The story
Antecedents and inception
Airwork was formed in 1928. During the 1930s, it helped establish the predecessors of the post-World War II national airlines of India, Egypt and Rhodesia.
By the time Airwork merged with Hunting-Clan to form BUA, the former's air transport subsidiaries already included Airwork Helicopters, Air Charter, Bristow Helicopters, Channel Air Bridge, Transair and Morton Air Services. Hunting-Clan was originally known as Hunting Air Travel. It had become Hunting Air Transport and then changed to Hunting-Clan when it was taken over by the Scottish Clan Line shipping company, a B&C subsidiary.
Airwork changed its name to British United Airways on 19 May 1960, which preceded BUA's official formation on 1 July of that year. The origins of the new name went back to United Airways, one of the three predecessors of the pre-World War II British Airways. The [re-]use of the United Airways name together with the prefix British had been agreed with shareholder Whitehall Securities, the controlling shareholder of both United Airways and Spartan Air Lines before these airlines' merger with Hillman's Airways to form the pre-war British Airways.
Following BUA's creation, Blue Star Line, Furness Withy and B&C owned 72% of the new airline's share capital. The remaining 28% was shared among the Clan Line (8%), Loel Guinness (10%) and Whitehall Securities (10%). This ownership structure made the Cayzer family the dominant shareholders. Sir Nicholas Cayzer, the Hon. Anthony Cayzer and Clive Hunting, at the time the Hunting Group's chairman, were appointed to the main board of directors that controlled the BUA group of companies.
In November 1961, the BUA group's shareholders created Air Holdings as a new holding company for the entire group.
In January 1962, British Aviation Services joined the merged entity. Britavia and Silver City Airways were its airline subsidiaries. P&O was the largest shareholder with a 70% stake, while Eagle Star and Cable & Wireless were minority shareholders that owned 20% and 10% respectively of its share capital.
BUA began operations from its new base at Gatwick Airport with a mixed fleet of 43 airliners and 47 helicopters. The former included Douglas DC-3 Dakota/C-47 Skytrain, DC-4/C-54 Skymaster and DC-6 piston airliners as well as more modern Bristol Britannia and Vickers Viscount turboprops. These continued serving the all-economy Safari and colonial coach class (British residents only) routes to East, Central, Southern and West Africa pioneered by both Airwork and Hunting-Clan, as well as operating trooping flights from Stansted under contract to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and assorted passenger and freight charter flights these airlines and their associates had provided. During its first year of operation, the BUA group's 90-strong fleet flew 17.8 million revenue miles (28.6 million revenue kilometres), carrying 631,030 passengers, 143 million pounds (lb) (64,867 [metric] tonnes (t)) of freight and 25,749 cars (carried by Channel Air Bridge).
In addition to the Safari routes to Africa, BUA also established a network of scheduled services to mainly secondary destinations in Continental Europe, including Barcelona, Gibraltar, Ibiza, Málaga, Le Touquet, Lourdes, Palma, Perpignan, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Channel Islands. BUA furthermore continued Hunting-Clan's Africargo scheduled freight operation. This had given it access to London Heathrow, Hunting's old base, for a limited number of all-cargo services to Africa. Moreover, BUA acted as Sudan Airways's technical advisers and operated that airline's Blue Nile Viscount services between Khartoum and London Gatwick.
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BUA was a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) since its inception as a result of inheriting Hunting-Clan's membership. This included membership of IATA's trade association as well as participation in tariff co-ordination with other member airlines in the organisation's annual traffic conferences. BUA also continued Airwork's and Hunting-Clan's participation in various pool agreements with foreign national airlines. On the East African routes, for example, BUA participated in a tripartite pool agreement with BOAC and East African Airways. Participating in revenue-sharing agreements with its foreign counterparts was a prerequisite for securing overseas traffic rights, especially in Africa.
Freddie Laker, BUA's first managing director (MD), used his contacts to British Rail (BR) to create a £100,000 city centre check-in facility in London's West End in a disused part of Victoria station, which opened in late-April 1962. This enabled BUA's scheduled passengers to complete all check-in formalities, including dropping off their hold luggage, before boarding their train to Gatwick.
