Skyways Coach-Air Limited
Encyclopedia
Skyways Coach-Air Limited launched the first commercial coach-air operation in late-September 1955, involving a coach trip from Central London
to Lympne
, a cross-Channel
Lympne—Beauvais
air sector and another coach journey from Beauvais to the centre of Paris
.
Skyways Coach-Air, which had remained a separate entity following the sale of sister airline Skyways Ltd to Euravia
, got into financial difficulties in 1970. This resulted in a management buyout
and the following year's formation of a new company trading as Skyways International to succeed the defunct Skyways Coach-Air. Skyways International was taken over by Dan-Air in 1972.
took off from Lympne
for a 55-minute cross-Channel flight to Beauvais with fare-paying passengers for the first time. (Two "special inaugural flights" carrying about 50 Government officials, company executive
s, journalist
s and other dignitaries preceded the inaugural commercial flight on 21 September 1955.) This air service formed part of a combined coach-air-coach journey between the city centres of London and Paris. For passengers travelling from London to Paris, the journey began on a 32- or 36-seater East Kent Road Car Company
coach that took them from London's Victoria Coach Station
to Lympne Airport
near Hythe
where they transferred to a Skyways DC-3
. This aircraft flew them across the Channel to Beauvais Tillé Airport where passengers transferred to a Transportes Renault coach, which took them to République Coach Station in Paris (Hôtel Moderne Palace on Place de la République
, Paris 12). At the time of launch, total travelling time was just under seven hours. (In the pre-motorway days, the slow, 70-mile (110 kilometre
) coach journey between Central London and Lympne along narrow, winding country roads alone took more than three hours. Following subsequent road improvements, the introduction of faster coaches and aircraft as well as streamlined ground handling
procedures, this eventually reduced to about 5½ hours.) The initial frequency was one round-trip per day, and the inaugural return fare was £
7 14spre-decimal (£7.70decimal) for off-peak travel while the peak-time fare was £8.75decimal. These not only undercut the direct London Heathrow
—Paris Orly/Le Bourget standard tourist class
air fares of British European Airways
(BEA) and Air France
by about 45% but were also cheaper than the corresponding fares of competing surface travel modes.
London—Paris coach-air services launched with a single DC-3 configured in a high-density, 36-seat layout. A second DC-3 sourced from the fleet of sister company Skyways Ltd and a third aircraft leased from Airwork were added for the 1956 summer season. This fleet subsequently expanded through the addition of further aircraft.
Following the successful introduction of the world's first, daily coach-air service between London and Paris on a year-round basis, Eric Rylands Ltd, the Skyways group holding company
, purchased Lympne Airport in 1956.
During the 1957 summer season, Skyways Coach-Air increased the frequency to up to 16 daily round-trips and launched its second coach-air route from London to Vichy
(via Lympne).
In 1958, Skyways Coach-Air Ltd was formed as a dedicated low-fare coach-air-coach subsidiary
of Skyways Ltd.
A London—Brussels
coach-air service (via Lympne and Antwerp) operated during the 1958 summer season for the duration of Expo 58. Also in 1958, further seasonal coach-air services from London (Lympne) to Lyon
s, Montpellier
and Nice
launched while coach-air services to Clermont-Ferrand
began in June 1964. Services from London (Lympne) to Tours
and from East Midlands to Beauvais started in 1965. Operations from London (Ashford
and Luton
) to Ostend
commenced in 1970. The airline also applied for traffic rights to extend its coach-air network to Basle, Palma
, Barcelona
and Tenerife
.
Lympne's persistent waterlogging
problem forced many flights to divert to Gatwick
, especially in winter. During the late-1950s and early-1960s, Skyways Coach-Air's DC-3s also operated regular charter flights from Gatwick.
Following an announcement in 1959 to replace its ageing piston airliner
s with state-of-the-art turboprop
s that resulted in a competition between Avro
and Fokker
where the former's 748
was pitched against the latter's F-27, Skyways Coach-Air became the launch customer for the Avro 748
in 1961.
Meanwhile, Skyways Coach-Air had assumed the ownership of the lease
for Lympne Airport, which entailed taking on all operational responsibilities, including the provision of air traffic control
(ATC) services.
