1970s - DAN AIR REMEMBERED

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1970


Dan-Air Engineering opened a new hanger at their base in Lasham this year. The large heated hanger could handle the ever growing fleet. The go ahead was given, on condition that no aircraft engines would be tested between 8pm and 6am. Meanwhile, a consortium of UK airlines asked the ATLB to allow them to raise regional fares by 5 1/2% claiming that if they were not allowed to, they would lose a collective £2,000,000 due to increases in aviation fuel prices. In March the carrier was advertising for 'Air Stewardesses' the age range was 20-28 and applicants had to be well groomed, have good eyesight and be educated up to GCE or equivalent moreover they had to be single.

This Autair International Airways became known as Court Line. The latter had bought Autair's share capital in 1964 and Clarkson's Holidays were Autair's biggest customer and following the take over Court Line Aviation was born. Autair had a fleet of Hawker Siddeley 748 and Handley Page Herald turbo-prop aircraft and four BAC 1-11 400 series. Upon the take-over the prop-liners were sold and five BAC 1-11 500 were purchased. The expanded charter airline would take over several Dan-Air charters. On the plus side, the airline withdrew from scheduled services. Court Line wanted to show themselves as a bright and cheery holiday airline, and opted to paint their new aircraft in a bright new colour scheme. Each jet would wear  pink, yellow green or magenta livery. This extended to the cabin interiors. The airline would change charter flights in many ways, not all of them popular.
In March two Tour Operators wished to charter Dan-air Comet aircraft to operate a series of flights to Cyprus from Gatwick. The flights would mainly carry servicemen and their families. At a licencing hearing with the Air Transport Licencing Board (ATLB) State owned British European Airways (BEA) objected saying that the flights might divert people away from the scheduled services that the carrier operated to Cyprus. The board reserved judgement and would abnnounce their decision later.

Channel Airways had committed themselves to purchasing the BAC 1-11 despite their reputation as being financially weak. Hawker Siddeley began negotiations with Channel in 1967, with a view to purchasing a newer version of the Trident, guaranteeing the airline a 20% reduction in seat-mile costs over the Trident 1E.  With a full payload of 139 the Trident 3 had a range of 1,930 miles or 2,570 miles with 100 passengers in a low-density seating configuration. The latter brought the Canary Islands within the aircraft's non-stop range from the UK and West Berlin. These were also the first Tridents ordered by a UK independent airline. Hawker Siddeley had five remaining unsold Trident 5E and Channel's order was worth £8 million. This was a substantial debt for a UK independent carrier. The arrival of Channel's Trident May 1968 coincided with the delivery of its second 1-11.
In 1968 Channel had reduced their outstanding jet aircraft orders due to the economic situation in the UK. This resulted in cancellation of three orders for Tridents and 1-11 jets. Channel's increasing dependence on the IT market made it a highly seasonal airline, unlike Dan-Air who operated scheduled services year round and had been successful with charters to winter destinations and long haul flights.  Furthermore, the end of the winter there followed by a six-week period of intense activity starting in April, when all Dan-Air aircraft were contracted by Clarkson's to fly British tourists to and from Rotterdam for the Dutch bulb-field season from ten UK airports. The flights were popular with passengers and utilised aircraft that were not used to the their full potential. Dan-Air had negotiated other day trip flights to European cities. May would see the start of the main summer season for all airlines, usually commencing with flights to Majorca, Spain and Morocco under contract to major Tour Operators. Flights to other resorts started the following month. During the peak period in July and August, UK airlines like Dan-Air operated 24 hours a day, flying scheduled routes during the day and IT destinations at night. The increase in utilisation meant that aircraft spent as little as 40 minutes on the ground between flights. By September, the IT programme began winding down, with flights to Italy ending first due to the country's shorter holiday season. Flights to Majorca and certain Spanish mainland destinations continued right until the end of the summer season in late-October. Only a few sunshine destinations had a year round programme. Malta, Cyprus, Portugal, Tunisia, The Canaries and Spain.
To avoid having aircraft sit idly on the ground during the winter months, spare capacity was leased out. Ad Hoc charters and a small number of year-round scheduled services replaced  the intensive summer IT programme. It was at this time that all heavy maintenance took place. With sixteen jet aircraft and six prop liners Dan-Air had one of the largest fleet of all the independents. Each type operated as a fleet in its own right. thus benefiting with maintainence schedules and costing.
Channel Airways held the dubious record for operating tightest seating capacity of all the UK charter airlines, their DC4 aircraft were configured to seat 88 passengers, 139 people were squeezed into their Trident 1Es, 99 passengers into their 1-11 400s and 83 & 56 into their Viscount 810s and HS 748s respectively. In comparison, Dan-Air had a relatively spacious 1-11 cabin with 89 seats and 48 single class seats on the HS748.
Channel Airways also became known for putting aircraft into service that they had acquired second-hand with minimal changes to the prior operators' liveries, often merely taping over the previous operators' names with their own. Channel's inability to raise funds to pay for their outstanding aircraft orders that had been placed direct from the manufacturers, left them with no spare capacity to take on additional charter contracts during the peak season of 1970. To meet the requirements of a two-year contract to operate IT flights. Channel were forced to acquire five ex-BEA De Havilland Comets for £2 million, resulting in a significant increase in its capacity. The aircraft retained the basic BEA livery with just the Channel name taped over the BEA title.
In September, a consortium of three West German  tour operators awarded Channel Airways a contract to fly from West Berlin to the Mediterranean, worth £11 million per year. Both Channel and Dan-Air were flying roughly 50 weekly round-trips from Berlin during the peak season. Channel and Dan-Air were of a similar size in fleet terms and sought the same business. Dan-Air's decision not to put themselves in debt with brand new aircraft was, with the benefit of hindsight, a good decision. Both carriers encountered problems sourcing spare parts to support their growing jet fleets. In fact, the lack of spares for both Comets and Tridents caused major disruptions to the summer charter programme. Dan-Air was forced to sub charter other airlines' aircraft to meet contractual requirements of Tour Operators. In 1970 Channel Airways carried 541,000 passengers, roughly the same number as Dan-Air, one of our pilot contributors notes;

'God, I will never know how Channel got away with it. They had no money and they shoved as many people as they could on their aircraft. Their aircraft looked terrible, they barely had a lick of their own paint on them. Channel were known to go on the scrounge from other carriers for tyres silly things that any regular airline would always have a supply of. They would be on the cadge for tyres, lights and even bloody coffee on occasion. We got a much worse press than Channel did, and yet they carried on like the keystone cops. Rumours went around about them cutting corners with all sorts of things. One time I was taking some supplies on an aircraft that they had scrounged from us. I boarded this Comet of theirs and was shocked at how shabby it was. Tape was holding the stewardess public address system together and the carpet had a big tear in it - they were patching it up  whilst I stood chatting with the crew. I heard morale was low and several good people left them to work with rival airlines.'

To ensure adequate access to spare parts to continue flying their Comets, Channel Airways acquired further second-hand models. Channel's inability to pay for a sufficient spares inventory to keep all its aircraft flying during the peak summer season also resulted in one of its two Tridents having its engines removed to keep  the other flying; the engine-less aircraft sat on the ground at Stanstead for much of that year's summer to enable its Berlin Tegel based sister aircraft to continue flying German holidaymakers until the end of the season.
British United asked BOAC to take them over in the Autumn. Freddie Laker who had founded British United was furious. He said he was going to put a bid in for the airline himself. Cash strapped Channel Airways also placed a bid. Dan-Air's ambitions were more low key, having set their sights on the Manchester-Newcastle route. Newcastle were in favour as it would help them promote links to Transatlantic services from Manchester. Dan-Air's presence at Manchester was limited to charter flights. BOAC were also keen, as the flights would link them to their Manchester - Montreal - Chicago three times weekly service.