Expansion and fleet rationalisation
At its inception, Bristol Britannias operated most of BUA's long-distance charter flights. A large number of these were trooping flights.
Developing BUA primarily as a scheduled airline was one of the first major policy decisions the BUA group's main board took in the early 1960s. The Civil Aviation (Licensing) Act of 1960, which abolished the statutory monopoly British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) had enjoyed on principal domestic and international scheduled routes since the beginning of the post-war era and – theoretically – gave independent airlines equal opportunities to develop scheduled routes in their own right, formed the basis of this decision.
In early 1961, BUA applied to the Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB), a predecessor of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), for a large number of domestic and international short-, medium- and long-haul scheduled route licences to give its scheduled network the critical mass to become financially viable by 1965, and to provide sufficient work for a planned £20 million fleet of new jets comprising four long-haul Vickers VC10s and five short-/medium-haul DH 121 Tridents. BUA's applications included a request for twice-weekly all-economy/colonial coach class flights linking Gatwick with Istanbul, Teheran, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangkok and Singapore, with a weekly extension to Hong Kong and Tokyo, respectively. BUA intended to inaugurate its first-ever scheduled services to Asia with DC-6Cs or Britannias, which were to be replaced with the new VC10s at a later stage. The airline planned to charge standard IATA fares on all sectors. In addition, it proposed to offer British residents flying to Singapore and Hong Kong in Skycoach an 18% discount on the equivalent economy class fares. In May of that year, BUA became the first independent airline in the UK to launch a brand-new jet aircraft, when it placed an order for ten short-/medium-haul BAC One-Eleven 200 series. The same month, the airline placed an order for four Vickers VC10 long-haul jets costing £2.8 million apiece. Laker personally negotiated these orders with both manufacturers. The combined order value was £20 million. At that time, the ATLB conducted a hearing into BUA's applications for over 20 scheduled route licences to enable it to expand the European network to include a number of major trunk routes from its Gatwick base, such as Gatwick to Paris, Milan, Zürich, Amsterdam and Athens, in competition with existing services of BEA from Heathrow. Although the ATLB granted BUA the requested licences for 12 of these routes, the airline was unable to use them without actual traffic rights.
These needed to be negotiated on its behalf between the UK Government and its overseas counterparts. Following the ATLB's decision, BUA commenced scheduled services between Gatwick and Tenerife in October 1961 using Viscounts. The same month, the airline started Viscount trooping flights from Gatwick to Germany under contract to the MoD.
At the start of the 1961–62 winter timetable in November 1961, BUA's fixed-wing fleet numbered 43 aircraft comprising Bristol Britannia and Vickers Viscount turboprops, as well as Douglas DC-6 and Bristol 170 Freighter piston airliners. Britannias and DC-6s operated to East, Central and Southern Africa, including non-stop Gatwick—Entebbe Britannia services, while Viscounts plied the multistop West African coastal route. Viscounts also served the airline's scheduled routes to the Canary Islands and Continental Europe.
In 1962, Jersey Airlines, a former "BEA associate", and Silver City Airways joined the BUA group of companies. The operations of these airlines were reorganised into British United (C.I.) Airways (BUA (C.I.)), British United (Manx) Airways and British United Air Ferries.
In May 1962, BUA revised the order it had placed a year earlier for four long-haul VC10s to two firm orders and two options; the options were not taken up following BUA's failure to obtain licences from the ATLB to operate scheduled services to Asia
From 20 July 1962, a Vickers-Armstrongs VA-3 hovercraft was operated by BUA and ran from Leasowe embankment on the Wirral Peninsula to Rhyl in North Wales. However, due to varying reasons, including bad weather and technical difficulties, the service was cancelled after its final journey on 14 September 1962.
During the spring of 1963, BUA commenced additional scheduled services linking Gatwick with Lourdes/Tarbes, Barcelona, Palma and Genoa. At that time, the BUA group operated a fleet of 94 aircraft, which carried 1.8 million passengers, close to 200 million lb (90,000 t) of freight and 130,000 cars on an annualised basis.
