• Skyways

Skyways originated on 8 April 1929 when a small company of that name was formed by Jock Anderson and W Knox to offer charters, pleasure flights and instruction. The company may briefly have operated an Avro 504K (G-AAFJ) in Norfolk, but Anderson was killed in an accident in June 1930 and the company became dormant. In 1936 the company and its name was bought by Sir Alan Cobham but seems not to have been used it until it was resurrected in March 1946. The reconstituted company boasted a prestigious board of experienced aviation personalities that, apart from Sir Alan Cobham, included Capt. R J Ashley, pre-war National Aviation Displays pilot and Brig.-Genl A C Critchley, former director-general of BOAC. Operations commenced two months later when the first Avro York (G-AHFL), of what would become a vast fleet of Avro Yorks, took to the skies on 14 May 1946 en-route for Basra under contract to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.

Skyways first flights were conducted from Langley aerodrome, just west of London-Heathrow, but in November 1946 the company purchased Dunsfold aerodrome in Surrey as a main base. Apart from the regular oil company passenger charters, other early movements involved the operation of aerial cruises to Switzerland on behalf of the notable travel agency, Sir Henry Lunn Ltd. By the end of 1946 Skyways had a fleet of three Yorks, five Lancastrians, three Dakotas and together with a Dragon Rapide and a Dove, these aircraft had carried over 7,300 passengers and 142.5 tonnes of freight. Continuing to concentrate on long-haul work, over the next year, Skyways Yorks and Lancastrians were to be seen in Palestine, West Africa and Hong Kong and Thailand, where Skyways flew a number of overseas air services under contract to the Thai government. Towards the end of 1947 a fast Lancastrian service was opened between Hong Kong and Shanghai, but this soon ceased under pressure from the British government, fearing adverse competition with the state carrier, BOAC. During November and December one of the Dakotas also found its way to the Far East, to be employed on an extended tour of China. Earlier in the summer the aerial cruise programme was extended to the Canary Islands, flown thrice weekly via Lisbon on behalf of the Elder Dempster shipping line and travel agent, Killick Martin.

To cope with this vast increase in passenger business, four Douglas DC-4s were acquired from KLM and these aircraft also undertook passenger and freight charters to Spain, Malta and the Middle East. The Skymasters were also chartered to BOAC in 1948, flying schedules to Abadan, Bahrein, Damascus and Baghdad, while the company’s engineering facility also looked after DC-4 maintenance for the Argentinian airline, FAMA. The Lancastrians, up to a dozen or so aircraft by 1948, also continued to be fully occupied with additional work coming through a contract with the Mauritian government for a regular weekly service between Mauritius, Reunion Island and Nairobi; two aircraft were also converted as 8.2-tonne payload freighters, especially for the continental fruit trade.

In order to provide additional capital, a substantial holding was sold to the Drayton group of companies during 1947 and in turn, Skyways itself obtained an interest in Croydon based Morton Air Services. Skyways provided three Avro Yorks and five Lancastrians toward the Berlin Airlift and between November 1948 and August 1949 these aircraft accounted for 2,749 sorties carrying almost 24,000 tonnes of fuel and supplies into the German capital, making it the second largest British contributor after Sir Alan Cobham’s Flight Refuelling Ltd. In December 1948 an influx of Dakotas, bought from Air Contractors, swelled the fleet even further and several of these found their way to East Africa; from mid-May 1949 Skyways became responsible for operating East African Airways scheduled service from Nairobi and Durban via several major cities down the east coast of Africa. At the same time Skyways (East Africa) was formed to operate a Dakota on behalf of the Overseas Food Corporation, hauling fruit in southern Tangyanika (Tanzania). Elsewhere, two other Dakotas, together with two Rapides were employed on contract to the Kuwait Oil Co, while two Doves were placed at the disposal of the Governor-General of India.

Despite hitherto phenomenal utilisation, towards the end of the decade work for Skyways’ long-range fleet was gradually drying up, leading to the withdrawal of the Lancastrians and the sale of the DC-4s after cessation of the BOAC contract in November 1949. Skyways was placed in voluntary liquidation in March 1950 but out of its ashes came a new company, formed on 31 March 1950 with a capital of £157,000 to continue the business of its predecessor. The main stock-in-trade of the rejuvenated Skyways was a fleet of six Dakotas, together with a few Doves and Rapides, which were mainly employed in servicing the Kuwait Oil contract, carrying troops from Cairo to Nairobi and a short lease to Air Algerie. This situation continued until January 1952, by which time the airline’s entire fleet had been disposed of and it entered a three-month period of dormancy. In March 1952 the ailing company was bought out by the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, which transferred all its long-range operations and substantial fleet of Avro Yorks to Skyways colours. Lancashire Aircraft Corporation’s new subsidiary now became responsible for all existing government trooping movements and in July 1952 Skyways began a new contract to transport military personnel to and from the Caribbean; simultaneously the airline’s base was moved to Bovingdon aerodrome, just north of London.