The Nord 262 was delivered in May staff training began in earnest. The aircraft could land at airports and depart withing ten minutes. Tees-Side would be dropped from the Bristol - Cardiff -Liverpool - Newcastle-Tees Side service as the company would be offering an increase in frequencies on the service. Flight would commence on June 6th.
The Dakotas that had been flying Link-City Services had seats for up to 36 people, the Nord 262 could carry 29 people in comfort, with 26 forward facing and three rear facing seats in a three abreast cabin. The aircraft had a small galley and therefore simple catering could be provided. Unlike the Doves used in previous years, the Nord 262 had an aisle, enabling cabin staff to move through the cabin when serving drinks.
The proposed Newcastle - Manchester service ran into problems in June when Cambrian Airways objected to the application. Cambrian had a route from Manchester to Glasgow and claimed competition could be damaging, ultimately they lost their appeal and Dan-Air were able to link Manchester and Newcastle together. Of course there had to be a hitch...The Nord had never appeared in the UK register, and was held up at the factory by paperwork. Instead of the planned June 6th start, flights would now begin on June 29th. Although Dakotas and Ambassadors were available they could not meet the timing schedules that the nifty Nord could achieve. Consequently the launch was delayed. Much fanfare was made of the brand new Nord aircraft that had joined the fleet. Advertisements in the press appeared ahead of its arrival. Dan-Air said it would aim to reach a five minute turn around at each airport the Nord landed at and that the only potential drawback was the possible tardiness of airport staff. The plan involved ground staff having passengers at the gate as the Nord landed. Once on stand, with one engine still running, passengers would disembark and new ones would board. Luggage would be simultaneously offloaded and loaded. Trials had found the task possible. By August, Liverpool Airport declared that Dan-Air's passenger numbers were down by 50%. In a full month they carried 985 passengers from the airport. Dan-Air stated that as they had withdrawn from a few services there was an expected drop in passenger numbers. The new services would operate three times a week. Dan-Air said that once 'passenger appeal' of linking four great English cities, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bristol and Cardiff, had been established, they were confident the numbers would go up. At the same airport, Gordon Connor, a 39 year old clerk decided to pocket Dan-Air's £81 landing fees instead of handing it over to the airport. Connor was arrested and told magistrates that he would repay the money from his wages. He was fined an additional £20.
The Liverpool-Amsterdam service that had been operated by Ambassadors was to get an upgrade when Comet jets would be introduced on the service. The two hours flying time would be halved and the 65 seat availability on the Ambassador would be increased to 105 with the Comet. With the promise of a full bar service and hot food, the route was expected to be popular with business men who would now enjoy a full day in Amsterdam and return after business hours.

In March, Dan-Air became the 'football fans choice' when five Comets were chartered from Gatwick to fly fans to watch a match in Berlin. The aircraft took of fifteen minutes apart. Meanwhile, two BAC 1-1s and a Comet took off from Newcastle to fly fans for a match in Brussels. A further two BAC 1-11s took off from Manchester to take Man City fans to Oporto for a game. Just days later, two more 1-11s flew to Paris from Glasgow, full of Celtic fans.
Global Holidays chartered Dan-Air Comets to fly out of Belfast for 1971 Summer programme. When the brochures came out late in 1970 the take up was significant. Belfast had very few charter flights and residents of the province had been expected to fly to a UK mainland airport to access the majority of charters and scheduled services. The new charters would operate to Dubrovnik, Alicante, Gerona and Palma Dan-Air hoped to base a Comet at Belfast.
Plans had been made to replace the last remaining DC3 and Ambassador in 1969. The lack of available aircraft for sale meant that the faithful old birds would have to soldier on into the new decade. Despite the obvious appeal of the brand new Nord 262, the introduction of the type was bemoaned by some passengers who wrote to Dan-Air to request the DC3 be re-introduced. Perhaps it was because the DC3 was a larger aircraft and passengers felt safer in its draughty, rattling old cabin. Captain Alan Selby commented;

'Some of the Ambassador and Dakota pilots underwent training for the Nord, they had to as there wouldn't be anything for them to fly very soon. Only a few years prior to this, the Ambassador was the flag-ship airliner in our fleet. We had only had Comets in service for three years. So all the decent charters were undertaken on the Ambassador. Those men couldn't all train for the Comet and so a lot of them lost out. They were now training for this dinky aeroplane that had little going for it as far as I could see. Other than it being nippy on turnaround.  I never liked it, I will never fully understand why we were involved with piddling little services like the link-city thing. The flight times might have been shorter than the train, but then you had to get to the airport some time before departure, and airports are a distance from cities. I totally understood something like Inverness - Heathrow, and Manchester-Heathrow, but Bristol-Liverpool? My theory was that unless the scheduled service could become a blue ribbon route, then it should be left alone. British European weren't even interested in us feeding them passengers from cities that they didn't serve. They really were a nasty company. The oil charters that put the 748s to use, now they were a God send.'

The jet fleet had now increased to sixteen models. Sadly, on July 4th, one of the Comet fleet crashed into mountains at Arbucias, near Barcelona, Spain. The aircraft, was under the command of Captain Alec Neal from Oxted, he, as well as First Officer David Shorrock from Southport and Engineer David Sayer of Crawley  all perished. The cabin crew, Ann Vickers of Chesterfield, Carol Maddock of Barwick in Elmet, Hazel Barber of Manchester and Sue Hind of Manchester also lost their lives. A total of 105 passengers were killed in the crash. The crash report can be viewed here. A special telephone hotline was set up for anxious friends and families of those on board. Chief Pilot Bob Atkins flew to Barcelona to relay information.
Days later, Dan-Air announced that they would open a memorial near the crash site. The memorial would be designed similar to an English garden. Relatives of those lost would be flown out to the memorial at Dan-Air's expense. The memorial had been necessary as Spanish law stated that the bodies would have to be buried in Spain. Former pilot Norman Tebbit clashed with the Minister for the Board of Trave in the House Of Commons. The Minister, said that the airport was 'well equipped' for that part of the world. Tebbit responded, saying 'The airport might or might not be well equipped, but the aircraft was using, immediately before the accident, a highly unreliable navigational NF Beacon, a non-directional beacon. My former colleagues would like an assurance, as far as possible, particularly where it is under the control of the Minister, such beacons should be replaced as early as possible, by  more satisfactory and modern equipment.' Mr Corfield said that that was the responsibility of the Spanish Authorities.

Above: L-R Captain Neal, Cabin Crew Ann Vickers, Carol Ann Maddock, Suzanne  Hinde who died in the Barcelona crash.

Despite this terrible loss, Dan-Air had an incredible 1970 with passenger numbers almost double those of the previous year. It was the first year that Dan-Air carried more than a million passengers in a single year. The Air Transport Licencing Board's (ATLB) stranglehold of UK scheduled air routes carried on with very few opportunities presenting themselves to independent airlines. Dan-Air had dropped some of their loss making domestic services, concentrating on the more profitable routes. If one considers the services that Dan-Air had tried to establish. Carlisle-Gloucester and Bournemouth do not spring to mind when one is thinking of mass air travel. Although the ATLB did allow the sevice from Newcastle to Bournemouth with optional stops at Birmingham and Manchester to commence without having a hearing. Simply put - independent airlines did not stand a chance of gaining licences for high density routes. Many of Dan-Air's competitors who were around at the start of the 1970s would not be operating at the end of the decade. One of our un-named contributors told us.

'The poor sods at route planning must have had nothing but headaches. Fact of the matter, the ATLB didn't think the independents knew how to run an airline. I don't know what they thought a charter flight consisted of. We had a timetable to adhere to, all the safety was exactly the same. Everything to do with luggage, load-sheets, pilot hours, training, service - exactly the same. we had to work with ground grews, ATC. Literally theonly difference is that we flew somewhere once a week instead of every day. When you consider all the pieces of the jigsaw that a charter airline had to make happen. We flew our aircraft sometimes three return flights to three different destinations. Our charter flights served more than a hundred airports. We knew all right how to do the job. But we were never even considered worthy of Heathrow. None of us were. British Eagle had been allowed in there, and they went bust! There wasn't anything in British European Airways fleet that was better or newer than Britannia's 737s - but they would never have got a slot for a charter from Heathrow, let alone a schedule.'

