoid paying the 14% tax the UK Government had imposed on imported, new foreign aircraft to protect competing British models, the airline needed to persuade the Board of Trade
(BOT) that there was no equivalent home-grown alternative. It also cited the BOT's earlier decision to approve BOAC's application for an import duty
waiver
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 and range
. This made the 707 a more attractive aircraft for the kind of charter operations envisaged.
— and 10 turboprop planes. The former were to comprise two Boeing 747
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.
4B revenue service and a British Eagle One-Eleven proving flight from Heathrow on 2 May 1966 coincided with the opening of the city's new Abbotsinch Airport
. 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 Zambian Government
, 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
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.
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.
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.
between Israel
and its Arab neighbours caused a temporary spike in oil prices while both the military coup in Greece
and new Spanish access restrictions
to Gibraltar
resulted in fewer people visiting these places. In addition, the value of sterling
dropped by 14.7%, as a result of many Arab countries
switching their sterling balances in London to dollars and moving them to Zürich
. 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).
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
/San Francisco and Toronto/Montreal with Chicago as an intermediate stop. In addition, the airline sought licences for a London—Bermuda—Nassau—Kingston
/Montego Bay
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 US eastern seaboard
, as well as for a mixed passenger/cargo service between London and Hong Kong
. 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
n routes via Lima
and the Pacific
to Australasia
, hoping to convert this into a supersonic
operation by the early 1970s. Caledonian sought transatlantic scheduled services linking its main operating bases at Gatwick and Prestwick in the UK with a number of destinations in the US and Canada, with particular emphasis on the US West Coast
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
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
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
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
(SST) aircraft for their proposed services and that these airlines had insufficient economies of scale 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 undercapitalise
d for its existing operations.
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
. This was not going to be the case for at least another year as the aircraft had been wet-leased to Middle East Airlines
(MEA) as of March 1. 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.
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. The latter aircraft were used to operate a new Caribbean charter programme. The arrival at Nassau
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
and Barbados
.
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
government, and British Aircraft Corporation
(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
, Newquay
, Luxembourg
, Dinard
, La Baule, Lourdes
, Perpignan, Gerona
, Palma de Mallorca
, Ibiza
, Pisa
, Rimini
, Stuttgart
, Innsbruck
, Djerba
and Tunis
. 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.
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
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
n migrant contracts in March, and general economic problems.
and executive
level, the end of the trooping and migrant contracts and economic difficulties made British Eagle an increasingly unviable business. Moreover, the ATLB and some industry peers regarded the firm as seriously undercapitalised and saw this as a major cause of financial instability. Management's refusal to contemplate a fundamental change in the way the business was run, including a change in the top management itself, furthermore undermined the confidence of Hambros Bank
, the airline's main creditor, in its prospects. These circumstances led to the withdrawal of Hambros's support. 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 £5½m; Rolls-Royce
and Esso
, 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
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
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" contract for the following three years (1970—72). This in turn resulted in Dan-Air acquiring two further One-Elevens that had originally been operated by British Eagle.
In addition to the two former British Eagle One-Eleven 300s Dan-Air acquired from Kuwait Finance to complement the ex-American
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 £4m 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.
The following aircraft types formed part of the fleet during Eagle's 20 years of operation:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
independentindependent from government-owned corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
s airline that operated from 1948 to 1968.
Founded as Eagle Aviation, it was originally based at Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston was a World War II airfield. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Eighth and Ninth Air Force as a troop carrier group base, and was assigned USAAF station No 467.-Origins:...
before moving to Luton
London Luton Airport
London Luton Airport is an international airport located east of the town centre in the Borough of Luton in Bedfordshire, England and is north of Central London. The airport is from Junction 10a of the M1 motorway...
(1950), Blackbushe
Blackbushe Airport
Blackbushe Airport , in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire, comprises an airfield, much reduced in size since its heyday, a British Car Auctions site, a kart track owned by Camberley Kart Club, and a small business park...
(1952) and, eventually, London Heathrow
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
(1960). For most of its existence, the company's head office was located in Central London
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
.
Eagle Aviation began operations in 1948 with two converted Handley Page Halifax
Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...
es used for cargo operations. The same year, the fledgling airline joined the Berlin Airlift
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...
.
Trooping flights commenced in 1951.
Operations moved to Blackbushe Airport
Blackbushe Airport
Blackbushe Airport , in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire, comprises an airfield, much reduced in size since its heyday, a British Car Auctions site, a kart track owned by Camberley Kart Club, and a small business park...
in 1952, followed a year later by the launch of secondary scheduled services in association with British European Airways
British European Airways
British European Airways or British European Airways Corporation was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. The airline operated European and North African routes from airports around the United Kingdom...
(BEA), from whom Eagle had purchased a large fleet of Vickers Viking
Vickers VC.1 Viking
The Vickers VC.1 Viking was 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. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines...
s.
Package holiday
Package holiday
A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday. Transport can be via charter airline to a foreign country...
s to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
were offered from 1954, in association with in-house tour operator
Tour operator
A tour operator typically combines tour and travel components to create a holiday. The most common example of a tour operator's product would be a flight on a charter airline plus a transfer from the airport to a hotel and the services of a local representative, all for one price. Niche tour...
Sir Henry Lunn Ltd
Henry Simpson Lunn
Sir Henry Simpson Lunn was an English humanitarian and religious figure, and also founder of Lunn Poly, one of the UK's largest travel companies....
.
Eagle became a member of the International Air Transport Association
International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered. The executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in SwitzerlandIATA's mission is to...
