• Dan-Air Services

After the Second World War London shipbrokers Davies and Newman diversified into the air-broking business, the company initially represented Ciro’s Aviation and from 1952 Meredith Air Transport, to which they also rented office space. But by early 1953, Meredith was in financial difficulties and, already holding a bond on their sole Dakota, it was perhaps a logical step for Davies and Newman to take over the aircraft and embark on an air service of its own. So, on 21 May 1953, Dan-Air Services Ltd was born, with Meredith retained on six-month contract to continue operating from its Southend base. The new operator’s first charter with Dakota G-AMSU took place in June between Southend, Manchester and Shannon. Dan-Air had also gained Meredith’s contract for a series of flights to Berlin and it was from there that the Dakota also became busily engaged during the city’s second blockade. This valuable work, together with ad hoc charters and the transportation of holidaymakers to Calvi in Corsica on behalf Fregata Travel, contributed towards figures of 4,243 passengers and almost 109,000 revenue ton-miles by the year’s end.

A second Dakota was obtained in 1954 and, reflecting the parent company’s core business, the two aircraft spent much of their time carrying ships’ crews and urgent marine spares around Europe. In January 1955 the airline moved base to Blackbushe airport in Hampshire and also set up an engineering facility at nearby Lasham aerodrome, where several recently acquired ex-RAF Avro York’s were converted for civilian use as freighters. With these new aircraft, Dan-Air flew many long-distance cargo charters, principally to Africa and the Far East. A War Office contract was gained in 1956 to transport military stores between the UK and Singapore, for which two more Yorks were acquired from Air Charter. Alongside this, the Dakotas maintained regular tourist flights, which by now took in Ostend, the south of France and northern Italy and in June 1956 a regular summer scheduled service to Jersey was opened. Later, in November, these aircraft were also used to good effect in bringing out over 350 refugees from Austria in the aftermath of the Hungarian uprising.

For the 1957 season two new types entered service - a Bristol Freighter for government work and a leased DH Heron to help out with inclusive tour and scheduled movements. By 1959 three Bristols were in service, mainly engaged in transportation of Britain’s experimental ‘Black Knight’ rocket and associated personnel to the Woomera test site in Australia. At the time, the Bristol Freighter was the only aircraft capable of carrying the politically sensitive device, manifested as ‘agricultural machinery’, over a circuitous route via the Philippines and New Guinea, and for which additional 100-gallon tanks were fitted in the nose doors.

Despite the loss of two of the Yorks in 1958, Dan-Air’s cargo carrying reputation was sufficient for the airline to be awarded a two-year BEA scheduled freight contract for London-Manchester-Glasgow, first flown by Dakota G-AMSS on 25 May 1959. On the strength of this, further contracts were later awarded for Brussels, Rome and Milan, although by this time Yorks had all but superseded twin-engine equipment on these services. A substantial increase in scheduled operations came early in 1959 when Dan-Air was approached by Bristol’s local authority to open a network of regular passenger routes from its newly-opened airport at Lulsgate. For this purpose, two DH Doves were purchased, the first of which, G-AIWF, inaugurated a year-round service to Liverpool via Cardiff on 4 April 1960. With the delivery of the second example, a summer-only route was commenced to the Isle of Man in mid-May, again through Cardiff. This small network was progressively expanded to take in Plymouth and Newcastle; meanwhile the airline’s first seasonal international service was accomplished by Dakota G-AMSU, flying between Cardiff, Bristol and Basle on 16 July 1960.

The imminent closure of Blackbushe saw Dan-Air re-locate to Gatwick at the end of May 1960, from where its newly-acquired Airspeed Ambassadors began operating the original scheduled Jersey service, along with numerous inclusive tour movements into continental Europe. Holiday operations were also conducted from Manchester to Basle and Ostend, largely flown by Bristol 170s in passenger configuration. Major expansion of scheduled operations came early in 1961, with the acquisition of Scottish Airlines routes from Prestwick, making it possible to fly from Plymouth and Exeter in the south to Perth and Dundee in Scotland, although in the following year several of these routes were cut-back due to lack of support. Nevertheless, scheduled passenger uplift was still almost 36,000 for 1963, at a load factor of around 43%; conversely, the popularity of the Ambassador, especially on inclusive tour services, returned over 70,000.