August saw bad headlines for Dan-Air when a number of flights were delayed due to poor weather. Passengers in Ibiza and Palma faced delays of eighteen hours when aircraft failed to arrived to take them home. A combination of fog and technical issues were blamed for the delays. The first weekend in August was a particularly busy weekend for the company. Finding a replacement Comet aircraft was near impossible. French Air Traffic Controllers then began, what was to go on to be an annual round of industrial action. Comets had been chartered by Clarksons, who left passengers stranded in airport terminals. Passengers complained that they were left without information and would not be home in time to start work the next day. The delays were further hampered when the replacement aircraft was delayed with technical issues at Manchester. Fog would not hinder the operation of aircraft today,but  the technical abilities of aircraft at the time, meant aircraft would often be diverted or delayed. In September a company Comet crash landed at Newcaslte airport (Picture and press report HERE) The aircraft was on a training flight when the accident occured. No-one was injured and the Comet was removed from the runway as quickly as possible. Upon being met by fire crews and emergency vehicles the crew claimed they had no idea that the aircraft had a problem. Public relations took another hit in September, when Newcastle United's football team boarded a Comet to take them, their delegation of trainers, managers and physiotherapists along with a press crew. A covering flap blew off during the flight to pick the VIPs up. After waiting an hour the anxious players and crew boarded only to find an engine would not start. Staff at Newcastle hurridly got in touch with Gatwick headquarters and a replacement aircraft, this time a BAC 1-11 arrived. The team eventually took off four hours late.
Passenger numbers were increasing in winter too, as a result of a new type of package tour that didn't take long to become a permanent fixture: Skiing. In winter 1970 destinations in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Yugoslavia were evaluated by Tour companies who were eager to make profit during their normally quiet winter months. Airlines were delighted as the flights would help with year round utilisation of aircraft. Inghams and Neilson became major charterers of Dan-Air aircraft for this market. Crystal Holidays were interested in using Dan-Air on their North Atlantic services. As the Edwards Committee Report had suggested the year before; a "Second Force" UK airline would be given preference amongst other independents. Two airlines; Caledonian and British United were put forward. Caledonian had been flying for ten years and had a great reputaion for in flight service. Caledonian were major players on the Affinity Tour market,  carring the majority of the 1,000,000 passengers who flew the flights accross the Atlantic. The number was larger than many flag carriers in Europe. Initially Caledonian flew old DC7 aircraft on the flights,  but became jet wise in 1968 when they introduced Boeing 707s to their fleet. Caledonian had endeavoured to distance themselves from other charter airlines, claiming that their charter flights surpassed service levels of most scheduled flghts. The cabin crew, dressed in tartan, would serve post take off cocktails row by row. Menus were individually printed and meals served one course at a time, with hors d'eouvres to follow, a main course and then desert. After dinner brandies followed. Wines and spirits were complimentary, cigarettes were provided free of charge and passengers were even given an overnight bag. The introduction of their Boeing 707s was given a blaze of positive publicity.
British United (BUA) on the other hand, had been established a long time by way of a merger of several small and medium sized operators. The airline was the first independent UK airline to purchase jets when the VC10 was obtained in 1964, they then leased five BAC 1-11s in 1968. BUA flew scheduled services to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uraguay and several European desitinations including London Gatwick to Paris. Regulations prevented airlines other than BEA from flying the route. BUA had circumnavigated them by providing a coach from London Victoria to Gatwick, meaning the flight was not direct. Flights were operated to North Africa too. The airline was, without a doubt, the largest independent airline in the UK. By 1970 however, BUA was not in a good financial position. British United sought to merge with another carrier, the eventual chosen airline was Caledonian. The two airlines merged when Caledonian bought the ailing British United. Now called Caledonain/BUA with the intention of becoming British Caledonian by 1973. The new airline would have seven Boeing 707,  four Vickers VC10 as well as five BAC 1-11 jets for European services. Caledonian/BUA had applyid for several scheduled services which had been largely rejected. They argued that the existing regulation meant that 90% of scheduled routes by a UK carrier were carried out by BEA or BOAC, this had to, and was about to change - forever.
November saw a special Dan-Air BAC 1-11 charter to Bucharest. Fans of Liverpool chartered the aircraft and paid £32 10s for the round trip. Lunn's Travel announced in December that they would be chartering Dan-Air aircraft for their summer programme of flights from Luton to Rome with holidays priced £36 rising to £51 in peak season for a week and £51 to £70 for two weeks.  Kenton Travel, a small Harrow based company chartered Dan-Air a BAC 1-11 every Friday until Summer for a weekend trip to Hamburg from Luton for £25 including accomodation. A further two Comets joined the fleet.


NETWORK & PRESS 1970
1971
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The integration of the Nord 262 which had been designed to replace the ageing Dakota had gone smoothly. However, 1971 marked the start of a difficult period for aviation.  Caledonian's purchase of British United Airways for almost £8 million had made headlines. Several airlines had, upon hearing that British United was being sold, placed bids of their own for the beleaguered carrier. British United had claimed they needed to spend £50 million on new aircraft to retain their status as the second force in UK aviation. Managing Director Freddie Laker had steered the company towards an all jet operation, before publicly rowing with the airline's board, then leaving to form his own airline in 1966.
BUA had been the government's choice for the second force in UK aviation. When Caledonian purchased them in November 1970 Laker was furious at the sale. Caledonian and Laker had ambitions for long haul scheduled services of their own. Dan-Air, remained silent about the changes taking place in the industry. Their own steady growth had continued and financially they were sound. Nonetheless, when a solid business opportunity presented itself, Dan-Air acted accordingly.

In January a hearing took place, which when looked at today would shock the average reader. The Women's Institute (WI). a very British organisation that raised money for charity and fostered community projects focusing on their all female membership found themselves in a Board of Trade hearing. The WI had a reputation as a  middle class organisation that made jams and cakes, one branch of the organisation, North Petherton in Somerset had organised a holiday for a group of WI members. Clarkson's the Tour Operator had offered the ladies one free holiday for every twenty members of the party. In this instance, the party qualified for one free place. The Air Transport Licencing Board (ATLB) were not impressed and banned the free place, as it amounted to discounting, which was strictly prohibited. At the hearing Mrs. Garland, the organiser said that there was a great deal of work that went into organising a holiday and that people in Somerset lived long distances apart which meant keeping everyone up to date was time-consuming. The ATLB refused the licence. The ATLB did however licence Dan-Air for scheduled passenger and cargo flights between Bournemouth and Newcastle with optional stops at Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Dan-Air were permitted to fly unrestricted on the service using Nord 262, BAC 1-11 and comet aircraft.
Skyways of London had been operation since 1955 before being purchased by Euravia in 1964. Senior Skyways of London management then went on to form International Skyways. This new airline immediately commenced the cross channel services using Dakota aircraft that were eventually supplemented with the introduction of the HS 748. This new airline traded as Skyways International. The airline was never really successful. Dan-Air watched the airline's performance with interest.
February saw Dan-Air recruiting stewardesses to be based in Newcastle and Manchester. The upper age range was between 20 and 28 Open interviews invited girls within the age range who had good eyesight, weight in proportion to height, and educated to GCE or equivalent. Those with foreign language or nursing skills would be at an advantage. Those who were male were at a definite disadvantage as they would not be interviewed.
Airport Catering had  been providing catering for Dan-Air and British Midland for many years. In view of the expansion of Dan-Air, airport Catering wished to build a huge catering shed in Newcastle only to be told that there was a 'Gentleman's Agreement' with a local brewery not to allow other firms to offer catering. A situation that Dan-Air were not happy with.