Delivery of the first of three 48-seat Avro 748s on 2 November 1961 was followed by the type's first revenue flight on 17 April 1962, when it began replacing the 36-seat DC-3s on the daily Lympne—Beauvais coach-air service. Two more 748s and a fifth DC-3 for cargo and supplemental work joined the fleet during summer 1965. By 1967, Skyways Coach-Air operated the original London—Paris coach-air service exclusively with the new 748 turboprops at a frequency of five daily round-trips in summerApril to September, with additional services operating on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays. In winterOctober to March, frequency dropped to between one and two round-trips per day. Typical London—Paris return fares ranged from £9 8spre-decimal to £12 17spre-decimal.
To take advantage of the burgeoning market for all-inclusive holiday charter package
s and increase the 748s' utilisation, Skyways Coach-Air began operating a series of inclusive tour (IT) charter flights to the Mediterranean
from the grass airfield at Lympne in summer 1967. This soon overstretched the airline's small fleet and led to frequent delays and diversions, exacerbated by the airport's waterlogging problem. As a result of knock-on effects, it also resulted in a deterioration of the company's punctuality on the coach-air network.
Nineteen-sixty-seven was also the year the state-owned Transport Holding Company
(THC) had acquired a 50% stake in Skyways Coach-Air for £27,000. This made it a semi-public entity.
To address Lympne's waterlogging problem ahead of the 1968 summer season, Skyways Coach-Air's management decided to have a 4,500 feet (1,372 metre
) concrete
runway laid. This work was executed during the lean months in winter 1967/8. The new runway became operational in April 1968. As the concrete layer proved to be too thin to withstand regular operations by aircraft in the Avro 748 weight category, cracks soon started to appear.
In 1969, the Ford Motor Company
awarded Skyways Coach-Air the Stansted
—Cologne
corporate
shuttle contract. This resulted in one of the airline's 748s being permanently based at the Essex
airport.
This was also the time Lympne Airport was renamed Ashford Airport.
Although Skyways Coach-Air seemed to have initially succeeded in establishing itself as a profitable short-haul specialist serving a niche market
for those looking for the cheapest way to travel between London and Paris, the business began losing money in its latter years as a result of overreaching itself.
Initially, the airline attempted to turn around its deteriorating financial situation by dropping underperforming routes from its network, terminating operations to Ostend, Tours and Vichy. However, these measures proved inadequate to deal with the company's growing financial difficulties. In addition, Britain
's then Conservative government
's was unwilling to lend it any more money through half-shareholder
THC. This resulted in the latter putting
Skyways Coach-Air into receivership
at the beginning of 1971.Skyways Coach-Air owed the Government £1.25 million, as a result of loan
s THC had already advanced it Following its grounding, Skyways Coach-Air went into liquidation
on 20 January 1971.
In April 1962, the Skyways Coach-Air fleet comprised 7 aircraft.
In March 1970, the Skyways Coach-Air fleet comprised 8 aircraft.
Skyways Coach-Air employed 320 people at this time.
led by John Knox, the erstwhile airline's last commercial manager, formed International Skyways Ltd as a successor to the failed company. With the backing of London merchant bank
Sterling Industrial Securities, the new management team purchased defunct Skyways Coach-Air's asset
s. These included aircraft and routes. Following the successful management buyout, the new entity began trading as Skyways International. It resumed the ex-Skyways Coach-Air year-round route from Ashford to Beauvais on 8 February 1971 with four 748s that had been grounded at Ashford Airport
since the cessation of operations three weeks earlier. This was followed by the reintroduction of routes from Ashford to Ostend, Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier, as well as from Luton to Ostend and from East Midlands to Beauvais.
In February 1972, Sterling Industrial Securities sold International Skyways to Dan-Air for £650,000.£625,000 for the four ex-Skyways HS 748s and £25,000 for the defunct airline's vehicles Dan-Air completed the deal to take over International Skyways from Sterling Industrial Securities in April of that year, following which it integrated most of the former Skyways International routes into its own network of regional, short-haul scheduled services. Initially, these routes were operated by a separate subsidiary named Dan-Air Skyways. Dan-Air Skyways fuselage
titles were applied to the four HS 748s Dan-Air inherited from Skyways International.