(IATA) in 1957, the year it formed its first overseas subsidiary to operate scheduled services between Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
and New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Eagle's acquisition of three Douglas DC-6
Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport 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 the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range...
s in 1958 marked the first time it had been permitted to import aircraft. Low-fare scheduled services between Bermuda and New York launched in earnest later that year. These were followed by through-plane services between Bermuda and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
using the recently imported DC-6
Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport 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 the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range...
s in an all-economy
Economy class
__FORCETOC__Economy class, also called coach class , steerage, or standard class, is the lowest class of seating in air travel, rail travel, and sometimes ferry or maritime travel....
configuration.
Operations moved to Heathrow
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
in 1960 as a result of Blackbushe's closure to commercial traffic.
The Cunard Steamship Co's acquisition of a controlling stake in Eagle in March 1960 resulted in the creation of a joint venture company trading as Cunard Eagle, with Eagle founder Harold Bamberg being appointed as aviation director.
The new majority shareholder's support enabled Cunard Eagle to order two new Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
jet aircraft
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
in May 1961. The following month, the airline became the first UK independent to be licensed as a scheduled carrier between Heathrow and John F. Kennedy Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
(JFK) in New York. However, a subsequent appeal to the Aviation Minister
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
against this decision by British Overseas Airways Corporation
British Overseas Airways Corporation
The British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd...
(BOAC) resulted in revocation of Cunard Eagle's transatlantic
Transatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...
scheduled licence in November.
Pure jet
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
operations began on 27 March 1962, the first by a British independent airline.
The establishment of BOAC-Cunard, a new £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
30m company the Cunard Steamship Co jointly owned with BOAC, in June 1962 absorbed Cunard Eagle's new jet fleet and scheduled long-haul routes, resulting in cessation of the independent's jet operations.
Harold Bamberg's disenchantment with Cunard brought about his resignation from the BOAC-Cunard board
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
in 1963, followed by a decision to regain control of Eagle by buying back Cunard's majority shareholding in the airline. This led to reconstitution of the company as British Eagle International Airlines the same year.
Following the airline's relaunch as an independent entity, scheduled services commenced between Heathrow and Glasgow
Renfrew Airport
Renfrew Airport was the former domestic airport serving the city of Glasgow until it was decommissioned in 1966.It was located in the Newmains area of Renfrew, approximately 2 kilometres east of Abbotsinch Airfield which would eventually replace it...
in November 1963. This was the first time a UK independent airline was permitted to compete with BEA on a domestic trunk route.
British Eagle further expanded its UK domestic scheduled network when it took over Starways
Starways
Starways was a British airline from 1948 to 1963.-History:The airline was formed in 1948 to undertake freight and passenger charters from Liverpool Airport...
and its Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
routes on 31 December 1963.
Poor load factors and arbitrary frequency restrictions resulted in British Eagle's temporary suspension of all domestic scheduled flights in February 1965.
Limited resumption of UK domestic scheduled services on Heathrow—Glasgow in July 1965 was followed by the relaunch of commercial jet operations between Heathrow and Glasgow
Glasgow International Airport
Glasgow International Airport is an international airport in Scotland, located west of Glasgow city centre, near the towns of Paisley and Renfrew in Renfrewshire...
on 9 May 1966.
Successful completion of the repurchase of Cunard's shareholding
Share repurchase
Stock repurchase is the reacquisition by a company of its own stock. In some countries, including the U.S. and the UK, a corporation can repurchase its own stock by distributing cash to existing shareholders in exchange for a fraction of the company's outstanding equity; that is, cash is exchanged...
at the beginning of 1967 left Harold Bamberg solely in charge of British Eagle.
An unsuccessful bid for transatlantic scheduled traffic rights in 1967-68 was followed by the airline's resumption of long-haul jet operations to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
on a charter basis in February 1968, the highlight of its 20th year of existence.
Complaints from BOAC led to the revocation of British Eagle's Caribbean charter licence at the end of the 1968 summer season.
The unexpected loss of the Caribbean licence, the end of trooping and migrant
Migrant
Migrant may refer to:*Immigration and emigration, the migration of humans*Bird migration*Migrant worker*Migrant literature...
contracts, a decline in overseas travel as a result of the devaluation of sterling
Sterling Area
The sterling area came into existence at the outbreak of World War II. It was a wartime emergency measure which involved cooperation in exchange control matters between a group of countries, which at the time were mostly dominions and colonies of the British Empire...
and stricter exchange control
Foreign exchange controls
Foreign exchange controls are various forms of controls imposed by a government on the purchase/sale of foreign currencies by residents or on the purchase/sale of local currency by nonresidents.Common foreign exchange controls include:...
s as well as the poor state of the economy in general, and bad decisions by senior management
Senior management
Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...
undermined the airline's trading position and confidence in its future. Subsequent withdrawal of its main backer's support forced the cessation of operations on 6 November 1968, followed by voluntray liquidation two days later.
Formation and early operations
Harold Bamberg, a former wartimeWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
pilot, formed the airline on 14 April 1948 with a nominal capital of £100 as Eagle Aviation Ltd. The initial fleet comprised two wartime Handley Page Halifax bombers converted for freighting fruit and vegetables. The first aircraft to enter service was a converted Halifax
Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...
Mk 8 bearing the registration G-AJBL. That aircraft operated Eagle's first commercial flight, carrying a cargo of cherries from Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
to Bovingdon
RAF Bovingdon
RAF Bovingdon was a Royal Air Force station, located to the west of Bovingdon, two and a half miles south of Hemel Hempstead and two and a half miles south east of Berkhamsted, in Hertfordshire, UK....
. It subsequently transported fruit from Italy and Spain for the Covent Garden
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 site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
merchants. It was joined by a second, registered G-ALEF and christened Red Eagle. Both aircraft saw extensive service during the Berlin Airlift along with two subsequently acquired examples. The airline acquired Air Freight Ltd with three more Halifaxes later the same year. Eagle acquired three Avro York
Avro York
The Avro York was a British transport aircraft that was derived from the Second World War Lancaster heavy bomber, and used in both military and airliner roles between 1943 and 1964.-Design and development:...
aircraft in late 1949, followed by eight others, and used these until early 1955 for both passenger and freight charters.