Talks had been underway with other airlines with a view to introducing a larger aircraft into the fleet. Dan-Air did not want to fly scheduled services on long haul services, but they did see an opening for 'affinity charter flights' across the Atlantic. The DC8 was considered. Dan-Air had extended talks with McDonnell about modifications to the type to suit Dan-Air's style of operation. This would involve a high density layout and changes to the galleys. The airline had also had talks with American carriers who wished to sell some of their DC8 aircraft. One pilot told us;

'Alan Snudden was very much involved with the discussions. He had flown over and had meetings with Delta, Pan Am and I believe, Braniff. Delta had the series 71 for sale and they carried 250 odd passengers. As I recall, the price was just outside our budget. Talks with Pan Am had gone very well and it looked like a deal was going to be struck. Back at home, talks went on with the banks and with Pan Am. It was all looking positive. We even went as far as to print promotional literature with the DC8 in Dan-Air's livery on the front. Pan Am had come up with the right price, so it was good to go. From our point of view it would be a major coup, we would be the first airline to introduce the beautiful DC 8 onto the UK register - that was when the headache started. It was something that proved quite costly with the 727 a couple of years down the line. The Air Transport Licencing Board always had to be involved when a type was introduced onto the UK register. The ATLB came up with a list of modifications that we would have to implement before the aircraft could fly. It would be very expensive to undertake such changes, especially when we were unsure if there would be sufficient business for the things once they arrived. Then the UK Government has its own rules. They naturally wanted UK airlines to buy British manufactured aircraft where possible. Purchasing American built aircraft would see tariffs of 14% slapped on the imported second-hand aircraft. The Government forced Caledonian to purchase the 1-11 and were trying to get Britannia to get them as well, but they refused. They were less likely to be heavy handed if the UK didn't produce an aircraft that met an airline's requirements. Pan Am were very helpful and pointed out that BOAC were already operating the Boeing 707 as were Caledonian. It might not be such a headache importing them. So, basically that is what happened. Those tariffs were 14% which is outrageous. Still it was cheaper to pay that than to try and get hold of a VC10. The tariff was especially unfair, as the British were not even producing a long haul jet airliner in 1972. Airlines simply had to buy American - or Soviet! and that is something we would never have done. Naturally, the aircraft that Pan Am were wanting to dispose of would be the ones that were the oldest in their fleet.  In fact, they were some of the first 707s to have been produced. I considered converting to the type, but I had the Comet running through my veins. I also had a family. It was hard enough doing so many night flights that arrived back in the UK in the early hours. I didn't want to be away for days at a time'.

Dan-Air duly ordered two Boeing 707 jets from Pan Am, which would be modified to carry 189 passengers in a single class cabin. The 707 had previously carried 123 economy passengers and 18 first class. 189 was the maximum exit layout for the type. In March Dan-Air took delivery of their first Boeing 707, The twelve year old jet had been manufactured in 1959. The aircraft was one of the first 707s off the production line.  A new colour scheme had recently been designed, and made its debut on the the new aircraft. The new look would be applied to all other aircraft as they underwent routine maintenance. The second 707 would arrive in 1972 and for reasons unknown, was fitted with 192 seats, three more than the maximum.
Altogether six crews, mainly from the Comet fleet were trained on the new aircraft. Each pilot would have ten hours flying on the machine and a further ten hours of supervision. The aircraft, minus seating was flown to Newcastle for the training. Captain Alan Bernstein from Massachusetts who flew for Pan Am was given the task. He told press that flying the 707 was easy. 'You only have to fly the cockpit' he said 'The rest will just follow on behind' Before commencing flights the aircraft would need to be refitted to Dan-Air's requirements. Pan Am's luxurious cabin was quickly replaced with new red seating.  Dan-Air now had capacity to match any of its rivals on long haul flights. Initially the aircraft would be chartered to fly to North American and Canadian cities on 'Affinity Charter flights', mainly from Gatwick. The fares would be £50. Stewart Carlisle from Dan-Air said that the aircraft would be operating to all points of the compass if they got the enquiries. If the Transatlantic charters were successful they would be able to take Caledonian/BUA on head to head. On reflection, was the purchase wise? One pilot told us;

"Absolutely not! How long have you got? Right, for a start, both British United and Caledonian were well established on the Affinity flights anyhow. In Particular, Caledonian were world class as far as long haul charter flying went. It was a pleasure to fly with them across the Atlantic, BUA were not as good, but as Caledonian had bought them out, it would be Caledonian's style that would prevail. Secondly, every carrier wanted to get in on the charters, as if it were some kind of 'license to print money' situation. Caledonian, Britannia, Lloyd International, Donaldson, Laker,  British Midland - you name it - they were all at it. Some, and I am talking Caledonian specifically, were very cheeky with the rule bending of who was a member of these 'affinity groups'. Lots of airlines got their fingers burnt with hefty fines for doing that. It didn't do your reputation any good having passengers denied boarding because they couldn't prove their affinity to 'Friends of Albion'. Then there was the aircraft itself. The 707 was a marvellous machine, but the ones we obtained were, let's face it - clapped out. They had been working long haul for twelve years before we got hold of them. Cabin crew told me they were terrified as the beast lumbered up the runway. One of the jets G-AZTG - Tango Golf, was named 'Tree Grazer' because of it's reluctance to gain altitude, another, G-AYSL was known as 'Sick Lil' because of the endless hours that she spent 'tech' - some of the delays were incredible. The stewardesses complained that the galley at the the rear of the cabin swayed from left to right in flight. Our aircraft had no in flight entertainment, unlike the newspaper adverts that Travel agents claimed. As far as I am aware, there was no profitable reason to use these aircraft. When you have 189 passengers stuck in Chicago, Gander or Reykjavik because their ride home has developed another fault, you have to put them up in hotels and feed them. The 707 was a terrible drain on Dan-Air, what's more, I don't think this term had been originated then, but I think I would say that the 707 was nothing more than a vanity project."
The Liverpool - Amsterdam service was Liverpool's only link on scheduled services to Europe. The service had been successful with the Ambassador, but the last remaining example of the type was due to be phased out this year. The Nord 262 that had been introduced to the fleet to replace the Dakota and Ambassador on scheduled services. It perhaps hadn't occurred to Dan-Air that the Nord 262 could not meet the needs of the Amsterdam flights as well as other international services. Salvation came in the form of the Comet. There had been a downturn in some charter work as the UK economy was in somewhat of a slump. Surplus Comets would thus operate the international flights. adverts boasted that passengers could now reach Amsterdam in just 70 minutes in luxurious comfort. The Comet IV had 106 seats, although this was reduced to 89 for scheduled services.
Horizon Midlands chartered Comet 4B aircraft for flights to Rhodes and Corfu from Birmingham, the first time that a direct flight between either island had operated. The flights would alternate so each destination would have a fortnightly flight from May until the end of October.
New airlines regularly emerged, many of them wishing to establish a presence as a scheduled carrier. One of them, British Island Airways, commenced operations on domestic services this year. They would fly passengers on a 50 seat Herald Aircraft. Air Anglia would began flying into Liverpool from Norwich the previous year and Loganair flew into Manchester from Scotland. As start up scheduled airlines, they would not trouble Dan-Air's business on charter services, but they would almost certainly want to get a foothold on the UK domestic market. Dan-Air, by now had their own ground handling facilities in many airports where they flew. Having Ground Handling facilities would be pointless if you had a small presence at an airport, and as a result Dan-Air was able to offer handling to other carriers. Bristol, Newcastle and Liverpool all used Dan-Air Handling, customers included Air Anglia and British Island Airways.
British Midland Airways withdrew from their Cardiff-Bristol and Glasgow service. Dan-Air applied for the licence as did a joint application from Cambrian and North East.