On the international front a second Dakota service was begun between Liverpool and Rotterdam in January 1962 and, later in the year, Ostend became available from both Bristol and Gatwick. With the introduction of BEA’s new AW Argosy freighters in 1963, Dan-Air’s cargo contracts came to an end, necessitating reduction of the York fleet to a single machine retained for long-haul work. Total replacement came in 1965 with the temporary lease of two passenger/cargo DC-4s from Trans World Leasing, followed by purchase of a dedicated 15-ton capacity Douglas DC-7CF in March 1966. Meanwhile, the Bristol Freighters continued to prove their worth - on one occasion cramming in no less than five Formula One racing cars for their European competitive tour; they remained in service until eventual retirement in 1970. It was a similar story with the Dakota fleet, which also undertook sometimes unusual ad hoc work; in October 1965, suitably adorned, G-AMSS was hired by Rediffusion Television to carry prize-winners from the popular ‘Double Your Money’ game show to various European destinations. One of the pilots was none other than the show’s celebrated host, Hughie Green who, with over 1,000 hours on Dakotas, flew many of the sectors himself.

Looking to increasing inclusive tour capacity, Dan-Air made a bold decision in October 1966 to purchase two ex-BOAC DH Comet 4s for conversion to 116-seat tourist configuration. Over the next decade or so, Dan Air’s predilection for the Comet was such that eventual ownership accounted for 49 examples, more than half of the total production. Proving the wisdom of the choice, the Comets achieved utilisation of 8,000 hours during their first year. However, in 1968 the imposition of government exchange controls depressed the UK holiday market and to overcome this difficulty, arrangements were concluded with West German travel agents for charters from West Berlin to Mediterranean resorts. The position was somewhat alleviated early in 1969 with the takeover of Everyman Travel and Lunn-Poly contracts from the recently-collapsed British Eagle. However, by this time, the Comet fleet stood at just six aircraft while this substantial new business required increased capacity. This was satisfied by the purchase of two ex-American Airlines BAC 111-200s and two more Comets, which were based at Luton, to conduct up to 60 flights per week for Lunn-Poly alone. The small Manchester operation was also rapidly expanded with two Comets helping to account for nearly 100,000 passengers carried from there during the year. The Comet was also responsible Dan-Air’s very first transatlantic charter to Trinidad in October 1969.

Casting around for a Dakota replacement, an order was placed for a single HP Jetstream following several days of trials by demonstrator G-AXEK on its inter-city service. Unfortunately, Handley-Page went into receivership in 1970 and thus Dan-Air was forced to reappraise its requirement. Ultimately, the perhaps unusual choice fell on the Nord 262, capable of carrying 29 passengers in pressurised comfort and satisfying the multi-stop demands of the ‘Link City’ service with minimal reliance on specialised ground equipment. The new aircraft made its debut on the Newcastle-Liverpool-Cardiff-Bristol run on 22 July 1970, coincident with the Dakota's retirement, the last example, G-AMPP, becoming a familiar display at the Lasham engineering facility.

Earlier in the same month, Dan-Air suffered its first fatal accident when Comet G-APDN crashed into a mountainside on approach to Barcelona with loss of all aboard. This tragic news somewhat overshadowed the £2.5m inclusive tour deal signed with Global Holidays just two days earlier, but a more cheerful event was the granting of a five-year Transatlantic affinity-group charter permit by the US Civil Aeronautics Board in October 1970. To service this new outlet, a new marketing company, Dan Air Intercontinental, was formed as a joint venture with North American travel specialist, CPS Jetsave. Having originally specified Douglas DC-8s for this operation, in the event an ex-Pan Am Boeing 707-321 was obtained to handle these long-haul flights, which commenced in March 1971.

In September 1971 a major structural re-organisation saw the Dan-Air group of companies, which covered engineering, ground-handling, catering and aircraft leasing, converted to a public company valued at around £5m. That month the airline finally took its trusty Ambassador (which had flown over 10 million miles) out of service. Meanwhile the second prototype Avro 748 G-ARAY had already entered service on the airline’s Newcastle-Kristiansand route from May 1971 and was augmented by four more examples gained from the takeover of Skyways International in April 1972. Known as Dan-Air Skyways, the former cross-Channel coach-air route to Beauvais was transferred to Gatwick and the inherited licences for Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand were later activated in conjunction with the winter sports trade.

With their new vehicle, expanded to seven aircraft by 1973, a plethora of scheduled routes were opened during this period including several to the Channel Islands and two to Amsterdam. Comet operations peaked in 1973, with 22 aircraft in service, but the search for a potential successor had already culminated in the introduction of three ex-JAL Boeing 727s, after major engineering work to satisfy British certification requirements, and a growing number of BAC 1-11s. Dan-Air’s Boeing 707s were also kept busy with long-haul charters to the Far East and Australia in addition to regular transatlantic ABC (Advanced Booking Charters) work, boosted by a new contract with International Weekend of Boston, worth £4.7m. Other notable movements included Haj flights to Mecca for Iranair, a series of 21-day round-the-world flights for a German tour company and wet-lease to IAS Cargo. This latter aircraft and its crew was unfortunately lost following stabiliser failure on approach to Lusaka in May 1977.