By 1951, Eagle Aviation had won its first regular Government trooping contracts, including the first regular contract awarded by the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
for trooping flights between the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
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.
Start of scheduled operations
During 1953, Eagle Aviation's steadily growing passenger charter operations included for the first time aerial cruises around the MediterraneanMediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. Following Eagle's decision to sell the York
Avro York
The Avro York was a British transport aircraft that was derived from the Second World War Lancaster heavy bomber, and used in both military and airliner roles between 1943 and 1964.-Design and development:...
s to rival UK independent Skyways for £160,000, the airline expanded from charter work into scheduled services from its new base at Blackbushe Airport, using Vickers Vikings. The airline, 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
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
(via Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
), followed by London—Aalborg
Aalborg
-Transport:On the north side of the Limfjord is Nørresundby, which is connected to Aalborg by a road bridge Limfjordsbroen, an iron railway bridge Jernbanebroen over Limfjorden, as well as a motorway tunnel running under the Limfjord Limfjordstunnelen....
and London—Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
. It also began operating domestic flights within the UK and additional international services to secondary western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
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 AviationMinistry of Aviation
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
Capacity utilization
Capacity utilization is a concept in economics and managerial accounting which refers to the extent to which an enterprise or a nation actually uses its installed productive capacity...
.
Thomas Cook's refusal to accept Eagle's offer to take on the role of the airline's tour operator resulted in acquisition of the Sir Henry Lunn Ltd travel agency chain.later combined with the Polytechnic Touring Association to form Lunn Poly
Lunn Poly
Lunn Poly was the largest chain of travel agents in the United Kingdom. The company originated from two successful travel agencies which had been established in 1890s; The Polytechnic Touring Association and Sir Henry Lunn Travel. Both firms were acquired in the 1950s by the British Eagle airline...
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.whereby an airline owns or is owned by a tour operator or both are part of an integrated travel group
Eagle's first inclusive tour (IT) flights operated to destinations in Italy and Spain (including Majorca). To make its packages more affordable and increase sales, Lunn began offering hire purchase
Hire purchase
Hire purchase is the legal term for a contract, in this persons usually agree to pay for goods in parts or a percentage at a time. It was developed in the United Kingdom and can now be found in China, Japan, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Australia, Jamaica and New Zealand. It is also called...
facilities.
By 1957, the summer IT programme included for the first time 15-day, all-inclusive packages to Spain's Costa Brava
Costa Brava
The Costa Brava is a coastal region of northeastern Catalonia, Spain, in the comarques of Alt Empordà, Baix Empordà and Selva, in the province of Girona. Costa is the Catalan and Spanish word for 'coast', and Brava means 'rugged' or 'wild'...
. These combined flights to Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
in Southern France
Southern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
with onward coach
Coach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
connections, with prices starting from £32.50 for travel on Mondays (£36 for weekend travel).
Nineteen fifty-seven was als the year Eagle joined IATA.
Branching out
On 26 July 1957, Eagle formed an overseas subsidiary, named Eagle Airways (Bermuda), in preparation for the launch of transatlanticTransatlantic flight
Transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. A transatlantic flight may proceed east-to-west, originating in Europe or Africa and terminating in North America or South America, or it may go in the reverse direction, west-to-east...
scheduled services between Bermuda and New York, using Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
800 turboprop
Turboprop
A turboprop engine is a type of turbine engine which drives an aircraft propeller using a reduction gear.The gas turbine is designed specifically for this application, with almost all of its output being used to drive the propeller...
aircraft. Within a year of launching its first transatlantic scheduled route, the airline's North Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
scheduled operation extended to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and Nassau
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
.
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 pressuriseCabin pressurization
Cabin pressurization is the pumping of compressed air into an aircraft cabin to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for crew and passengers when flying at altitude.-Need for cabin pressurization:...
d aircraft. They were also its first imported aircraft (the initial batch of three had been sourced from the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
). 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
models — could be paid for in dollars. The lack of access to foreign exchange
Foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange market is a global, worldwide decentralized financial market for trading currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends...
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
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-surplus, foreign-built military transport planes that had served with the RAF Transport Command
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.-History:...
— 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
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's scarce US dollar-denominated foreign exchange reserves
Foreign exchange reserves
Foreign-exchange reserves in a strict sense are 'only' the foreign currency deposits and bonds held by central banks and monetary authorities. However, the term in popular usage commonly includes foreign exchange and gold, Special Drawing Rights and International Monetary Fund reserve positions...
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 AmPan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
and Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...
. Other regional services in the western hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
followed. Stimulated by low fares, traffic volumes on the Nassau—Miami and Bermuda—JFK
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
sectors grew such that it was possible to run a four-times-a-day Viscount 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
Economy class
__FORCETOC__Economy class, also called coach class , steerage, or standard class, is the lowest class of seating in air travel, rail travel, and sometimes ferry or maritime travel....
-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
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
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-7
Douglas DC-7
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...
C 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
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, Singapore, the Bahamas, the Caribbean as well as East
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
and West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. 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
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
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.
Breaking even on scheduled operations
Following six years of losses, Eagle managed to break evenBreak-even
Break-even is a point where any difference between plus or minus or equivalent changes side.-In economics:A technique for which identifying the point where the total revenue is just sufficient to cover the total cost...
on what it claimed to be Britain's biggest network of independent-operated scheduled services comprising 12 routes to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
by 1959. By the late 1950s, all aircraft carried the Eagle Airways name.
