The story
Establishment through a merger
BUAF came into being on 1 January 1963 as a result of the merger of Channel Air Bridge and Silver City Airways Air Ferry Division. The newly formed airline was a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Holdings, which in turn was a subsidiary of British & Commonwealth (B&C). This ownership structure made BUAF a sister airline of British United Airways (BUA), at the time Britain's biggest independent airline and the country's leading independent scheduled operator.
BUAF operated scheduled and non-scheduled vehicle ferry, passenger and freight services. This included scheduled routes from Southend, Lydd Ferryfield and Hurn to ten points in the Channel Islands and Continental Europe. Aviation Traders Carvairs operated what the airline called "deeper penetration" routes to Basel, Geneva and Strasbourg. Bristol Superfreighters plied the routes to Jersey, Guernsey, Cherbourg, Le Touquet, Calais, Ostend and Rotterdam.
The airline's scheduled services between the UK, Le Touquet and Ostend formed part of rail-air operations linking the respective capital cities at each end. These were operated in conjunction with Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer français (SNCF) and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges/Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (SNCB/NMBS), the respective national railway companies of France and Belgium. (Amongst these, was a six-times daily Southend—Ostend vehicle ferry service operated in conjunction with erstwhile Belgian flag carrier Sabena. This service, which had been launched by Air Charter in partnership with Sabena in 1957 with three dedicated Superfreighters in full Sabena livery and which BUAF had inherited from Channel Air Bridge, continued until 1964.) Coach-air services were provided in conjunction with local coach operators between the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland via Calais, Ostend, Rotterdam and Baswl.
In addition, all-passenger configured Bristol Freighters/Superfreighters were used for inclusive tour work on behalf of BUA (Services) Ltd. Sister airline BUA (C.I.) assumed the former Silver City routes linking the North of England with the Channel Isles and the Continent.
BUAF subsequently added routes linking Southampton with Rotterdam, Ostend, Calais, Deauville, Le Touquet, Jersey, Guernsey, Dinard and Cherbourg to its scheduled route network, while discontinuing its "deeper penetration" routes to Basel, Geneva and Strasbourg as these generated insufficient traffic to sustain a viable operation. Some of the new Southampton routes were part of rail-air operations in conjunction with the French and Belgian national railway companies as well.
British Air Ferries (BAF)
As a consequence of B&C's reorganisation of the BUA group of companies during 1967/8, BUAF changed its name to British Air Ferries Ltd. (BAF) on 1 October 1967.
In October 1971, BAF's ownership passed from Air Holdings to the Keegan family, owners of Transmeridian Air Cargo (TMAC). Consequentially, in 1972, BAF became a wholly owned subsidiary of Transmeridian Air Cargo (TMAC), a Stansted-based all-cargo airline controlled by the Keegan family.
In 1975, BAF began replacing its remaining Carvairs with Handley Page Dart Herald turboprops on its cross-Channel routes linking Southend with Le Touquet, Ostend and Rotterdam. This resulted in these services being converted into ordinary passenger schedules and the Carvairs being transferred to cargo flying.
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On 1 January 1977, BAF operated its last car ferry service. Later the same year, on 31 October, BAF Herald G-BDFE operating the airline's inaugural scheduled passenger flight from Southend to Düsseldorf under the command of Captain Caroline Frost and First Officer Lesley Hardy became Britain's first airliner flown by an all-female crew.
On 1 January 1979, BAF transferred its entire scheduled operation including associated aircraft and staff to British Island Airways (BIA).
Following British Airways's decision to withdraw from its loss-making regional routes and to retire its Vickers Viscount turboprop fleet, BAF acquired the entire 18-strong fleet along with the spares inventory during the early 1980s. This acquisition made it the world's largest Viscount operator at the time.
As a result of the changes the airline underwent in the late 1970s and early 1980s, BAF mainly concentrated on leasing, charter and oil industry support work.
In 1983, the Keegans put some of their businesses into receivership and in March of that year, sold the British Air Ferries name along with the airline's commercial flying operations to the Jadepoint investment group for £2m. On the other hand, this meant the direct management of two airlines: the regional Guernsey Airlines (from August 1983) and the charter Jersey Air Ferries, which however lasted only a few months (August-October 1983). In the spring of the same year, some scheduled services were also reactivated, which would last until the beginning of 1988. In the two-year period 1986-1986 BAF also operated some services under the British Caledonian Commuter brand under the name Tulip Express.
Growing financial difficulties at Jadepoint resulted in BAF being placed in administration in January 1988. A new holding company, called Mostjet, was formed within a year to enable the airline to emerge from administration in May 1989, the only British airline to do so at the time. At the same time, the charter airline Baltic Airlines, which had been established just over a year earlier, was absorbed.
British World Airlines (BWA)
On 6 April 1993, BAF was renamed British World Airlines Ltd. (BWA), ICAO code BWL.
Following delivery of BWA's first ATR 72 on 1 April 1996, the airline converted its three remaining passenger-configured Viscounts to freighters. On 18 April the same year, BWA Viscount G-APEY operated the type's last passenger flight, marking the 43rd anniversary of the Viscount's entry into full commercial air service with British European Airways (BEA).
BWA ceased trading on 14 December 2001, as a result of the tough business climate during the post-9/11 downturn.
From Wikipedia’s article on British United Air Ferries, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3