The Newcastle-Kristiansand service was upgraded from twice to three times a week in May of this year, at the same time. Two HS 748 joined the fleet as a replacement for the Ambassador. It had been difficult to find a suitable replacement for the Ambassador, whilst the Nord 262 was undoubtedly efficient, it could only carry 29 people. The Ambassador, for all of it's flaws seated 55 in comfort. The HS 748 could seat roughly the same number. By modern standards, the HS 748 would be considered noisy and inefficient. In comparison to the Ambassador, it was a game changing machine. The HS 748 was a turboprop aircraft, unlike the 'Amby' with her smoky  Bristol Centaurus piston engines. The aircraft had been in service since 1952, and had served Dan-air well. The newer 748 had a greater range, and better performance. By 1971 the aircraft looked very dated and simply had to go.
A major promotional initiative was launched at Liverpool in an attempt to drum up business on the Liverpool-Amsterdam service. It was noted that the service averaged only 20 passengers per flight. Passengers complained at a lack of duty free shopping, and berated Liverpool Airport for not investing in development.

The Ambassador was finally  phased out in September this year. The sole Ambassador in the fleet was the last turbine engine aircraft the airline had. It carried out its last flight to Jersey. The Dan-Air Social Club later chartered the aircraft for a goodbye flight to France.
State owned British European Airways, and BOAC were not happy with anything any of their rivals did. BEA hated the relaxing of any rules allowing charter carriers to have access to any airport they flew to. BOAC could not stand the idea that independent airlines might be flying long haul charters to the United States. In response to the competition in Europe, BEA had started a subsidiary charter airline - 'BEA Airtours'. This airline would fly Comets to sunspots on behalf of Tour Operators, most notably, Enterprise Holidays, BEA's own Tour Operator. BOAC had Sovereign Holidays as its in house tour operator. More about this will come up in 1973.  BEA announced this year that it was going to replace its entire BEA Airtours fleet of Comet aircraft with Boeing 707s to enable it to compete on the North Atlantic 'Affinity Flights'. BEA Airtours was also be state funded, again, a disadvantage to the independents.

The press incorrectly reported in October that Dan-Air had been losing money for many years. It was claimed that in 1970, Dan-Air made a profit of £497,000 and that 1971 was set to be more profitable. Dan-Air's parent company Davies and Newman was floated on the stock exchange for the first time. Hambros Bank would offer 1,113,000 ordinary 25p shares in Davies & Newman at 130p each. Giant companies with far more financial strength than independent airlines had slowly started investing into airlines.  Great Universal Stores had recently gained a major shareholding in Caledonian/BUA which gave them increased financial flexibility,  Britannia Airways was wholly owned by the Thomson Organisation and Monarch Airlines had backing from the mega wealthy Mantegazza Family (who also owned Cosmos Holidays) Dan-Air was among a small group of carriers who were truly independent, Lloyd International, Donaldson Aviation and Dan-Air would now have a cash injection that would allow the carrier to purchase new aircraft. Horizon chartered a Dan-Air Comet to fly weekly flights from Glasgow to Tenerife from October through to April 1972.

Donaldson Aviation had been formed in 1968 and leased Britannia Aircraft. By 1971 they had started operating Boeing 707s leased from Pan Am to join the increasing number of carriers on the North Atlantic Affinity Charter operation. Lloyd International was another airline who were beginning to struggle to survive, let alone expand.  In December 1971 it was announced that Lunn Poly would be using Dan-Air Comet and BAC 1-11s for their 1972 charter programme and reducing the number of BEA flights.
East Midlands Airport had only had a handful of Dan-Air charters, in October 1971 it was reported by Global Holidays that they had been a great success. For the 1972 season they would operate Dan-Air Comets and BAC 1-11s on flights to Majorca, the Costa Blanca and Costa Brava.
The new service linking Liverpool and Bournemouth commenced in December. The daily service was priced at £16:20 one way. Dan-Air said that they had always chosen routes to cities that had poor road and rail connections. They hoped the service would appeal to holiday makers and businessmen. They had timed the service to link with other flights from Liverpool.
During the first week of December 1971, Channel Airways sold both of their Trident 1Es to BEA to counter the increase in unit costs resulting from low utilisation of these aircraft. (One of the aircraft was leased to BEA's Newcastle-based regional subsidiary Northeast Airlines while the other was operating the corporation's regional routes from Birmingham to the Continent.
In November a company Boeing 707 was stranded in Greenland when it made a scheduled refuelling stop. In sub zero temperatures some of the aircraft parts froze. Passengers were taken to a nearby hotel while the aircraft underwent a thawing out process and anti freezing.

Dan-Air said that they were confident that the following year would be even more profitable as the entire charter fleet had already been fully utilised. It was announced in November that the days and times of the Liverpool-Amsterdam service would change the flights would now be operation on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays instead of Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The 8-30am departure to Amsterdam would now depart at 12-30 and return to Liverpool at 3:15 instead of 5pm. The flights had previously been operated by 105 seat Comet Jets. From now on they would be carried out using the newly acquired  HS 748. This was much more simple, although the flying was slightly longer at one 1 hour 45 minutes, 30 minutes slower than the Comet But it would mean that the HS 748 would be able to fly straight there and back. Up until the changes the Comet would fly to Amsterdam, where it would fly to Tees Side, and back to Amsterdam for the return to Liverpool.
The report into the Barcelona crash of 1971 was released in November. The Comet had overshot its radio beacon at Toulouse and was off course. It was reasonable to believe that it would converge on the radio beacon at Sabadell. The report concluded that the fixes given to the aircraft were erroneous and that position reports from the aircraft led the air traffic controllers to believe that it was closer to Sabadell than it was. A request from ground control to know whether the aircraft had passed Sabadell came to the same conclusion. This resulted in a wrong identification, made when a radar echo of similar characteristics, similar to those of the Comet. The radar signal was going in the same direction and speed as those expected by the Comet. It was not questioned by the ATC. This led the controller to give instructions to decend and approach the runway at Barcelona. From that moment on, the catastrophe was inevitable.
Passenger numbers increased to 1,129,000,  the largest number of passengers carried in a single year so far. Two more Comets were added to the fleet, bringing the total to 14. The BAC 1-11 fleet was also increased to 5. The two Hawker Siddeley 748 aircraft introduced to the fleet this year had more than proved their worth. The robust aircraft was much more economical to use than the Ambassador. The aircraft could also handle the short turn-around times that the company required on the 'Link-City' flights. The versatile aircraft could comfortably fly to Norway and to Amsterdam. This made the aircraft an ideal for Dan-Air. The Nord may well have been suited to hopping from city to city with small numbers of passengers. The HS 748 could do both where the Nord could only do one. The decision was made to sell the aircraft.
NETWORK & PRESS 1971
1972