The early 1960s (1960–1963)
Air Traffic
Air Traffic was a British alternative rock band from Bournemouth. Formed in 2003, the band consists of Chris Wall , David Ryan Jordan , Tom Pritchard and Jim Maddock ....
in 1960, Eagle moved its base to London Heathrow, then simply known as London Airport.
Eagle along with British United Airways
British United Airways
British United Airways 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 wholly private airline based in the United Kingdom at the time...
(BUA) — its principal contemporary independent competitor — had successfully lobbied
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
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
Legal monopoly
A legal monopoly, statutory monopoly, or de jure monopoly is a monopoly that is protected by law from competition. A statutory monopoly may take the form of a government monopoly where the state owns the particular means of production or government-granted monopoly where a private interest is...
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
Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations Scottish charter airline formed in April 1961. It began with a single Douglas DC-7C leased from Sabena. Caledonian grew rapidly over the coming years to become the leading transatlantic "affinity...
— 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.
Cunard Eagle Airways
In March 1960, the Cunard Steamship Company bought a 60% shareholding for £30m
Million
One million or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian millione , from mille, "thousand", plus the augmentative suffix -one.In scientific notation, it is written as or just 106...
, resulting in a change of name to Cunard Eagle Airways. The support from this new shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
enabled Cunard Eagle to become the first British independent airline to operate pure jet airliner
Jet airliner
A jet airliner is an airliner that is powered by jet engines. This term is sometimes contracted to jetliner or jet.In contrast to today's relatively fuel-efficient, turbofan-powered air travel, first generation jet airliner travel was noisy and fuel inefficient...
s, as a result of a £6m order for two new Boeing 707-420 passenger aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Conway
Rolls-Royce Conway
The Rolls-Royce RB.80 Conway was the first by-pass engine in the world to enter service. Development started at Rolls-Royce in the 1940s, but it was used only briefly in the late 1950s and early 1960s before other turbofan designs were introduced that replaced it. The Conway powered versions of...
engines. The airline had placed this order (including an option on a third aircraft) in expectation of being granted traffic rights for transatlantic scheduled services.
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
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
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 routes linking the UK with its remaining colonies
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Despite opposition from IATA, UK 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
Bristol Britannia
The Bristol Type 175 Britannia was a British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire...
s featuring a 98-seat, three-class layout comprising 14 first-class
First class (aviation)
First class is a luxury travel class on some airliners that exceeds business class, premium economy, and economy class. On a passenger jetliner, first class refers to a limited number of seats or cabins located in the front of the aircraft which are notable for their comfort, service, and privacy...
, 66 economy
Economy class
__FORCETOC__Economy class, also called coach class , steerage, or standard class, is the lowest class of seating in air travel, rail travel, and sometimes ferry or maritime travel....
and 18 Skycoach seats (British residents only). Like its predecessors, these were Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
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.
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) to operate a scheduled service on the prime Heathrow — New York JFK route, using Boeing 707 jets and Bristol Britannia
Bristol Britannia
The Bristol Type 175 Britannia was a British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire...
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
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Glasgow Prestwick, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
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
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Montreal, Detroit and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
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
Vickers VC10
The Vickers VC10 is a long-range British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports...
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.
On 27 February 1962, Cunard Eagle took delivery of its first jet aircraft
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
— a Boeing 707-465 bearing the Bermudan registration VR-BBW. Exactly one month later, on 27 March 1962, commercial 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
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 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 route by forming BOAC-Cunard as a new £30m joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
with 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 leased 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.
Although Bamberg was appointed to the board of BOAC-Cunard, he became disenchanted with Cunard's corporate culture
Organizational culture
Organizational culture is defined as “A pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration" that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to...
. He resigned from BOAC-Cunard's board in 1963 while continuing as managing director 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.
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 companyHolding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
on 1 March). It had a fully paid-up share capital of £1,000,000. Initial equipment included Vickers Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
and Bristol Britannia turboprop planes. From 16 September, a new livery
Aircraft livery
Aircraft livery is a paint scheme applied to an aircraft, generally to fuselage, wings, empennage , or jet engines. Most airlines have a standard paint scheme for their aircraft fleet, usually prominently displaying the airline logo or name. From time to time special liveries are introduced, for...
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 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 EdinburghEdinburgh Airport
Edinburgh Airport is located at Turnhouse in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2010, handling just under 8.6 million passengers in that year. It was also the sixth busiest airport in the UK by passengers and the fifth busiest by aircraft movements...
and Belfast
Belfast International Airport
Belfast International Airport is a major airport located northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was formerly known and is still referred to as Aldergrove Airport, after the village of the same name lying immediately to the west of the airport. Belfast International shares its runways with...
the next day. This was the first time an independent airline was allowed to compete with the corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
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
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
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 Vanguard
Vickers Vanguard
The Vickers Type 950 Vanguard was a British short/medium-range turboprop airliner introduced in 1959 by Vickers-Armstrongs, a development of their successful Viscount design with considerably more internal room. The Vanguard was introduced just before the first of the large jet-powered airliners,...
s 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
Wedgwood, strictly speaking Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, is a pottery firm owned by KPS Capital Partners, a private equity company based in New York City, USA. Wedgwood was founded on May 1, 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood and in 1987 merged with Waterford Crystal to create Waterford Wedgwood, an...
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.
Acquisition of Starways
On 31 December 1963, British Eagle took over Liverpool-based Starways. 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-4Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
s and three DC-3
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...
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.
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 ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
. The same day, the new airline combine assumed the former Starways operation between Liverpool and Glasgow. The remaining Starways routes were taken over by April 1. 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 John Lennon Airport
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport serving the city of Liverpool and the North West of England. Formerly known as Speke Airport, RAF Speke, and Liverpool Airport the airport is located within the City of Liverpool adjacent to the estuary of the River Mersey some southeast...
.
