• Titan Airways

In March 1988 Artac Air Chartering - a subsidiary of the Artac freight and shipping group, established in 1976 - purchased a Cessna Titan from Sweden. Two months earlier it had formed Titan Airways, named for its sole aircraft, to undertake ‘just in time’ charters especially for the European automotive industry. Offering a one-hour response capability, the business soon flourished, warranting the acquisition of an Embraer Bandeirante in October 1988, followed by a second Titan in June 1989 and a Shorts 330 in November 1990. In 1991 Titan’s Bandeirante became the first of its type to venture to the Soviet Union, when it carried a shipment of live eels to Tallinn in Estonia.

When US express package carrier, UPS, began establishing itself in Europe during the early 1990s, Titan Airways was contracted to fly its Shorts 330 on services linking the UK air hub at Southend with regional centres at Southampton, Gloucester and Plymouth and later, flights between Shannon, Paris and the UK. In February 1992 Titan underwent a management buy-out by managing director Gene Wilson and commercial director Brian Donald, aided by venture capital firm, 3i. The arrival of three Shorts 360s, from the late summer of 1992, enabled Titan to secure contracts with Royal Mail Skynet for overnight transfer of first-class mail from Plymouth, Exeter, Inverness, London-Stansted, Norwich and Edinburgh to sorting hubs at East Midlands and Liverpool; a line of work for which the airline later received several performance recognition awards from Royal Mail. Varied passenger work included wine-tasting excursions to northern France and transfer of oil-rig personnel, while the smaller Titan aircraft were periodically engaged in transporting surgical transplant teams at short notice from Addenbrookes and Papworth specialist heart hospitals.

The first of two 46-seat ATR-42s was obtained in 1994, together with jet equipment in the shape of a Cessna Citation. A period of rapid growth began in early 1996, marked by the introduction of a BAe 146QC in April, with its ability to switch between 80-seat passenger and 10 tonne all-cargo configurations in just 30 minutes. The new aircraft’s first contract was a month-long wet-lease to Meridiana of Florence, followed by short-notice movements for Aer Lingus in July and later a month-long assignment as support ship for the European tour of The Eagles American rock band. During the first six months of operation Titan’s new aircraft completed over 650 flight hours. Flights on behalf of over 30 major UK and European airlines ensued, together with charters for industrial, corporate and sporting clients among whom numbered BMW, BP, Nissan, Porsche, Xerox and Jordan Racing and many team movements for major UK and European football clubs.

Following the addition of a Boeing 737 in June 1999 and the subsequent replacement of one BAe 146 with a larger 94-seat version, both these aircraft were engaged on a luxury flight programme on behalf of Cunard, carrying clients to Rome, Venice, Genoa, Istanbul and Malaga for cruises on the cruise liner, Caronia; following which they undertook wet leases for both Augsburg and Tyrolean Airways. Another series of charters saw the aircraft engaged on flights for the Ministry of Defence and military equipment manufacturer, BAe Systems. The versatile fleet and highly flexible ‘go now’ capability, enabling a custom configured aircraft launch within 60 minutes of booking, won Titan Airways the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2001.

Beginning early in 2003 Titan began moving towards an all-jet fleet when a second B737 was obtained in February and two months later, the airline acquired long-range capability with the addition of a Boeing 757. Having gained 120-minute ETOPS approval, this aircraft was used to carry the England national football team on its friendly promotional tour to the USA in May 2005. During the winter of 2004-5 Titan flew winter sports holiday charters to Norway and to Chambery in the French Alps from several UK airports on behalf of Crystal Holidays. A year later Titan was engaged to operate two B757s under its airline operator certificate on behalf of budget airline, Jet2. Another B737 was on long-term lease to British Airways until February 2005; while a BAe 146 was committed to Scot Airways’ upgraded jet service between London-City Airport and Edinburgh. The ATRs were sold to Guatemala early in 2005, but a Beech King Air was retained for ad hoc corporate, air ambulance and crew movements.

In 2012, after a management buy-out, Titan became an independent company with Gene Willson, one of the original founders and managing director, as the sole shareholder. The first Airbus joined the fleet in spring 2013 and was the start of a long-term strategy to replace the fleet of Boeing aircraft with Airbus aircraft. By November 2013 the last of the BAe 146s were sold and the airline announced that the Boeing 737 fleet would progressively be replaced by Airbus A320s, the first of which was delivered in May 2013. In early 2023 Titan Airways retired its last Boeing 737 and 757 aircraft.