On 26 May 1963, BUA began a twice-daily rail-air-rail service between the city centres of London and Paris. The service, which was marketed as Silver Arrow in the UK and as Flèche d'argent in France, was a joint operation between British Rail (BR), BUA and SNCF. At London's Victoria Station, where BUA check-in facilities were available, Paris-bound passengers boarded a BR train to Gatwick Airport railway station. At Gatwick they transferred to a BUA Viscount, which flew them to Le Touquet Airport. At Le Touquet Airport an SNCF train was waiting to take them to Paris's Gare du Nord station. The entire journey took five hours and the minimum return fare was £10 9s. This compared with Skyways Coach-Air's London Victoria Coach Station — Lympne Airport — Beauvais Airport — Paris République Coach Station £11 return coach-air-coach fare. BUA's Silver Arrow service was an example of Laker turning an adversity into an opportunity. BUA's lack of traffic rights prevented it from running non-stop Gatwick—Paris scheduled flights although it held a licence for that route, which the ATLB had awarded it in late 1961. Faced with this restriction, Laker hit upon the idea to offer an indirect travel option between the city centres of London and Paris by combining the existing Victoria—Gatwick rail link with BUA's Gatwick – Le Touquet traffic rights. At the time, Le Touquet Airport was not linked to the French railway network. As a result, the surface journey between the airport and Paris was difficult and time-consuming as this involved an intermodal change between coach and train at Étaples. To overcome this drawback, Laker persuaded the French authorities to build a spur line into Le Touquet Airport so that BUA passengers could be met on arrival by a dedicated SNCF train that took them direct to Gare du Nord train station in the centre of Paris. BUA's new London—Paris rail-air-rail service via Gatwick replaced a coach-air-coach/rail service it had operated on this route via Lydd. BUA Silver Arrow fares were less than what BEA and Air France charged their passengers to fly non-stop between Heathrow and Paris to compensate for the longer travelling times (5 hr vs. 2 hr 45 min.).
The first of the two VC10s on firm order was handed over to BUA on 11 September 1964. Two days later, the aircraft was displayed at the Farnborough Airshow, where it replaced the larger Super VC10 prototype on the last day of the show. After being ferried to Gatwick the same evening, it began an eight-day series of proving and demonstration flights in East and Central Africa. The payload included Laker and his 1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.
Commercial VC10 operations commenced on 1 October 1964 with a trooping flight from Gatwick to Aden. This made BUA the first British independent airline to commence uninterrupted jet operations.
While negotiations with relevant authorities in the UK and destination countries for the grant of interim operating permits to enable the transfer of BOAC's loss-making routes to South America and to ensure continuity of service were still in progress, BUA's first proving flight to that continent took place on 12 October 1964. It was operated with one of the brand-new VC10s, which carried a small load of VIPs comprising BUA MD Laker and a high-ranking British trade delegation.
On 2 November 1964, the first scheduled passenger service with the type departed Gatwick for Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
VC10s also replaced Britannias and DC-6s on BUA's routes to East and Southern Africa, where the newly delivered jets took over from the piston/turboprop types on scheduled services from Gatwick to Entebbe, Nairobi, Ndola, Lusaka and Salisbury.
Contemporary bilateral transport arrangements prevented BUA from offering a first class on its East African routes. To compensate for this loss of competitiveness, Freddie Laker came up with the novel idea of designing a cargo door to be installed on the left-hand side of the forward fuselage of the airline's VC10s, where the first class cabin was normally located. This modification permitted the carriage of additional freight instead of first class passengers on the East African routes. BUA's VC10s also had extended wingtips that were slightly bent downwards to reduce the aircraft's cruise drag and to help it overcome the instability encountered when entering a stall, as well as an intermediate, 14-degree flap setting to enable all-year round, nonstop flights from the then relatively short runway at Nairobi's hot-and-high Embakasi Airport to Gatwick with a full payload and reserves.
On 5 November 1964, BUA inaugurated regular scheduled services from Gatwick to Rio, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Santiago. BUA's new South American flights initially operated twice-weekly with alternate stops in Madrid and Lisbon, and a refuelling stop in Las Palmas. São Paulo and a third weekly frequency, which routed through Freetown to/from Buenos Aires, were added subsequently. The third frequency permitted BUA to alter its South American route pattern. As a result, one flight terminated in Brazil and end-to-end travelling times on the new Gatwick – Freetown – Buenos Aires – Santiago service reduced by over two hours compared with the previous routeing. The consequent overall capacity increase, including a greater choice of flights and shorter journey times between the UK, Argentina and Chile, made BUA's schedules more competitive with rivals.