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.Return to profitability
British Eagle's financial and traffic results for 1964 were published at the start of 1965. These showed that after writing offWrite-off
The term write-off describes a reduction in recognized value. In accounting terminology, it refers to recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, it refers to a reduction of taxable income as recognition of certain expenses required to produce the income...
losses of up to £350,000 for the development of domestic scheduled services, the airline earned an operating surplus
Operating surplus
Operating surplus is an accounting concept used in national accounts statistics Operating surplus is an accounting concept used in national accounts statistics Operating surplus is an accounting concept used in national accounts statistics (such as United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA)...
of £853,700. The retained net profit amounted to £101,500. This represented 2% of total assets employed (£4.9m), after allowing for depreciation
Depreciation
Depreciation refers to two very different but related concepts:# the decrease in value of assets , and# the allocation of the cost of assets to periods in which the assets are used ....
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 GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, 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
BAC One-Eleven
The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
s from its Gatwick
London Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport is located 3.1 miles north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and south of Central London. Previously known as London Gatwick,In 2010, the name changed from London Gatwick Airport to Gatwick Airport...
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
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
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 £12m and net profit had recovered to £350,000. In addition, Bamberg announced an order for three series 300 One-ElevenBAC One-Eleven
The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
s including a further three options, heralding Eagle's comeback as a jet operator.
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
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
and Australia. To avoid paying the 14% tax the UK Government had imposed on imported, new foreign aircraft to protect competing British models, the airline needed to persuade the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
(BOT) that there was no equivalent home-grown alternative. It also cited the BOT's earlier decision to approve BOAC's application for an import duty
Excise
Excise tax in the United States is a indirect tax on listed items. Excise taxes can be and are made by federal, state and local governments and are far from uniform throughout the United States...
waiver
Waiver
A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.While a waiver is often in writing, sometimes a person's actions can act as a waiver. An example of a written waiver is a disclaimer, which becomes a waiver when accepted...
on two new Boeing 707-336Cs as a precedent. Despite being offered a mixed-traffic version of the Super VC10
Vickers VC10
The Vickers VC10 is a long-range British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports...
and acknowledging that aircraft's superior passenger appeal, British Eagle favoured the 707-320C because of its greater payload and range
Range (aircraft)
The maximal total range is the distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing, as limited by fuel capacity in powered aircraft, or cross-country speed and environmental conditions in unpowered aircraft....
. This made the 707 a more attractive aircraft for the kind of charter operations envisaged.
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 widebodiesWide-body aircraft
A wide-body aircraft is a large airliner with two passenger aisles, also known as a widebody aircraft or twin-aisle aircraft. The typical fuselage diameter is . In the typical wide-body economy cabin, passengers are seated seven to ten abreast, allowing a total capacity of 200 to 850 passengers...
— and 10 turboprop planes. The former were to comprise two Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
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.
Inauguration of Heathrow's first domestic jet schedules
The simultaneous arrival at Glasgow of BEA's first CometDe Havilland Comet
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at the Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, it first flew in 1949 and was a landmark in aeronautical design...
4B revenue service and a British Eagle One-Eleven proving flight from Heathrow on 2 May 1966 coincided with the opening of the city's new Abbotsinch Airport
Glasgow International Airport
Glasgow International Airport is an international airport in Scotland, located west of Glasgow city centre, near the towns of Paisley and Renfrew in Renfrewshire...
. 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 Zambian Government
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, 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
Economy class
__FORCETOC__Economy class, also called coach class , steerage, or standard class, is the lowest class of seating in air travel, rail travel, and sometimes ferry or maritime travel....
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 leases. KLM, Scandinavian Airlines and SwissairSwissair
Swissair AG was the former national airline of Switzerland.It was formed from a merger between Balair and Ad Astra Aero , in 1931...
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 cateringCatering
Catering is the business of providing foodservice at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, public house , or other location.-Mobile catering:A mobile caterer serves food directly from a vehicle or cart that is designed for the purpose...
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
Nineteen sixty-seven was a bad year for the British travel industry. The brief Six-Day WarSix-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and its Arab neighbours caused a temporary spike in oil prices while both the military coup in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and new Spanish access restrictions
History of Gibraltar
The history of Gibraltar portrays how The Rock gained an importance and a reputation far exceeding its size, influencing and shaping the people who came to reside here over the centuries.-Prehistoric:...
to Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
resulted in fewer people visiting these places. In addition, the value of sterling
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
dropped by 14.7%, as a result of many Arab countries
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
switching their sterling balances in London to dollars and moving them to Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
. 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 StanstedLondon Stansted Airport
-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
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 Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
/San Francisco and Toronto/Montreal with Chicago as an intermediate stop. In addition, the airline sought licences for a London—Bermuda—Nassau—Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
/Montego Bay
Montego Bay
Montego Bay is the capital of St. James Parish and the second largest city in Jamaica by area and the fourth by population .It is a tourist destination with duty free shopping, cruise line terminal and the beaches...
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 US eastern seaboard
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
, as well as for a mixed passenger/cargo service between London and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 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
Vickers VC10
The Vickers VC10 is a long-range British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports...
service. It also wanted to extend its existing South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n routes via Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
and the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
to Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
, hoping to convert this into a supersonic
Supersonic aircraft
A supersonic aircraft is designed to exceed the speed of sound in at least some of its normal flight configurations.-Overview:The great majority of supersonic aircraft today are military or experimental aircraft...
operation by the early 1970s. Caledonian sought transatlantic scheduled services linking its main operating bases at Gatwick and Prestwick in the UK with a number of destinations in the US and Canada, with particular emphasis on the US West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
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
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
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 Air Transport Agreement
A bilateral air transport agreement is an agreement which two nations sign to allow international commercial air transport services between their territories....