The year commenced with Dan-Air looking for more cabin crew for Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Tees Side. This was in no small part due to the huge charter programme that the airline would be operating the year ahead. The HS 748, introduced in 1971 had proved to be a successful addition to the fleet. In a statement to the press, the company said that they would be standardising the 748 on domestic services. The HS-748 was in full production obtaining new models would be costly and there was a waiting list. The solution to finding extra HS-748s came in January 1971, when Skyways Coach Air went bust. The Conservative government refused to step in and save it. Although it did intervene in helping to find a buyer - Dan-Air, who paid just £650,000 (Approx £1.5 million, 2024) for the company. Skyways had a fleet of four HS748 and three Dakotas. Dan-Air had no use for the Dakota aircraft and they were disposed of. Skyways existing scheduled services would also come with the acquisition. This was not as lucrative as was hoped. Skyways had recently dropped most of their schedules that had been considered under-performing. The Ethos of Skyways' most successful operation was to operate the cheapest possible way travelling from London to Paris. This involved boarding a coach or train in central London and travelling to a small regional airport at Lympne in Kent. Passengers would then take the short flight to Beauvais in France where they would then travel by coach to Paris. Fares would range from £9 8s to £12-17s depending on the time of year, which was 45% cheaper than the standard air fare.  The total travel time was 5 1/2 hours. In late January Dan-Air formed a new subsidiary Dan-Air Skyways. The flight deck crews transferred to the new airline, including two new female first officers, Jill Cazalet and Delphine Fisk Gray.
Sunwing  Holidays chartered Dan-Air aircraft for the entire 1972 season at Manchester with a programme to Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca, Costa Brava, Costa Blanca, Costa Del Sol, The Canary Islands, Tunisia, Portugal, Yugoslavia and Tunisia.
The Comet had proved to be unsuitable on the Liverpool-Amsterdam service. Passenger numbers never came close to filling an aircraft with a capacity of more than a hundred passengers. The HS748 was the ideal replacement for the recently phased-out Ambassador. The 748 could carry 48 passengers in comfort on the one hour forty five  minute flight to Amsterdam. Passengers would enjoy a meal and a complimentary bar service. Four night breaks in the Dutch city were available for £26:50 including flights and accommodation. The service reached a ten year milestone in 1972, it was believed that a service linking two famous port cities with a combined population more than a million people would have been easy. That proved not to be the case on this flight, Liverpool's only scheduled link with continental Europe. A Dan-Air spokesman said;

'The was not the case, because the pundits told us that were not spending enough money on advertising the service. Thus, two years ago we launched a bus and poster campaign plus local Press advertising, which only resulted in a slight increase in passengers which, in any case, could have been accounted for because of other factors. The trouble is...say the pundits, that the service will never be a success until you introduce jets. Accordingly, last year, we introduced a Comet on the  Liverpool-Amsterdam service. The result was that passenger payloads remained much the same as when the piston engined Ambassador operated this route. The main conclusion therefore, is that there is a limited amount of potential passengers for this service, and that is why Dan-Air have introduced the HS-748. Which is operating with passenger loads which are economical in proportion to its size. This is symptomatic with the problems that all airlines face. Whilst many airlines thought that introducing relatively large jets onto service on domestic and trunk routes is the answer to their problems. We decided that introducing smaller, more modern aircraft onto routes between cities that are not served well be road and rail. At the same time it was decided that passengers wanted to spend as little time as possible on the ground with intermediate stops. As a result we bought the Nord 262 because it started with an internal battery and had built in air stairs which allowed us to operate with a five minute turn around. This proved to be acceptable to passengers on the Link-city services. This policy was tailored to meet the specific needs of the business traveller, it proved to be very popular, so much so that we decided to introduce a slightly larger aircraft, namely the HS-748. secondly we extended the network to include Birmingham and Bournemouth from April 1st.'

In early 1972, former Channel Airways director Captain Peter Lockwood acquired a pair of ex-American Airlines BAC One-Eleven 400 series for his new charter company, Orientair, to take over Channel's lucrative German charter contracts. When Orientair's plan to assume Channel Airways' position in Berlin ran into difficulties, Dan-Air took over these contracts, resulting in an expansion of Dan-Air's Berlin operation.
Channel Airways Lack of fleet standardisation and low, all-year round aircraft utilisation, due to seasonal peaks and troughs in its charter and scheduled markets, drove up Channel's unit costs. While low charter rates and poor yields on short-haul scheduled routes served in competition with British Air Ferries from Southend depressed revenues. To bring costs in line with revenues, Channel Airways announced the closure of its Stanstead engineering base and the return of its headquarters to Southend at the end of January 1972. A week later, Channel Airways' main lender, Barclays Bank, appointed a receiver and put the airline up for sale while operations continued. Potential buyers' lack of interest in Channel Airways as a going concern forced the break-up of the company. By winter 1971/2 work for the remaining jet fleet had all but dried up, jet services ceased on 15 February 1972.  Operations ceased completely on 29 February when a DH Dove completed the last Channel Airways flight from Ostend to Southend. Permanent cessation of operations was followed by withdrawal of Channel Airways's air operator's certificate at the end of March 1972.
Receivers were called in on Channel Airways on February 1st. The statement issued said that many airlines were interested in taking over Channel Airways, we have some very valuable routes and some very valuable business. We hope that the airline could be sold as a going concern. We have only been in there a few hours and have already been approached by many people. Channel Airways had a fleet of four BAC 1-11, five Comets, one DH Dove, One DH Heron and four Vickers Viscounts. Channel Airways carried on operating and issued their own statements saying: 'There is no question of Channel stopping, we have been in talks with British Air Ferries with a view to a merger. We have not worked so hard for nothing - We fought for the right to operate between Glasgow and London only to have it taken away from us by British European objecting.'
British Air Ferries (BAF) did ask the Air Transport Licencing Board (ATLB) to suspend all Channel's licences and to transfer them to BAF. Meanwhile the receivers said that any attempt to seize the aircraft would result in the closure of the airline. On 20th February, 250 staff were sacked without notice, the following day a Comet was impounded at Manchester until landing ant take off fees the carrier owed to Manchester Corporation were paid. The Comets in the fleet were valued at £60,000. One of our pilot contributors said:

'To say that the airline industry is cut-throat is an understatement. Hundreds of people lost their jobs. The other airlines were sniffing around as the wounded airline was in its death throes. I don't think British Air Ferries had the financial muscle to take over the entire company, even though they said they were interested. I think it was more a case of getting a chance to see what was worth anything and if they could get it on the cheap. British Midland took over some of the scheduled services to the Channel Islands from the Midland as you might expect. But they didn't want the aircraft. We grabbed Bournemouth to Jersey and Guernsey and Scotland's new airline, Alidair snatched up the Viscounts and we swooped in and took on the Comets. It's inconceivable that you could pick up a 119 seat jet aircraft for less that sixty grand. You say that is about £1.5 million in today's money?  But a new 737 would cost more than five million quid in 1970. So its pretty obvious why we used them. They were inefficient from a fuel point of view in the seventies. But when you can pick one up for that price it was worth it. Staff scuttled around trying to pick up work. Those of us still at work then started to wonder who might be next. My money was on Lloyd International and that came to be correct.'


Following Channel Airways's demise, Dan-Air acquired the failed carrier's remaining four airworthy Comet 4Bs and their licence to operate year-round scheduled services from Bournemouth to Guernsey and Jersey while British Midland Airways acquired a BAC 1-11 400.
The failed carrier's charter division would be transferred' largely to Dan-Air, who were in an ideal position, having acquired the very aircraft that were due to operate the charter flights anyhow. 1972 was going to be a big year for Dan-Air. The HS-748 Scheduled Services to Montpelier, Beauvais and Clermont Ferrand were awarded licenses and began operating. Skyways had previously flown to Clermont Ferrand from Ashford in Kent - the route was transferred to now originate from Gatwick. This wasn't without problems from the Ministry Of Aviation, who were reluctant to allow Dan-Air to make the transfer. Dan-Air called the MoA's bluff and an agreement was made. Meanwhile, BEA Airtours continued to operate at a loss.
The Conservative Government decided that the two loss making airlines BEA and BOAC, would merge the following year. The news caused consternation within the airline industry. Two giant carriers merged would create one mega carrier. For reasons best only known to them the Government and the Air Transport Licencing Board had decided to give British Caledonian 'The Government's chosen instrument of the private sector' which meant that along with the state owned carriers, British Caledonian would not have to face the same scrutiny as other carriers when applying for scheduled services. This gave the carrier an advantage over all other independents. British Caledonian would now concentrate on scheduled services.
In March a Comet left Manchester bound for Alicante carrying 94 passengers. moments after take-off passengers saw smoke entering the cabin. The Captain, who had received an alarm warning in the flight-deck immediately shut down one engine and returned to Manchester. A replacement BAC 1-11 was flown into Manchester from Luton and departed four hours after the scheduled departure time. Investigations revealed that the Comet had suffered an electrical failure in the flight deck. The aircraft was returned to service the next day after repairs were carried out at Manchester.
After months of legal wrangling, the ATLB issued Dan-Air a licence to operate charter flights from the Gatwick to Cyprus. The main objections came from British European Airways who operated scheduled services to the island. Tour Operator Marshall-Sutton wished to carry out charter flights aimed mainly at the families of servicemen who were based on the island. The deal was said to be worth £36,000 and would be one of Dan-Air's biggest single charter deals.
On 27th March this year, Yvonne Sintes was given Captain status. She became the first female Captain in Britain. Ms. Sintes was working as a First Officer on the Comet fleet when she was asked if she would like to transfer to the Boeing 707 fleet. However she expressed more interest in gaining her command. Ms.Pope was then sent on a training course on the HS-748. it entailed not only learning how to fly it but how and why it flies. She said 'I now know more about an turbo-prop engine than I do about my own car.' Captain Sintes had already earned the achievement of being the first female to pilot aircraft on scheduled services.