In late 1964, Air Ferry joined the BUA group of companies as a consequence of Air Holdings' acquisition of Leroy Tours, Air Ferry's owners, thereby restoring the cross-Channel vehicle ferry services monopoly of British United Air Ferries.
In early April 1965, BUA received the first of the short-haul BAC One-Elevens, for which it had placed the launch order back in 1961, into its fleet. BUA operated the world's first commercial One-Eleven flight on 9 April 1965 from London Gatwick to Genoa.
The expansion of BUA's long-haul flying programme – both scheduled and non-scheduled – resulted in an order for a third VC10 in early May 1965. Technically, BUA took over an order Ghana Airways had cancelled. Practically, this meant that the aircraft was built to BUA's specifications featuring the same cargo door on the left side of the forward fuselage as its sister aircraft, thereby ensuring fleet interchangeability. This aircraft was delivered on 31 July 1965. It entered service in a single-class configuration featuring 127, rear-facing seats to be primarily used for long-haul trooping flights.
On 4 January 1966, BUA commenced domestic scheduled services with the new One-Elevens from Gatwick to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast. These services were branded as InterJet. This made BUA the first UK domestic operator plying trunk routes exclusively with jet equipment.
BUA also became the only airline in the world to operate One-Elevens on an intercontinental, long-haul scheduled route, when it introduced the 200 series on its multi-stop West African service linking Gatwick with Lagos via Lisbon, Las Palmas, Bathurst, Freetown and Accra.
During August 1966, BUA also introduced a new two-tone, sandstone and blue colour scheme. VC10 G-ASIX was first to appear in the new livery. This was sometimes unofficially referred to as the "hockey stick" livery.
BUA followed up its initial order for ten 200 series One-Elevens with an additional order for five stretched One-Eleven 500s. These were larger capacity aircraft with a higher takeoff weight that were primarily intended for use on the airline's European IT routes. These aircraft joined BUA's fleet from May 1969.
Reorganisation
At the end of 1965, Laker decided to relinquish his post as managing director and leave the company to set up his own airline.
Following Laker's departure from BUA, Max Stuart-Shaw was appointed as BUA's new MD. Stuart-Shaw was a former senior manager at Central African Airways. His brief was to oversee the successful implementation of the board's original policy decision taken in the early 1960s to transform BUA into a scheduled airline. Although Laker had largely succeeded in welding the various constituent airlines that made up BUA into a single, integrated enterprise towards the end of his tenure while ensuring the business remained profitable, it lacked the quality of a frontline scheduled carrier. Despite the growth in scheduled activities during that period, the airline was still perceived as mainly a charter and freight operator. When Stuart-Shaw took over from Laker, he strengthened BUA's management organisation by developing the personnel department, expanding the planning unit, as well as reorganising operations and engineering. He also improved the quality of the airline's marketing. As a result, BUA witnessed a major improvement in the quality of its promotional material and in the number of flights departing on time, making its punctuality record one of the UK airline industry's best.
Alan Bristow, the founder of Bristow Helicopters, succeeded Stuart-Shaw as BUA MD in December 1967 following the latter's decision to relinquish the chief executive role only two years after his appointment. By the time Bristow took over, BUA was losing money.
BUA had recorded its first-ever loss in 1965, mainly as a result of the high depreciation charges its newly acquired jet fleet incurred and substantial losses the ex-BOAC South American routes generated. Over the following two years, the airline's financial situation rapidly deteriorated. In 1966, the loss amounted to £250,000. The following year it almost doubled. Preliminary loss projections released during summer 1967 had shown that a continuation of this trend would produce a negative result of more than £1 million in 1968 and an even higher deficit the year after. This scenario undermined the board's case for additional shareholder funds to finance the purchase of new long-haul jet equipment to replace the remaining Britannias and caused growing anxiety among shareholders, who threatened to withdraw their support unless there was a marked improvement in the airline's long-term prospects.
From Wikipedia’s article on British United Airways, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3