• British Island Airways

As part of the reorganisation within the British United Air Holdings group, British United (Channel Islands) Airways was formed on 1 November 1962, by merging the networks of Silver City and Jersey Airlines, although owing to its popularity the latter title continued in use until August 1963. A substantial fleet of Dakotas, Doves, Herons, Heralds and Viscounts was employed, mainly on scheduled routes to the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, as well as the nightly newspaper flights formerly operated by Transair. Main bases were Southampton for the Channel Islands division and Blackpool for the Manx Division with out-stations at London-Gatwick, Jersey, Guernsey, Exeter, Isle of Man and later, Bournemouth-Hurn. In addition to the extensive domestic network linking major UK population centres with the islands, some services were also flown on behalf of British United Airways, such as Gatwick-Rotterdam, together with ad hoc and contract charter work. A Rail-Air link was also operated to the Channel Islands, through the conveniently located train station adjacent to Southampton’s Eastleigh airport.

By 1967 reduction of the extensive Dakota fleet was well under-way, with several transferred to Morton Air Services, along with some Doves and Heralds for their services to Alderney, Exeter and Swansea. With the Viscounts already dropped in 1966-7, replacements came in the shape of further HP Heralds, a dozen of which were in service by the mid-1970s. Following a £280,000 loss in island services for 1967, the airline’s management formulated a plan to streamline operations by combining the various divisions into a single entity, resulting in redundancies for around half of the existing 573 staff. In response, on 27 July 1968, those potentially affected initiated industrial action over compensation terms, which lasted for three weeks before going to arbitration, costing British United Airways an estimated £150,000.

Eventually, from 1 November 1968, British United (C.I.) Airways, British United (Manx) Airways and later Morton Air Services were combined under the title British United Island Airways. At the same time, Morton’s services to Swansea were dropped, as were those to Alderney a year later, when the DH Dove and Heron fleets were withdrawn towards the end of 1969; Alderney services subsequently passed to Aurigny Air Services. By the time that British United was finally sold to Caledonian Airways on 30 November 1970, British United Island Airways had already evolved into British Island Airways on 20 July 1970, and did not form part of the deal, being retained by British and Commonwealth Shipping (91%) and Eagle Star Insurance (9%).

In April 1971 British Island Airways further extended its scope to the continent with the opening of a Herald service between Gatwick and Antwerp, flown in conjunction with Sabena. A similar operation from London-Heathrow was also undertaken on behalf of Belgium’s national carrier. Two years later, services between Bournemouth and the Channel Islands were revived using Heralds, with Dakotas additionally operating all-cargo services on this run. Scheduled feeder services on behalf of British Caledonian between Gatwick and Manchester using Heralds were also flown from November 1973, as was the ‘Silver Arrow’ London-Paris rail air link between Gatwick and Le Touquet. British Island Airways’s final Dakota flight took place between Guernsey and Hurn, operated by G-AMSV on 30 May 1974 and the airline then became an all-Herald operator. Retaining its core UK network, by 1975 enlarged to take in Edinburgh Glasgow and carrying over 500,000 passengers annually, British Island Airways also flew extensive nightly cargo and newspaper flights to points as far distant as Düsseldorf and Hannover. When British Air Ferriesunderwent restructuring late in 1978, British Island Airways took over its scheduled services under a leasing arrangement, adding Basel, Ostend and Southend to its network along with 140 British Air Ferries staff and six more Herald aircraft.

Inclusive tour flights were also undertaken to Mediterranean tourist resorts with three BAC 1-11s and this remained British Island Airways’ primary role when, together with British and Commonwealth Shipping’s other airline interests, it was subsumed into the newly-formed Air UK on 1 January 1980. In April 1982 Peter Villa, who had risen from chief accountant with British Island Airways in its early days to become Air UK’s managing director, now joined with Terry Oldham, former managing director of Pelican Air Transport and a group of pilots to buy-out the British Island Airways charter operation. Revitalising the British Island Airways name, the new airline began with Air UK’s three original BAC 1-11s based at Gatwick, operating affinity and European inclusive tour charters from Belfast, Birmingham, Exeter and Manchester. Having carried 250,000 passengers in its first year, a fourth 1-11 was added in 1983 to cope with continuing growth. A developing tie-up with Air Florida saw British Island Airways operating their extended Miami flights from Gatwick to Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf. By 1985, the fleet had expanded to five aircraft and varied work also involved air ambulance, wet-leasing and specialised services to industry, especially the oil exploration sector.

In May 1986 British Island Airways became the first UK airline to be publicly quoted on the Stock Exchange Unlisted Securities Market. By now several leased DC-9s were in prospect, in addition to the eight BAC1-11s already in service. Much of British Island Airways’ business still revolved around the inclusive tour market, flying for major tour operators such as Pegasus, Owners Abroad and Thomsons but in the summer of 1988, British Island Airways branched out into scheduled services, first operating between Gatwick, Catania and Palermo as part of the existing charter commitment, offering up to 60% of the seats to scheduled passengers. In the following year Gatwick and Manchester to Malta were operated on a similar basis, with applications in hand for Gatwick to Nice, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Jersey and Manchester. At this time British Island Airways plc was carrying over a million passengers annually and plans were in hand for further medium-haul scheduled routes to Larnaca from Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. But sadly, in common with many other companies of the period, it fell victim to the general economic downturn and prevailing high interest rates, entering administration and ceasing all operations on 1 February 1990. Peter Villa continued his long association with commercial aviation by forming a professional consultancy business, Apollo Aviation Advisory in 1993 and subsequently became involved with start-up airline, Fly First.