April 4th saw the debut of the new Dan-Air uniform. Fashion House Mansfield were given the task of designing the uniform for hundreds of ground and air stewardesses. Newcastle cabin crew were the first seen wearing the new French Navy blue ensemble. The new look came complete with a sleeveless pinafore dress, single breasted coats and jackets and white crepe blouses with neck ties. A matching pill-box hat completes the look. Jean Hepple, Dan-Air fleet stewardess said: 'The were great, the simple lines of the uniform suited so many more of the girls.'




The decision to change the Leverpool-Amsterdam service to a HS-748 did not adversly affect load factors. The numbers on the route fell by just 400 to 13,971. The HS-748 used a lot less fuel than the Comet and had cheaper landing fees than the Comet, so the strategy was a good one. Newcastle had seen further develpment as a base for Dan-Air with the addition of Bergen and Stavanger to the list of destinations from the North East city. The services had all proved popular, especially with seamen and oil workers, Dan-Air offered discounts to these passengers. Amsterdam was bolstered with flights from Tees Side, a city that had not seen any Dan-Air aircraft for several years.
The BAC 1-11 was trialed for flights from Berlin Tegal and Gatwick for flights to the Canary Islands. The aircraft could reach it's destination provided weight-saving measures were carried out. Dan-Air found it could make its aircraft fly longer without refuelling, provided  the baggage allowance was reduced from the usual 44lb to 40lb. The aircraft would also carry a few less passengers. If 80 passengers were carried instead of 89, the 1-11 could fly with normal fuel reserves between the two destinations without a refuelling stop, certainly outbound and possibly inbound if the winds were favourable. This made the BAC 1-11 an ideal choice as opposed to the Boeing 737. Particularly for tour operators struggling to fill the larger 737 aircraft profitably. If the  passenger load was greater than 80, the charterer paid for any refuelling stops,  encouraging Tour Operators to keep to a maximum of 80 passengers.
British Air Services absorbed Cambrian Airways into its company this year. The company was 70% owned by the state and could pose a serious threat to Dan-Air.

The Air Transport Licensing Board was replaced by a new authority; The Civil Aviation Authority, their Chairman Lord Boyd Carpenter presided over the first hearing which was British Midland's application to serve Paris from East Midlands. Dan-Air objected stating that it was likely to affect their coach air service from East Midlands to Beauvais. They claimed there was 'simpply not enough room for a route that carries 20,000 passengers for two carriers. Briths European Airways objected on the grounds that they flew a loss making service from Birmingham and that British Midland's application would affect that and potentially that of their loss making service to Paris from Manchester.

Former Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas Home was a distinguished Dan-air passenger this year when the Foreign Office chartered a Comet for 17 days for the politician's Middle East tour. Fortunately it was not the same Comet that was carrying out a charter fight to Alicante on February 25th.  Douglas Home's tour was not without hitches. Mishap number one was when the RAF 'Ran out of aircraft' to accompany him. Mishap two saw the Foreign Secretary driven to the wrong airport 'Out of habit' and mishap three was when the Dan-Air Comet was delayed for fifteen minutes with a technical problem. The aircraft flew Douglas Home to Instanbul, Dubai, Delhi Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Delhi, Rawlpindi, Ankara and Heathrow. The special charter was a feather in the cap for Dan-Air, as all previous government charters were flown by the RAF or one of the state airlines, Before the flights, Dan-Air Engineering had converted the Comet to have two wardrobes, a typing room, a cabin for Sir Alec and his wife, with eight seats. The aircraft was fitted with large reclining seats and tables. The total journey was carried out by five separate crews. The aircraft was under 24 hour security guard supervision. Food and drink was handled by the RAF and the appropriate British Embassy. Sir Alec later went on to praise Dan-Air for all their effort and skill. The flight back to Heathrow was early - deliberately so, because a crucial vote was underway in the House Of Commons concerning the Government's very survival. Captain King managed to get the aircraft on the ground in good time, and Sir Alec made it in time to vote.

Affinity charters across the Atlantic had been aimed at groups and organisations - specifically the membership of the 'group'. The group's membership was capped at 20,000. Travel agents selling these holidays would have their commission set at a maximum of 5%.  Groups suddenly sprang up on both sides of the Atlantic - 'Friends of Clan Albion', 'Anglo-Scottish-American Group', 'Anglo-American Families Association', 'Rose and Maple Amity Club', 'Paisley Buddies', 'British American Club', 'Canadian US Pacific Association' were just a few. Passengers were supposed to have been a member of the 'Group'  for a least six months, making a supposedly legitimate booking at a discounted price. However, and it is a big 'however' - the scheme was wide open to fraud. Groups caiming to be 'Bird Watching clubs', 'Ballroom Dancing Associations' and 'Car Appreciation Groups'  were not uncommon. Travel Agents were known to tell people to 'Form a club' before making their booking. Many UK airlines took part in the Affinity charters. Some carriers were more strict than others at adhering to the rules. What travel agents didn't always say was that staff patrolled airport check-in queues to find out members of bogus clubs. Some were ultimately denied boarding. In addition, the airline would be fined if a passenger was deemed to not qualify to travel.  Dan-Air had to pay $100,000 to the American Authorites for such violations. Most airlines faced a similar charge. As the charterer was responsible for paying for the entire capacity of an aircraft, regardless of whether all seats were filled. There was a great temptation to let people not eligible to travel under the Affinity Group rules, then take the seats of other, eligible travellers who had cancelled their bookings. As a result, there were numerous occasions on which the airlines got into trouble with the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. This made the system increasingly unworkable. The Air Transport Licencing Board was finally dismantled to make way for its successor - The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Their new regulations concerning Affinity Group Charters came into force this year. The CAA would now only allow six airlines to operate the ABC charters. Dan-Air, British Caledonian, BOAC, BEA, Lloyd International and British Midland. The others carriers involved, Britannia and Donaldson would lose their right to fly the services. Britannia were furious at losing the right to operate, making their displeasure heard in the press. Their plea fell on deaf ears, and the ruling stood. In June Dan-Air and Lloyd International were prevented from operating any additional Affinity Group Charters without prior approval.

Dan-Air Engineering had been based at Lasham for seventeen years and had a largely good relationship with local residents. The relationship went awry in March when the company applied for planning permission for a maintainance block with offices to be constructed. Twenty five residents complained. They had allowed themselves to get to such a state that they believed Dan-Air were planning to start charter flights from the airfield. Their director Edwards Evans told them that the airline had reached its peak and would not be bringing in more aircraft - That of course turned out to be misleading. He was right when he said the idea of charter flights was "Nonesense". Going on to say that as they had been there seventeen years if they wanted to carry out charter flights they would have done so years ago.