Another significant event that year was the transportation of British, Canadian and US competitors to the Olympic Games at Helsinki; during the course of 22 separate flights Skyways Yorks moved entire equestrian teams and their mounts, together with 400 other entrants and their equipment. In September 1952 Skyways began operating regular cargo flights for KLM between Amsterdam and Bangkok, while other sorties took the Yorks to Canada, Cyprus, Egypt and Turkey. A month later the airline again switched bases from Bovingdon to Stansted, from where the first flight was made on 28 October 1952 to Colombo.

During November 1952 Eagle Aviation’s five-strong York fleet was bought for £160,000, but Skyways’ total contingent was tragically depleted by the loss of G-AHFA at the beginning of February 1953 when it disappeared without trace over the Atlantic en-route to Kingston, Jamaica, approximately 300 miles short of a refuelling stop at Gander in Newfoundland. Despite this setback and the termination of the East African trooping contract, Skyways still managed to carry almost 72,000 passengers during 1953. Towards the year’s end a new venture saw the opening of the fortnightly Crusader passenger service to Malta and Cyprus, initially flown with Avro Yorks but displaced by HP Hermes with the purchase of a considerable number of ex-BOAC examples in 1955.

Plans were also in hand for the creation of associate airline, Deutsche Lufttransport Gesellschaft (DLG), to employ three Dakotas on passenger and cargo services based in Germany, while in the Middle East Kuwait Independent Airline envisaged taking over the services of Gulf Aviation and extending them to link up with the Crusader service from London; in the event none of these plans ever reached fruition. Instead, Skyways began operating inclusive tour flights utilising its new fleet of pressurised Hermes airliners, which also took over the long-distance trooping flights to Egypt and the Far East, together with newly-concluded Ministry of Defence contract for Cyprus. It was while one of these aircraft (G-ALDW) was awaiting boarding of homebound service personnel at Nicosia that it was destroyed by a time-bomb planted in the baggage compartment.

In March 1955 the Bibby shipping line took a substantial stake in the airline, resulting in a doubling of capital to £315,000, while in December 1956 the parent company, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, was in turn bought out by British Aviation Services, although Skyways itself did not form part of the deal and continued to operate as a separate entity. Thereafter, the nature of Skyways activities began to undergo a number of changes; from the autumn of 1955, a daily coach-air service was operated in conjunction with a number of coach operators. A Skyways Dakota flew the air segment between Lympne in Kent to Beauvais in northern France, affording a relatively speedy but inexpensive way of travelling from London to Paris and beyond. From autumn 1958 this operation was conducted under the title Skyways Coach-Air.

A major change took place at the end of March 1959 with the purchase of an 80% interest in Bahamas Airways from BOAC. Two Dakotas were transferred to replace the existing DH Herons on the local inter-island network and flights to nearby Florida. Attempting to expand the business, two Hermes were also transferred after major refurbishment into 78-seaters, especially to serve the routes to Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. However, the Hermes did not prove a popular choice with US travellers and, coupled with competition from Cunard-Eagle and Pan Am, resulted in mounting losses, amounting to £400,000 by the end of 1960. At this stage BOAC moved in to repossess the airline and put it back on a firmer financial footing. Back home a new Hermes service was opened from London-Heathrow to Tunis in June 1959, while in the same month yet another new type entered service, when Skyways acquired several Lockheed Constellations on lease-purchase from BOAC. With these new aircraft, Skyways undertook BOAC’s scheduled freight service from London to Sydney via Hong Kong and Singapore. They also took over the scheduled passenger flights, including a new run to Tunis, eventually replacing the Hermes when these were sold following cessation of all military trooping contracts.

In 1960 Skyways’ fleets stood at four Constellations and just five Yorks, the latter increasingly used by both BOAC and Pan Am to ferry engines and other aircraft spares, alongside general cargo charters. In September 1961 Eric Rylands bought out the Bibby Line’s shareholding and formed a holding company that bore his name to combine the interests of Skyways, Skyways Coach-Air and Skyways Engineering (formerly the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation’s Samlesbury Engineering). By this time operations had already been considerably reduced and with the loss its prime source of revenue, the BOAC freight contract, already moved in-house with the purchase of its own DC-7C/F, Skyways was left with just its Crusader services and a few ad hoc charters operated by the venerable Avro Yorks. Thus it was that Skyways accepted a take-over bid by another Constellation operator, Euravia, although one Constellation remained in Skyways colours flying Mediterranean schedules until April 1964.