By 1974, Dan-Air Skyways was fully integrated with the rest of Dan-Air's scheduled operation, as a result of which it ceased to exist as a separate entity and the full Dan-Air livery
had been applied to all former Skyways International aircraft.
In May 1971, the Skyways International fleet comprised 7 aircraft.
Skyways International employed 303 people at this time.
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,...
to Lympne
Lympne
Lympne is a village situated on the former sea cliffs above the Romney Marsh in Kent. It lies approximately west of Folkestone, 2 miles west of Hythe and east of Ashford....
, a cross-Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
Lympne—Beauvais
Beauvais
Beauvais is a city approximately by highway north of central Paris, in the northern French region of Picardie. It currently has a population of over 60,000 inhabitants.- History :...
air sector and another coach journey from Beauvais to the centre of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Skyways Coach-Air, which had remained a separate entity following the sale of sister airline Skyways Ltd to Euravia
Britannia Airways
Britannia Airways was the largest charter airline in the United Kingdom, rebranded as Thomsonfly in 2005. Its main bases were Gatwick, London Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow...
, got into financial difficulties in 1970. This resulted in a management buyout
Management buyout
A management buyout is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.- Overview :Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company...
and the following year's formation of a new company trading as Skyways International to succeed the defunct Skyways Coach-Air. Skyways International was taken over by Dan-Air in 1972.
Skyways Coach-Air
On 30 September 1955, Skyways inaugurated the world's first combined coach-air low-fare scheduled service between London and Paris. On that day, a 36-seat Skyways Douglas DC-3Douglas 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...
took off from Lympne
Lympne Airport
Lympne Airport , , was a military and later civil airfield at Lympne, Kent, United Kingdom, which operated from 1916 to 1984. RFC Lympne was originally an acceptance point for aircraft being delivered to, and returning from, France during the First World War...
for a 55-minute cross-Channel flight to Beauvais with fare-paying passengers for the first time. (Two "special inaugural flights" carrying about 50 Government officials, company 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"...
s, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s and other dignitaries preceded the inaugural commercial flight on 21 September 1955.) This air service formed part of a combined coach-air-coach journey between the city centres of London and Paris. For passengers travelling from London to Paris, the journey began on a 32- or 36-seater East Kent Road Car Company
East Kent Road Car Company
The East Kent Road Car Company Ltd was a bus company formed in 1916 and based in Canterbury, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Kent...
coach that took them from London's Victoria Coach Station
Victoria Coach Station
Victoria Coach Station is the largest and most significant coach station in London. It serves long distance coach services and is also the departure point for many countryside coach tours originating from London. It should not be confused with the nearby Green Line Coach Station serving Green Line...
to Lympne Airport
Lympne Airport
Lympne Airport , , was a military and later civil airfield at Lympne, Kent, United Kingdom, which operated from 1916 to 1984. RFC Lympne was originally an acceptance point for aircraft being delivered to, and returning from, France during the First World War...
near Hythe
Hythe, Kent
Hythe , is a small coastal market town on the edge of Romney Marsh, in the District of Shepway on the south coast of Kent. The word Hythe or Hithe is an Old English word meaning Haven or Landing Place....
where they transferred to a Skyways 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...
. This aircraft flew them across the Channel to Beauvais Tillé Airport where passengers transferred to a Transportes Renault coach, which took them to République Coach Station in Paris (Hôtel Moderne Palace on Place de la République
Place de la République
The Place de la République is a square in Paris, located on the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements. It is named after the French Republic. The Métro station of République lies beneath the square.-History:...
, Paris 12). At the time of launch, total travelling time was just under seven hours. (In the pre-motorway days, the slow, 70-mile (110 kilometre
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
) coach journey between Central London and Lympne along narrow, winding country roads alone took more than three hours. Following subsequent road improvements, the introduction of faster coaches and aircraft as well as streamlined ground handling
Aircraft ground handling
In aviation, aircraft ground handling defines the servicing of an aircraft while it is on the ground and parked at a terminal gate of an airport.-Overview:...
procedures, this eventually reduced to about 5½ hours.) The initial frequency was one round-trip per day, and the inaugural return fare was £
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...
7 14spre-decimal (£7.70decimal) for off-peak travel while the peak-time fare was £8.75decimal. These not only undercut the direct 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...
