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The story
Formation and early operations
Harold Bamberg, a former wartime pilot, formed the airline on 14 April 1948 with a nominal capital of £100 as Eagle Aviation Ltd. at Aldermaston. The initial fleet comprised two wartime bombers converted for carrying fruit and vegetables. The first aircraft to enter service was a converted Halifax Mk 8 with the civil registration G-AJBL. It operated Eagle's first commercial flight on 9 May, 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 Halifax, registered G-ALEF and christened Red Eagle. Both aircraft saw extensive service along with a further two others during the Berlin Airlift.
The airline acquired Air Freight Ltd. during the summer of 1948 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. Eagle aviation moved to Luton in 1950. For most of its existence, the company's head office was located at 29 Clarges Street, Central London.
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. 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 Vikings. Trent Valley Aviation Ltd., which had been bought in September 1950, was fully absorbed one year later.
Start of scheduled operations
During 1953, Eagle Aviation's steadily growing passenger charter operations included for the first time aerial cruises around the Mediterranean. Following Eagle's decision to sell the Yorks to rival UK independent Skyways for £160,000, the airline expanded from charter work into scheduled services on 6 June from its new base at Blackbushe Airport, using Vickers Vikings. The first of these were acquired from Crewsair, another rival UK independent. Eagle, which in July set up Eagle Airways Ltd. 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 European destinations. Eagle's expansion was supported by 22 Vickers Vikings that had been retained from an earlier purchase of 37 former BEA examples.
Entry into package holiday market
In 1954, the Ministry of Aviation granted Eagle permission to operate a limited programme of a new type of low-fare service that combined air travel and overseas holiday accommodation at a cost substantially below the aggregate of each individual component if purchased separately. This new concept enabled the airline to circumvent regulatory restrictions that prevented private airlines from competing with their state-owned counterparts. It also helped increase fleet utilisation.
When the Thomas Cook & Son travel agency declined Eagle's offer to take on the role of the airline's tour operator, Eagle acquired the Sir Henry Lunn Ltd travel agency chain. This made the airline one of the pioneers of the British package holiday industry and probably marked the first occasion in the UK an airline became vertically integrated with its own in-house tour operator (i.e. where an airline owns or is owned by a tour operator or both are part of an integrated travel group) British Eagle also acquired the Polytechnic Touring Association in the 1950s and formed Lunn Poly from the two agencies in the mid-1960s.
Eagle's first inclusive tour (IT) flights operated to destinations in Italy and Spain (including Mallorca). To make its packages more affordable and increase sales, Lunn began offering hire purchase facilities. Between 1955 and 1960, many of the airline's aircraft carried the Eagle Airways operating name.
By 1957, the summer IT programme included for the first time 15-day, all-inclusive packages to Spain's Costa Brava. 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). 1957 was also the year Eagle joined IATA.
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Branching out
On 26 July 1957, Eagle formed an overseas subsidiary, named Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Ltd., in preparation for the launch of transatlantic 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, D.C. and Nassau from June 1958.
Acquisition of first imported aircraft
In 1958, Eagle acquired the first three of an eventual six Douglas DC-6s for long-range charter and scheduled operations. These were the airline's first pressurised aircraft. They were also its first imported aircraft (the initial batch of three had been sourced from the US). This acquisition marked an important change regarding UK airlines' aircraft procurement policies as new legislation permitted (for the first time) that aircraft imported from abroad – usually American 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, or 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.
Pioneering of low-fare scheduled services in the Western Hemisphere
Eagle Airways (Bermuda) launched commercial operations in June 1958 between Bermuda and New York, competing head-on with three of the world's most powerful airlines – BOAC, Pan Am 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 (8 & 9 Eliz. 2. c. 38)) 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-7C services which routed via New York. However, the terms of the licence permitting Eagle to operate scheduled services on this route required it to share its revenues with BOAC.
