• Aquila Airways

Aquila Airways, Britain’s last operator of large flying boats, was founded on 18 May 1948 by Wing-Commander Barry Aikman, capitalising on his wartime RAF experience with No.210 Flying Boat Squadron. Two ex-BOAC Short Sunderlands (G-AGEU and G-AGIA) were acquired which after conversion were placed on the Berlin Airlift and later joined by G-AHEO; between August and mid-December these two aircraft clocked-up around 700 hours during 265 sorties shuttling between Finkenwerder on the Elbe and Berlin’s Lake Havel. From the proceeds, Aquila purchased further examples, bringing the total up to 12 by late February 1949, five of which were made airworthy and the rest retained as a source of spares. Seeking alternative business, a BEA associate agreement was concluded for a scheduled passenger service between Southampton and Madeira, the proving flight being undertaken via Lisbon by G-AGEU on 24 March 1949 with a party of VIP guests. This same aircraft opened regular flights commencing 14 May 1949 and, together with G-AGKY, maintained the connection until July, when they were joined by the airline’s sole Short Sandringham, G-AGKX. Lacking direct UK-Portugal traffic rights, a return trip between Madeira and Lisbon was built-into the weekly summer schedule.

Nearer home, Aquila also began flying holidaymakers between Falmouth and the Isles of Scilly during summer months. To keep the fleet occupied many ships-crew charters were undertaken, leading the Sunderlands to destinations as far apart as Helsinki and Aden. Hauling five tonnes of apricots from Spain or carrying gold ingots from Kuwait to Goa was typical of the ad hoc work of the period. A planned series of luxury Mediterranean air cruises in association with Thomas Cook foundered due to lack of public demand. Similarly, a projected service between Falmouth, Southampton, Edinburgh (Leith) and Glasgow (Greenock) never took off, although a token trip was made by G-AGJN on 1 June 1950.

While the Madeira service proved very popular, with nearly 3,000 passengers carried during the first season, aircraft utilisation generally had not reached expectations. Thus, a second BEA agreement was negotiated for scheduled services linking Southampton with Jersey, flown twice each Saturday during summer months and alighting at St Aubyn’s Bay. From 1951 Aquila introduced the first of several Short Solents, ultimately converted to 56-seaters, which took over the Madeira run, extended to the Canary Islands for the 1952 season. Meanwhile, at the invitation of the Falkland Islands Co, the airline conducted an 18,000-mile route survey from the Falklands to Montevideo in April 1952, but no subsequent regular service ensued.

In March 1953 Aquila was taken over by British Aviation Services, but although this did not result in any major operational changes, Barry Aikman resigned his position with the airline three years later. A novel summer enterprise for 1953 was a series of one-hour aerial cruises giving sightseers a unique view of the Royal Navy’s fleet anchored in the Solent for the Coronation Review. In close proximity lay the three ill-fated Saro Princess flying-boats, moth-balled after having been rejected by BOAC, which Aquila were interested in obtaining for expansion of its popular scheduled services. However, no agreement could be reached with the Ministry of Supply and they were eventually scrapped.

Having doubled the number of scheduled passengers, the Madeira route was now flown twice weekly and the Canary Islands, once weekly. Seeking further diversification, in the following year another route was opened, this time between Southampton and the Isle of Capri with a brief rest stop at Marseilles, and first flown on 3 June 1954 by Solent G-ANAJ. Later in the year, Aquila applied for a licence to operate cargo flights to Perth, Western Australia, but no such service was ever started. Nevertheless, during the course of the next two years, new passenger routes were opened to Genoa, nearby Santa Margherita and Montreux on Lake Geneva.

By 1957 Aquila had entered the inclusive tour market through a tie-up with Club Mediteraneé, flying holidaymakers from Marseilles to Palermo and Corfu. A further licence was also held for inclusive tour flights to Majorca. Now uplifting more than 8,000 passengers annually, with the retirement from service of the last serviceable Sunderland in July 1956 and the loss of Solent G-ANAJ two months later during a gale at Santa Margherita, the airline was facing a severe equipment shortage. Although temporarily arrested by the arrival of Solent G-AHIN, the capacity situation was again exacerbated by the tragedy involving G-AKNU, which crashed on the Isle of Wight after losing power on two engines shortly after take-off for Madeira.

This left just three Solents remaining to meet the airline’s scheduled commitments with little prospect of finding suitable replacements. Coupled with increasing competition from the growing number of holiday charter airlines, this marked the beginning of Aquila’s decline, which eventually ceased all operations on 30 September 1958. Aquila’s remaining three aircraft were transferred to Artop, a Portuguese company and ferried to Lisbon in anticipation of starting a new airline, Aerovias Aquila, but after almost 13 years slowly rusting on the banks of the river Tagus, they were finally broken up in 1971.