The HS.748s also found a new market in support of the Scottish oil industry with a Conoco contract to transport personnel between Aberdeen and Sumburgh. One aircraft was especially modified in 1982 by incorporation of a large rear cargo door to accommodate outsize consignments of pipe and drilling equipment. Other valuable work came in the form of nightly Post Office mail services radiating from Liverpool in 1979 and long-term leases to British Airways for their Scottish network in the early 1980s. Over the years, the internal scheduled network had undergone many changes and early in 1982 the concept was further developed when Metropolitan Airways commenced operating two DH Twin Otters under the ‘Dan Air Link City’ banner. This arrangement was also briefly augmented by Centreline’s Embraer Bandeirantes flying between Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow in October 1982, but these co-operative ventures came to an end with the liquidation of Metropolitan in September 1985.

Long before the Equal Opportunities Act, Dan-Air was employing female pilots and six years after joining, in June 1975, Yvonne Sintes graduated to become the UK’s first pure-jet captain. Now carrying around 2.5m passengers annually and with around 50% of its income generated from UK inclusive tour operations, in the early 1980s Dan-Air began looking towards further modernisation of its jet fleet. Having already enlarged its B727 fleet to 10 aircraft, Dan-Air leased its first Boeing 737-200 in November 1980, commensurate with the phasing-out of the ageing Comets. In 1983 it became the UK launch customer for BAe’s 146-100 ‘Whisperjet’, which began operations on the Gatwick-Berne service, as the only jet airliner capable of using the Swiss airport’s limited runway length. With two further examples in service, by January 1985 the type had recorded its millionth passenger. The programme was further carried forward by refurbishment of the BAC 1-11-500 fleet to give a wide-body look and it was this aircraft which inaugurated Dan-Air’s first flight from London-Heathrow to Inverness on 27 March 1983. All of which helped the airline to £3.5m profit on a turnover of £196m.

Entry into the wide-bodied market came in 1986 with the lease of a 312-seat Airbus A300 from Hapag-Lloyd, capable of operating longer holiday charters to the Canaries, Israel and Egypt and competing effectively with the peak period capacity offered by the likes of British Airtours, Calair and Britannia. The final phase of fleet modernisation was in evidence from early in 1988 with arrival of larger Boeing 737-300 and 400 models, which were initially placed on contract holiday charters for the UK’s major tour operators. To accommodate the influx of new aircraft, a new £10m hangar complex at Gatwick was opened in May 1988 and the parallel facility at Manchester was also enhanced to take care of some of the short-haul fleet. By the end of the decade, Dan-Air’s renowned engineering base at Lasham had grown to a hangarage of 70,000 square feet with the capability of overhauling all of the airline’s diverse types of aircraft, together with a surplus capacity of some 45% available for outside customers.

Meantime, the scheduled network had grown apace, boosted by the introduction of ‘class elite’ for business travellers on key routes, such that by end of the decade over 20 European destinations ranging from Stockholm to Athens were being served. Passenger facilities were also upgraded with the introduction of computerised reservations, check-in and baggage control. But a series of domestic and global events were building that would halt Dan-Air’s phenomenal growth and eventually bring the airline to its knees. Record profits of £10m in 1988 were suddenly transformed into a £3.3m loss during the following year, despite carrying over 6 million passengers, resulting in a cash-flow crisis brought about by a general downturn in airline business coupled with high interest rates and, ultimately, fall-out from the Gulf War. A further blow was the loss of the substantial Air Europe engineering contract, eventually contributing to the sale of Dan-Air Engineering to Danish-owned FLS (Aerospace) in February 1991.

Despite swingeing staff cuts and other austerity measures, funds were still haemorrhaging at an alarming rate, leading the management to come close to concluding takeover deals with both British Midland and British Airways. After intense negotiations and with just three hours to spare before foreclosure, a last-ditch re-financing package was agreed with Dan-Air’s banking consortium on 19 February 1990. To satisfy its backers, Dan-Air now embarked on a major re-structuring programme, with focus switched towards short-haul scheduled flights strengthened by the takeover of key routes from the recently-collapsed Air Europe, fleet age reduction by leasing newer aircraft and rationalisation of the holiday charter sector to balance seasonal demand fluctuations.

Based on forward projections this appeared to be a viable proposition, but did not reckon on the UK‘s continuing economic decline, resulting in a half-year operating loss for 1992 of some £24m. By late September 1992 the press was speculating on rumours of a merger with Virgin Atlantic and, following a fall in the parent company’s stock price by 75%, at the end of the month share trading was suspended. As the only alternative to receivership, on 23 October 1992 a deal was finally struck with British Airways, anxious to improve its own position at Gatwick, for the takeover of Dan-Air’s assets (and considerable liabilities) for the sum of just £1. On 6 November 1992 Boeing 737, G-BNNK, bound for Madrid, lifted-off from Gatwick to conduct Dan-Air’s very last flight.