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
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
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
Wide-body aircraft
A wide-body aircraft is a large airliner with two passenger aisles, also known as a widebody aircraft or twin-aisle aircraft. The typical fuselage diameter is . In the typical wide-body economy cabin, passengers are seated seven to ten abreast, allowing a total capacity of 200 to 850 passengers...
and supersonic transport
Supersonic transport
A supersonic transport is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. The only SSTs to see regular service to date have been Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 with its last ever...
(SST) aircraft for their proposed services and that these airlines had insufficient economies of scale to enable them to compete with BOAC and the American carriers on a level playing field
Level playing field
A level playing field is a concept about fairness, not that each player has an equal chance to succeed, but that they all play by the same set of rules. A metaphorical playing field is said to be level if no external interference affects the ability of the players to compete fairly...
. 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 undercapitalise
Undercapitalization
Under-capitalization refers to any situation where a business cannot acquire the funds they need. An under-capitalized business may be one that cannot afford current operational expenses due to a lack of capital, which can trigger bankruptcy, may be one that is over-exposed to risk, or may be one...
d 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$United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
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
Aircraft livery
Aircraft livery is a paint scheme applied to an aircraft, generally to fuselage, wings, empennage , or jet engines. Most airlines have a standard paint scheme for their aircraft fleet, usually prominently displaying the airline logo or name. From time to time special liveries are introduced, for...
. This was not going to be the case for at least another year as the aircraft had been wet-leased to Middle East Airlines
Middle East Airlines
Middle East Airlines – Air Liban S.A.L. , more commonly known as Middle East Airlines , is the national flag-carrier airline of Lebanon, with its head office in Beirut, near Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport...
(MEA) as of March 1. 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
Lynden Pindling International Airport
- Trivia :During World War II,it was known as Windsor Field used by the Royal Air Force Transferring Fighter and Bomber aircraft such as the B-17, B-24, and the P-40 from New Providence to Italian, North African and European Theatres of War and as a station for Consolidated Liberator I and North...
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
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
and Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
.
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). 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 BensonKleinwort Benson
Kleinwort Benson is a leading Private Bank that offers a wide range of financial services to private and corporate clients from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. The bank has its headquarters on St George Street in Mayfair, and is supported by seven UK regional and two...
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
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
government, and British Aircraft Corporation
British Aircraft Corporation
The British Aircraft Corporation was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs , the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with...
(BAC) respectively owned three and two of the five One-Elevens. British Eagle operated all of these aircraft under lease purchase
Lease purchase contract
A lease purchase contract is a shortened name for lease with option to purchase contract. It is a form of real estate purchase which combines elements of a traditional rental agreement with an exclusive option of right of first refusal to later purchase the home.These contracts are commonly used...
agreements with the owners. By that time, the company's scheduled service network included routes from London Heathrow to Liverpool, Glasgow
Glasgow International Airport
Glasgow International Airport is an international airport in Scotland, located west of Glasgow city centre, near the towns of Paisley and Renfrew in Renfrewshire...
, Newquay
Newquay
Newquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Dinard
Dinard
Dinard is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in north-western France.Dinard is on the Côte d'Émeraude of Brittany. Its beaches and mild climate make it a popular holiday destination, and this has resulted in the town having a variety of famous visitors and residents...
, La Baule, Lourdes
Lourdes
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
, Perpignan, Gerona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
, Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
, Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
, Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
, Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
, Djerba
Djerba
Djerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...
and Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
. The firm also operated a large number of inclusive tour
Package holiday
A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday. Transport can be via charter airline to a foreign country...
flights from Heathrow and other British airports. Lunn Poly was its largest tour operator customer.
Waning prospects
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 jurisdictionJurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
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
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport serving the city of Liverpool and the North West of England. Formerly known as Speke Airport, RAF Speke, and Liverpool Airport the airport is located within the City of Liverpool adjacent to the estuary of the River Mersey some southeast...
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
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
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 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 to £50 per trip, as well as by the loss of the company's Caribbean licence. Poor decisions at seniorSenior management
Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...
and executive
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
level, the end of the trooping and migrant contracts and economic difficulties made British Eagle an increasingly unviable business. Moreover, the ATLB and some industry peers regarded the firm as seriously undercapitalised and saw this as a major cause of financial instability. Management's refusal to contemplate a fundamental change in the way the business was run, including a change in the top management itself, furthermore undermined the confidence of Hambros Bank
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 airline's main creditor, in its prospects. These circumstances led to the withdrawal of Hambros's support. 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 £5½m; Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
and Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
, 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
Cambrian Airways was a Welsh airline based in Cardiff, Wales, which started operations in 1935. It was incorporated into British Airways in 1976.-Company history:...
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
Dan-Air
Dan-Air was a leading private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations airline based in the United Kingdom....
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
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
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" contract for the following three years (1970—72). This in turn resulted in Dan-Air acquiring two further One-Elevens that had originally been operated by British Eagle.
In addition to the two former British Eagle One-Eleven 300s Dan-Air acquired from Kuwait Finance to complement the ex-American
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
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
Bahamasair
Bahamasair Holdings Limited, operating as Bahamasair, is an airline based in the Bahamasair House in Nassau, Bahamas. It is the national airline and operates domestic scheduled services to 15 destinations and regional scheduled services to Havana and four cities in Florida. Its main base is Lynden...
that had originally been delivered to British Eagle. BOAC purchased for £4m 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
Airlift International
Airlift International was based in the USA and operated from its inception in 1945 until June 1991. Airlift's headquarters were on the grounds of Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.- History :...
in February 1967.
Aircraft operated and fleet details
- Airspeed ConsulAirspeed Consul-See also:-References:...
- Auster AutocratAuster Autocrat-External links:*...
- Avro AnsonAvro AnsonThe Avro Anson is a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm and numerous other air forces prior to, during, and after the Second World War. Named for British Admiral George Anson, it was originally designed for maritime reconnaissance, but was...