—Paris Orly/Le Bourget standard tourist class
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....
air fares of 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) and Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
by about 45% but were also cheaper than the corresponding fares of competing surface travel modes.
London—Paris coach-air services launched with a single DC-3 configured in a high-density, 36-seat layout. A second DC-3 sourced from the fleet of sister company Skyways Ltd and a third aircraft leased from Airwork were added for the 1956 summer season. This fleet subsequently expanded through the addition of further aircraft.
Following the successful introduction of the world's first, daily coach-air service between London and Paris on a year-round basis, Eric Rylands Ltd, the Skyways group holding company
Holding 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...
, purchased Lympne Airport in 1956.
During the 1957 summer season, Skyways Coach-Air increased the frequency to up to 16 daily round-trips and launched its second coach-air route from London to Vichy
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
(via Lympne).
In 1958, Skyways Coach-Air Ltd was formed as a dedicated low-fare coach-air-coach subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Skyways Ltd.
A London—Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
coach-air service (via Lympne and Antwerp) operated during the 1958 summer season for the duration of Expo 58. Also in 1958, further seasonal coach-air services from London (Lympne) to Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
s, Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
and Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
launched while coach-air services to Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
began in June 1964. Services from London (Lympne) to Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
and from East Midlands to Beauvais started in 1965. Operations from London (Ashford
Lympne Airport
Lympne Airport , , was a military and later civil airfield at Lympne, Kent, United Kingdom, which operated from 1916 to 1984. RFC Lympne was originally an acceptance point for aircraft being delivered to, and returning from, France during the First World War...
and 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...
) to Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
commenced in 1970. The airline also applied for traffic rights to extend its coach-air network to Basle, Palma
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...
, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
.
Lympne's persistent waterlogging
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
problem forced many flights to divert to 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...
, especially in winter. During the late-1950s and early-1960s, Skyways Coach-Air's DC-3s also operated regular charter flights from Gatwick.
Following an announcement in 1959 to replace its ageing piston airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
s with state-of-the-art 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...
s that resulted in a competition between Avro
Avro
Avro was a British aircraft manufacturer, with numerous landmark designs such as the Avro 504 trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the delta wing Avro Vulcan, a stalwart of the Cold War.-Early history:One of the world's...
and Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
where the former's 748
Avro 748
The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed by the British firm Avro in the late 1950s as a replacement for the now-aged DC-3s then in widespread service as feederliners. Avro concentrated on performance, notably for STOL operations, and found a dedicated...
was pitched against the latter's F-27, Skyways Coach-Air became the launch customer for the Avro 748
Avro 748
The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed by the British firm Avro in the late 1950s as a replacement for the now-aged DC-3s then in widespread service as feederliners. Avro concentrated on performance, notably for STOL operations, and found a dedicated...
in 1961.
Meanwhile, Skyways Coach-Air had assumed the ownership of the lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
for Lympne Airport, which entailed taking on all operational responsibilities, including the provision of air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
(ATC) services.
Delivery of the first of three 48-seat Avro 748s on 2 November 1961 was followed by the type's first revenue flight on 17 April 1962, when it began replacing the 36-seat DC-3s on the daily Lympne—Beauvais coach-air service. Two more 748s and a fifth DC-3 for cargo and supplemental work joined the fleet during summer 1965. By 1967, Skyways Coach-Air operated the original London—Paris coach-air service exclusively with the new 748 turboprops at a frequency of five daily round-trips in summerApril to September, with additional services operating on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays. In winterOctober to March, frequency dropped to between one and two round-trips per day. Typical London—Paris return fares ranged from £9 8spre-decimal to £12 17spre-decimal.
To take advantage of the burgeoning market for all-inclusive holiday charter package
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 and increase the 748s' utilisation, Skyways Coach-Air began operating a series of inclusive tour (IT) charter flights to the Mediterranean
Mediterranean 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...
from the grass airfield at Lympne in summer 1967. This soon overstretched the airline's small fleet and led to frequent delays and diversions, exacerbated by the airport's waterlogging problem. As a result of knock-on effects, it also resulted in a deterioration of the company's punctuality on the coach-air network.