In November 1958, Eagle applied to the Air Transport Advisory Council (ATAC), the contemporary UK Government department in charge of air transport economic regulation, for permission to offer low fares on existing and planned scheduled routes to Cyprus, 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. By the spring of 1959, Eagle Airways (Bermuda) was operating scheduled passenger flights with Vickers Viscount 805 turboprop aircraft between Bermuda and Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and New York City in the U.S. as well as between Bermuda and Montreal in Canada.
Breaking even on scheduled operations
Following six years of losses, Eagle managed to break even on what it claimed to be Britain's biggest network of independent-operated scheduled services comprising 12 routes to Europe by 1959. By the late 1950s, all aircraft carried the Eagle Airways name.
The early 1960s (1960–1963)
Following Blackbushe's closure to commercial air traffic in 1960, Eagle moved its base to London Heathrow, then simply known as London Airport.
Eagle along with British United Airways (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.
Cunard Eagle Airways
In March 1960, the Cunard Steamship Company bought a 60% controlling stake for £30 million, resulting in renaming the air carrier to Cunard Eagle Airways Ltd. over the summer. The support from this new shareholder enabled Cunard Eagle to become the first British independent airline to operate pure jet airliners, as a result of a £6 million order for two new Boeing 707-420 passenger aircraft in May 1961. The order had been placed (including an option on a third aircraft) in expectation of being granted traffic rights for transatlantic scheduled services. The airline took delivery of its first Bristol Britannia aircraft on 5 April 1960 (on lease from Cubana). Cunard Eagle was also the first independent airline in the UK to be awarded a license by the newly constituted Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB) to operate a scheduled service on the prime Heathrow – New York JFK route. This license was valid for 15 years – from 31 August 1961 to 31 July 1976. Cunard appointed Eagle's original founder, Harold Bamberg, 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. The Bermuda-based operations became Cunard-Eagle Airways (Bermuda) Ltd.
The airline also won the right to serve Manchester, Glasgow Prestwick, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and Washington. However, the carriage of passengers on UK domestic sectors and of mail on all sectors was denied, as well as requests for traffic rights to Toronto, Montreal, Detroit and Chicago. The decision to open these transatlantic routes to Cunard Eagle 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 transatlantic licenses in November 1961. In the meantime the airline acquired two further Britannia aircraft in March and May 1961, both ex-Canadian Pacific Air Lines aircraft.
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, British airlines – including British IATA members – were free to introduce them from 1 October 1960 as UK authorities controlled fares at both ends. Apart from Eagle, the beneficiaries included BEA, BOAC, BUA and Skyways.
From 1 October 1960, all-coach DC-6Cs flying the London—Bermuda—Nassau route were replaced with Britannias 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 Bermudan-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.
On 27 February 1962, after a 2 year wait, 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-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 £30 million joint venture with the Cunard Steamship Co. in summer 1962. 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.
Reconstitution of the company
Having raised his holding to 60% in February 1963, on 9 August, the airline's official name changed to British Eagle International Airlines Ltd. (the name Bamberg had given the new holding company 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.
Launch of competitive UK domestic scheduled services
In November 1963, British Eagle launched daily scheduled services between London Heathrow and Glasgow Renfrew with 103-seater, two-class Britannias. The inaugural London—Glasgow service – operated by ex-BOAC Britannia 310 Enterprise — was followed by daily two-class Britannia services from Heathrow to Edinburgh and Belfast the next day. Two Britannia aircraft were leased from BOAC to provide additional capacity. This was the first time an independent airline was allowed to compete with the corporations 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. It was also the first time a scheduled airline had offered a separate first class cabin on a UK domestic route. As British Eagle was restricted to a single daily round-trip on each route, it sought to differentiate itself from BEA. While BEA served these routes with 132-seat Vickers Vanguards in an all-tourist configuration with minimal onboard catering, British Eagle provided full catering on all flights. This included top-quality wines as well as the use of Wedgwood china and fine-quality glassware in first class. British Eagle differentiated itself by introducing assigned seating and "trickle loading". 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.
From Wikipedia’s article on British Eagle, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3