- Avro LancasterAvro LancasterThe Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
- Avro LincolnAvro LincolnThe Avro Type 694, better known as the Avro Lincoln, was a British four-engined heavy bomber, which first flew on 9 June 1944. Developed from the Avro Lancaster, the first Lincoln variants were known initially as the Lancaster IV and V, but were renamed Lincoln I and II...
- Avro YorkAvro YorkThe Avro York was a British transport aircraft that was derived from the Second World War Lancaster heavy bomber, and used in both military and airliner roles between 1943 and 1964.-Design and development:...
- Avro 748
- BAC One-ElevenBAC One-ElevenThe British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s...
- Boeing 707Boeing 707The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
- Bristol BritanniaBristol BritanniaThe Bristol Type 175 Britannia was a British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire...
- Bristol FreighterBristol FreighterThe Bristol Type 170 Freighter was a British twin-engine aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as both a freighter and airliner, although its best known use is as an air ferry to carry cars and their passengers over relatively short distances.-Design and development:The...
- de Havilland DoveDe Havilland DoveThe de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British monoplane short-haul airliner from de Havilland, the successor to the biplane de Havilland Dragon Rapide and was one of Britain's most successful post-war civil designs...
- de Havilland Dragon RapideDe Havilland Dragon RapideThe de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide was a British short-haul passenger airliner of the 1930s.-Design and development:Designed by the de Havilland company in late 1933 as a faster and more comfortable successor to the DH.84 Dragon, it was in effect a twin-engined, scaled-down version of the...
- de Havilland HeronDe Havilland HeronThe de Havilland DH.114 Heron was 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 rugged, conventional low-wing monoplane with tricycle...
- Douglas C-54 SkymasterC-54 SkymasterThe Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces and British forces in World War II and the Korean War. Besides transport of cargo, it also carried presidents, British heads of government, and military staff...
- Douglas DakotaC-47 SkytrainThe Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...
- Douglas DC-6Douglas DC-6The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport 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 the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range...
- Handley Page HalifaxHandley Page HalifaxThe Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...
- Miles GeminiMiles Gemini|-See also:-References:* The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft , 1985, Orbis Publishing* Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft 1919-1972:Volume III.London:Putnam, 1988, ISBN 0 85177 818 6....
- Miles Hawk Trainer
- Percival ProctorPercival ProctorThe Percival Proctor was a British radio trainer and communications aircraft of the Second World War. The Proctor was a single-engine, low-wing monoplane with seating for three or four, depending on the model.-Design and development:...
- Vickers ValettaVickers Valetta|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Andrews, C.F. and E.B. Morgan. Vickers Aircraft since 1908. London: Putnam, 1988. ISBN 0-85177-815-1....
- Vickers VikingVickers VC.1 VikingThe Vickers VC.1 Viking was 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. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines...
- Vickers ViscountVickers ViscountThe Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
Fleet in 1950
In August 1950, Eagle Aviation's fleet comprised five aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Avro 685 York Avro York The Avro York was a British transport aircraft that was derived from the Second World War Lancaster heavy bomber, and used in both military and airliner roles between 1943 and 1964.-Design and development:... |
3 |
| Douglas Dakota C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and... |
1 |
| Handley Page Halifax Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing... |
1 |
| Total | 5 |
Fleet in 1958
In April 1958, Eagle Airways's fleet comprised 19 aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Vickers Viscount Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world... 805 |
2 |
| Vickers Viking Vickers VC.1 Viking The Vickers VC.1 Viking was 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. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Viking was an important airliner with British airlines... |
17 |
| Total | 19 |
Fleet in 1962
In April 1962, Cunard Eagle's had a fleet of 12 aircraft and employed 1,100 people.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Boeing 707 Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on... -465 |
2 |
| Bristol 175 Britannia Bristol Britannia The Bristol Type 175 Britannia was a British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire... 324 |
2 |
| Vickers Viscount Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world... 755 |
2 |
| Vickers Viscount Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world... 707 |
2 |
| Douglas DC-6 Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport 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 the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range... C |
4 |
| Total | 12 |
Fleet in 1964
In April 1964, British Eagle's fleet comprised 15 aircraft and 940 people were employed.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Bristol 175 Britannia Bristol Britannia The Bristol Type 175 Britannia was a British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire... 324 |
2 |
| Bristol 175 Britannia 312 | 6 |
| Vickers Viscount Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world... 700 |
6 |
| Douglas DC-6 Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport 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 the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range... C |
1 |
| Total | 15 |
Fleet in 1968
In April 1968, British Eagle's fleet comprised 23 aircraft and 2,500 people were employed.| Aircraft | Number |
|---|---|
| Boeing 707 Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on... -365C |
1 |
| Boeing 707-138B | 1 |
| BAC One-Eleven BAC One-Eleven The British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven, also known as the BAC-111, BAC-1-11 or BAC 1-11, was a British short-range jet airliner of the 1960s and 1970s... 300 |
5 |
| Bristol 175 Britannia Bristol Britannia The Bristol Type 175 Britannia was a British medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire... 300 |
12 |
| Vickers Viscount Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world... 700 |
4 |
| Total | 23 |
Accidents and incidents
During its 20-year history the airline suffered four fatal and five non-fatal accidents.- On the night of 1 May 1957, an Eagle Vickers Viking crashed at Blackbushe1957 Blackbushe Viking accidentThe 1957 Blackbushe Viking accident occurred on 1 May 1957 when an Eagle Aviation twin-engined Vickers VC.1 Viking registered G-AJBO crashed into trees near Blackbushe Airport, located in Hampshire, England, on approach following a suspected engine failure on take-off...