Nineteen-sixty-seven was also the year the state-owned Transport Holding Company
Transport Holding Company
The Transport Holding Company was a British Government owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport Commission ; it came into existence on 1 January...
(THC) had acquired a 50% stake in Skyways Coach-Air for £27,000. This made it a semi-public entity.
To address Lympne's waterlogging problem ahead of the 1968 summer season, Skyways Coach-Air's management decided to have a 4,500 feet (1,372 metre
Metre
The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...
) concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
runway laid. This work was executed during the lean months in winter 1967/8. The new runway became operational in April 1968. As the concrete layer proved to be too thin to withstand regular operations by aircraft in the Avro 748 weight category, cracks soon started to appear.
In 1969, the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
awarded Skyways Coach-Air the Stansted
London 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...
—Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
corporate
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
shuttle contract. This resulted in one of the airline's 748s being permanently based at the Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
airport.
This was also the time Lympne Airport was renamed Ashford Airport.
Although Skyways Coach-Air seemed to have initially succeeded in establishing itself as a profitable short-haul specialist serving a niche market
Niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact...
for those looking for the cheapest way to travel between London and Paris, the business began losing money in its latter years as a result of overreaching itself.
Initially, the airline attempted to turn around its deteriorating financial situation by dropping underperforming routes from its network, terminating operations to Ostend, Tours and Vichy. However, these measures proved inadequate to deal with the company's growing financial difficulties. In addition, 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 then Conservative government
Conservative Government 1970-1974
Members of the Cabinet are in bold face.incompleteSource: D. Butler and G. Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900-2000...
's was unwilling to lend it any more money through half-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 ....
THC. This resulted in the latter putting
Skyways Coach-Air into receivership
Receivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
at the beginning of 1971.Skyways Coach-Air owed the Government £1.25 million, as a result of loan
Loan
A loan is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower....
s THC had already advanced it Following its grounding, Skyways Coach-Air went into liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
on 20 January 1971.
Fleet Details
Skyways Coach-Air Ltd operated the following aircraft types:- AvroAvroAvro was a British aircraft manufacturer, with numerous landmark designs such as the Avro 504 trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the delta wing Avro Vulcan, a stalwart of the Cold War.-Early history:One of the world's...
/Hawker Siddeley 748 - Douglas DC-3Douglas DC-3The 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...
Fleet in 1962
In April 1962, the Skyways Coach-Air fleet comprised 7 aircraft.
| Aircraft | Total |
|---|---|
| Avro 748 Series 1 Avro 748 The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed by the British firm Avro in the late 1950s as a replacement for the now-aged DC-3s then in widespread service as feederliners. Avro concentrated on performance, notably for STOL operations, and found a dedicated... |
3 |
| Douglas 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... |
4 |
| Total | 7 |
Fleet in 1970
In March 1970, the Skyways Coach-Air fleet comprised 8 aircraft.
| Aircraft | Total |
|---|---|
| Hawker Siddeley 748 Series 1 | 5 |
| Douglas 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... |
3 |
| Total | 8 |
Skyways Coach-Air employed 320 people at this time.
Skyways International
In February 1971, a group of former Skyways Coach-Air senior managersSenior 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...
led by John Knox, the erstwhile airline's last commercial manager, formed International Skyways Ltd as a successor to the failed company. With the backing of London merchant bank
Merchant bank
A merchant bank is a financial institution which provides capital to companies in the form of share ownership instead of loans. A merchant bank also provides advisory on corporate matters to the firms they lend to....
Sterling Industrial Securities, the new management team purchased defunct Skyways Coach-Air's asset
Asset
In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset...
s. These included aircraft and routes. Following the successful management buyout, the new entity began trading as Skyways International. It resumed the ex-Skyways Coach-Air year-round route from Ashford to Beauvais on 8 February 1971 with four 748s that had been grounded at Ashford Airport
Lympne Airport
Lympne Airport , , was a military and later civil airfield at Lympne, Kent, United Kingdom, which operated from 1916 to 1984. RFC Lympne was originally an acceptance point for aircraft being delivered to, and returning from, France during the First World War...
since the cessation of operations three weeks earlier. This was followed by the reintroduction of routes from Ashford to Ostend, Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier, as well as from Luton to Ostend and from East Midlands to Beauvais.