. It was operating a trooping flight to LibyaLibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
under contract to the War Office. While returning to the airport to attempt an emergency landingEmergency landingAn emergency landing is a landing made by an aircraft in response to a crisis which either interferes with the operation of the aircraft or involves sudden medical emergencies necessitating diversion to the nearest airport.-Types of emergency landings:...
two minutes after takeoff, its left wing tip struck the ground at Star Hill, 1200 yd (1,097.3 m) from the runway threshold. This caused the aircraft to crash in an inverted position in a wood and catch fire. The accident killed 34 of the aircraft's 35 occupants in the post-crash fire. Accident investigators established the probable cause of the accident as the failure by the captainPilot in commandThe pilot in command of an aircraft is the person aboard the aircraft who is ultimately responsible for its operation and safety during flight. This would be the "captain" in a typical two- or three-pilot flight crew, or "pilot" if there is only one certified and qualified pilot at the controls of...
's to maintain his height and a safe flying speed when approaching to land on one engine after the failure the 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 StavangerStavangerStavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
on approach to the city's Sola AirportStavanger Airport, SolaStavanger Airport, Sola is an international airport located in Sola, Norway, southwest of Stavanger. It is Norway's third-busiest airport, with both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter traffic for the offshore North Sea oil installations...
resulting in the deaths of all 39 on board (3 crew members and 34 schoolboys from The Archbishop Lanfranc SchoolThe Archbishop Lanfranc SchoolThe Archbishop Lanfranc School is a comprehensive secondary school in the Thornton Heath area of Croydon, south London, named after Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070 to 1089.-History:...
in Thornton HeathThornton HeathThornton Heath is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Croydon. It is situated south-southeast of Charing Cross.-Geography:...
, 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 1600 ft (487.7 m) high and about 8 miles (12.9 km) 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 GlungezerGlungezerThe Glungezer is a mountain in the Tux Alps in Tyrol southeast of Innsbruck in Austria.- External links :* * * * *...
mountain at an altitude of 8500 ft (2,590.8 m) while making final approachFinal approach (aviation)A final approach is the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing. In aviation radio terminology, it is often shortened to "final".In a standard airport landing pattern, which is usually used under visual meteorological conditions , aircraft turn from base leg to final within one to two miles...
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 erroneous decision to descendDescent (aircraft)A descent during air travel is any portion where an aircraft decreases altitude, and is the opposite of an ascent or climb. Descents are an essential component of an approach to landing...
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 crash-landCrash Landing"Crash Landing" is the only single by Route 1. The single features ex-Atomic Kitten member, Jenny Frost. "Crash Landing" is commonly, yet mistakenly, referred to as a single by Jenny Frost featuring Route 1 because the CD cover features only her with her name in a larger font.-Charts:...
ed during an emergency landing at RAF ManstonRAF ManstonRAF Manston was an RAF station in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site is now split between a commercial airport Kent International Airport and a continuing military use by the Defence Fire Training and Development Centre , following on from a long...
after the flightdeck crew experienced problems locking down the aircraft's retracted undercarriageUndercarriageThe undercarriage or landing gear in aviation, is the structure that supports an aircraft on the ground and allows it to taxi, takeoff and land...
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 fluidHydraulic fluidHydraulic fluids, also called hydraulic liquids, are the medium by which power is transferred in hydraulic machinery. Common hydraulic fluids are based on mineral oil or water...
from both the main and emergency systems as a result of a fracture of the hydraulic lines. - 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 GermanyWest GermanyWest Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
on the MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
—NurembergNurembergNuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
highway near LangenbrückLangenbruckLangenbruck is a municipality in the district of Waldenburg in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.-Geography:Langenbruck has an area, , of . Of this area, or 51.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.2% is forested...
in a slightly nose-down attitude. 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.
External links
- Airline Profile Number Thirty-four in the series — British Eagle, Flight International, 18 April 1968, p. 589
- Airline Profile Number Thirty-four in the series — British Eagle ..., Flight International, 18 April 1968, p. 590
- British Eagle's chairman interviewed, Flight International, 18 April 1968, p. 591
- British Eagle's One-Eleven Operation, Flight International, 1 June 1967, p. 886
- British Eagle's One-Eleven Operation ..., Flight International, 1 June 1967, p. 887
- British Eagle's One-Eleven Operation ..., Flight International, 1 June 1967, p. 888
- British Eagle's One-Eleven Operation ..., Flight International, 1 June 1967, p. 889
- Mr Bamberg's Big Jets, Air Transport ..., Flight International, 15 February 1968, p. 216
- BELGRADE JOURNEY — The Inaugural Flight of Eagle Aviation's Scheduled Service to Jugoslavia, Flight International, 19 June 1953, p. 789
- BELGRADE JOURNEY ..., Flight International, 19 June 1953, p. 790
- Blackbushe to Bermuda — "Flight" samples an Eagle Airways Very-Low-Fare DC-6C service, Flight International, 29 January 1960, p. 147
- Blackbushe to Bermuda ..., Flight International, 29 January 1960, p. 148
- Blackbushe to Bermuda ..., Flight International, 29 January 1960, p. 149
- Eagle Western Again, Air Transport ..., Flight International, 7 March 1968, p. 324
- Eagle Western Again ..., Air Transport ..., Flight International, 7 March 1968, p. 325
- Eagle Western Again ..., Air Transport ..., Flight International, 7 March 1968, p. 326
- Collapse of an Airline, Editorial, Flight International, 14 November 1968
- The Eagle Close-down, Air Transport ..., Flight International, 14 November 1968, p. 767
- A Case of Fitness, Air Transport ..., Flight International, 14 November 1968, p. 768
- Where the Real Failure Lies, Air Transport ..., Flight International, 28 November 1968, p. 893
- Where the Real Failure Lies, Air Transport ..., Flight International, 28 November 1968, p. 894
- British Eagle International Airlines at the Aviation Safety Network Database
- contemporary timetable images
- britisheagle.net