In February 1972, Sterling Industrial Securities sold International Skyways to Dan-Air for £650,000.£625,000 for the four ex-Skyways HS 748s and £25,000 for the defunct airline's vehicles Dan-Air completed the deal to take over International Skyways from Sterling Industrial Securities in April of that year, following which it integrated most of the former Skyways International routes into its own network of regional, short-haul scheduled services. Initially, these routes were operated by a separate subsidiary named Dan-Air Skyways. Dan-Air Skyways fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
titles were applied to the four HS 748s Dan-Air inherited from Skyways International.
By 1974, Dan-Air Skyways was fully integrated with the rest of Dan-Air's scheduled operation, as a result of which it ceased to exist as a separate entity and the full Dan-Air 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...
had been applied to all former Skyways International aircraft.
Fleet Details
International Skyways Ltd (trading as Skyways International) operated the following aircraft types:- Hawker Siddeley 748
- Douglas DC-3Douglas DC-3The 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...
Fleet in 1971
In May 1971, the Skyways International fleet comprised 7 aircraft.
| Aircraft | Total |
|---|---|
| Hawker Siddeley 748 Series 1 | 4 |
| Douglas 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... |
3 |
| Total | 7 |
Skyways International employed 303 people at this time.
Accidents and incidents
There are two recorded accidents/incidents involving Skyways Coach-Air. These are listed below.- On 11 July 1965, Avro 748-101 Series 1Avro 748The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 is a medium-sized turboprop airliner originally designed by the British firm Avro in the late 1950s as a replacement for the now-aged DC-3s then in widespread service as feederliners. Avro concentrated on performance, notably for STOL operations, and found a dedicated...
of Skyways Coach-Air (registration: G-ARMV) arriving from Beauvais was written off1965 Skyways Coach-Air Avro 748 crashThe 1965 Skyways Coach-Air Avro 748 crash occurred on 10 July 1965 when Avro 748-101 Series 1 G-ARMV, flown during a scheduled international passenger flight from Beauvais Airport, Oise, France, crashed on landing at its intended destination of Lympne Airport, Kent, United Kingdom...
at LympneLympne AirportLympne Airport , , was a military and later civil airfield at Lympne, Kent, United Kingdom, which operated from 1916 to 1984. RFC Lympne was originally an acceptance point for aircraft being delivered to, and returning from, France during the First World War...
when its nosewheels dug into soft ground on the grass runway following a heavy landing. The aircraft flipped over, losing its portPort and starboardPort and starboard are nautical terms which refer to the left and right sides, respectively, of a ship or aircraft as perceived by a person on board facing the bow . At night, the port side of a vessel is indicated with a red navigation light and the starboard side with a green one.The starboard...
wing in the process. Aided by the flight attendantFlight attendantFlight attendants or cabin crew are members of an aircrew employed by airlines primarily to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers aboard commercial flights, on select business jet aircraft, and on some military aircraft.-History:The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar...
, all 48 passengers managed to escape unhurt.
- On 17 December 1965, Douglas C-47B of Skyways Coach-Air (registration: G-AMWX) was written off when it made 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:...
on the beach at Le TréportLe TréportLe Tréport is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A small fishing port and light industrial town situated in the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D940, the D78 and the D1015 roads...
, Seine-MaritimeSeine-MaritimeSeine-Maritime is a French department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The aircraft was operating a scheduled international passenger flight from Beauvais to GatwickLondon Gatwick AirportGatwick 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...
, when it turned back to Beauvais due to radio failure shortly before it was scheduled to land at Gatwick. There were no fatalities among the 32 occupants (three crew and 29 passengers) as a result of this incident.
Sources
(various backdated issues relating to Skyways Ltd, Skyways Coach-Air, and Skyways International 1955-1972) (Airlner World online)External links
- Skyways at the Aviation Safety Network Database
- contemporary timetable images of Skyways Coach-Air and Skyways International
- Skyways Avro 748 Srs. 1/100 G-ARMV coming in to land at Biggin Hill on 4 May 1963. The aircraft sports Skyways of London fuselage titles.
- Stansted Airport Consultative Committee, Stansted - The Early Years (1942-1966), Flying Troops from across the World