Whilst Dan-Air boasted about their female flight-deck crew, the airline ended up in hot water when two claimed they were being discrimianted when they were turned down for promotion to Captain. Their claim was backed by men pilots in their company. Pilots Delphine Fisk-Gray and Jill Cazalet said promotion was given to men with much less experience than them. The girls were First Officers with subsidiary company Skyways. More than 30 pilots with the company say that the girls were top of the list for promotion to full command with their company. They had informed the airline pilot's association. A Dan-Air spokesman said'There was a vacancy for a captaincy on the HS-748 fleet. Senior First Officer Pilots were invited to apply and the two women were among those who did so. The normal selection process took place and a man was chosen. There was no discimination. We are one of only a few airlines who employ female First Officers and a female Captain.'

Delphine Fisk-gray's mother spoke out saying;
'The reasons given for her non-promotion just don't stand up. She has more than 4,500 hours, but has been passed over for someone who has much less experience. She was told that she is very small, but she is taller than the man who was in charge of training for the company. She was told that the airlines thought she might not have sufficient control in an emergency situation. But Delphine has been involved in such a situation. She brought an aircraft into land with two engines out and passengers aboard, and she is already sitting in a seat where she might have to take over if something went wrong.'
One of Skyways' pilots said; 'We are holind to get BALPA to apply for an injunction against the airline until the problem is sorted out.'

Davies and Newman's public floatation on the UK stock exchange in 1972 raised £5 million and was able to funds the purchase of more aircraft. Profits for Davies and Newman were up from £717,000 to £867,000. Fred Newman had said that the changes in the Transatlantic charter market might make operating flights easier. He claimed that the going had been tough in the face of exteme competition. Behind the scenes senior board members had been analysing suitable aircraft to be added to the fleet. Several members of the board opted for the Boeing 737, with a 140 seat configuration. This would be ten seats more than the only operator of the type in the UK, Britannia Airways. One of our contributors said;

"This first came to my attention at a fairly informal meeting among flight deck crew. It had come to light that a few of the type had become available on the market, second hand. I was well aware that despite being an absolutely wonderful aircraft, it did have one or two drawbacks. It's range wasn't as good as the Comet and it needed a longer runway than the BAC 1-11. It turned out that the Boeing 727 had a much greater range and could be adapted, in the way that only Dan-Air could do, to accomodate a lot more people. Some of them had come on the market at agreeable prices, which was handy, when you consider that a new 737 cost about £5.5 million, then there would be tariffs to pay. I soon learned that senior colleagues would be flying out to Seattle and to Japan to discuss the finer details. It was pretty hushed up at the time."

Another reason for not chosing the 737 was in keeping with the airline's 'flexibility'. That company mantra was all well and good - but it came at a heavy price. Charter carriers who were part of a vertical integration with their own Tour Operator could, and did, cherry pick their flights with times to suit them. For example, Thomson holidays would select Britannia Airways' aircraft to fly to airports that gave them the best utilisation of the aircraft and timing. Whilst Dan-Air without a Tour Operator of their own, had to rely on Tour Operators without an airline, or to agree to operate flights on behalf of Tour Operators that found the flights inconvenient to their own operation. It was hoped that the Boeing 727, with its extra capacity would garner the very best charters. The announcement that three 727 trijets would be joining the fleet did just that. Global Holidays, Clarksons and Lunn Poly would fully utilise the new jets. The Jets were purchased from Japan Airlines who flew them to Seattle where they would undego their modifications. It is worth mentioning, that as a new type on the UK register, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would have to approve the type. The 727 had been flying for years with most of the world's leading airlines and had an excellent safety record. At the time, it was the world's biggest selling commercial jet aircraft. The CAA insisted that, in view of the rear mounted engines and 'T Tail' the aircraft posed a risk of stalling. To enable the aircraft to have UK registration all Dan-Air's 727s would have to have a stall protection system installed. A stick pusher, stick shaker, stick nudger would be installed. This in very lay terms meant that the pilot's column would vibrate should the aircraft be at an angle likely to induce a stall. It would also push the column to correct the angle - (apologies to any pilots!) This system would cost £1 million per aircraft. Of all the hundreds of 727s flying worldwide,  only the British registered models had this modification. Many Dan- Air pilots did not agree with an instrument that would over rule their skill. In addition to this, the aircraft had to be 'Anglicised' as gauge readings were in metric, rather than imperial. Extra emergency exits had to be fitted to enable the extra passengers to evacuate the aircraft in the allotted 90 seconds.
In Lancashire, travel agents Albert and Ivy Roberts used their initials to form a new Tour Operato "A.I.R" Tours. The couple already owned several Travel Agencies in Lancashire and wanted to expand into Tour Operating. They employed Dan-Air for all their new charters. The company was to grow into a major organisation. Airtours would market holidays for holidaymakers who had had a limited budget.This growth resulted in a record 1,741,000 passengers being carried this year.
Horizon Holidays began a new concept in Package Tours. when it launched the new brand, "Club 18-30". Horizon had been having difficulties integrating younger passengers with families and older travellers. The concept was to secure exclusive usage of hotels and flights for these travellers to destinations that would have particular appeal to the younger holiday maker. Benidorm, Magaluf and Tenerife became popular destinations. Dan-Air became the leading carrier on these holiday flights. The company was a headache for Horizon who had aways prefered to promote itself as an upmarket brand. Rowdy travellers disrupting the slow pace of many resorts saw an increase in fighting, accidents, missing passengers and bad behaviour on aircraft meant the brand did not sit comfortably with Horizon. It was put up for sale and snapped up by ILG Intasun - more about that in later years.
Air Anglia co-operated with Dan-Air with flights from Aberdeen and Cambridge to Newcastle timed to arrive early enough so passengers could join the Dan-Air services to Norway. The new Berne service was the first direct airlink between the UK and the Swiss capital, as well as a new service linking Bournemouth and Birmingham and Liverpool/Manchester and Newcastle started in April, just a day later the Luton - Leeds - Glasgow service started.

The Newcastle-Kristiansand service had been operating as a summer only service and in May was given year round status. Norway would be further served from noth Tees-Side and Newcastle to  Stavanger. These flights would be linked from Norwich with flights operated by Air Anglia. In May Swansea-Jersey and Newcastle - Carlisle - Jersey services started  with an international route linking Gatwick to Berne commenced in June. Finally the Bournemouth- Guernsey service opened in July. The new Liverpool - Bournemouth service had the start up date pushed back following the take over of Skyways. When the flights began the return airfare was just £16:20. The Transatlantic charter flights had been tough going for Dan-Air. They had entered the market the year before and found intense competition from several airlines. The Civil Avaition Authority (CAA) drew up new rules that would see some of the less reputable agents and operators leave the market. Dan-Air were successful with their application to extend their Birmingham - Bournemouth route to Jersey. The CAA granted Dan-Air a licence to add Liverpool - East Midlands to its Link City network.

One of Dan-Air's rivals, Lloyd International, had obtained its first jet aircraft, an ex-Pan Am Boeing 707-321. Lloyd's new long-haul jet commenced Affinity group flights across the North Atlantic to the United States and Canada, as well as passenger and freight charters to the Far East. Lloyd International's rapidly deteriorating financial performance came about as a result of cancellations and over capacity in the low-yield Transatlantic Affinity Flights market. Also, the Government's refusal to direct the British Airports Authority (BAA) to reduce airport user charges at Stansted and its preferential treatment of British Caledonian,  compelled it to cease all operations on 16 June 1972 and to go into liquidation.
In June pilots staged a one day striike in protest over recent hijackings. Air Canada chartered two Dan-Air Boeing 707s to carry out flights into Montreal and Vancouver.
Tragedy was avoided this year when an airport cleaner opened a hold door on a company 748. After opening the door he stepped back into the aircraft's propellor. This then dragged him under the aircraft into the other propellor. Althought badly injured the man survived and later went back to work.
In June it was reported compensation of up to £23,000 would be paid to victims' families following a BEA crash. This led to complaints from family members of those who lost their lives in the Dan-Air Barcelona crash in 1970. Some of those had only been offered £500. Anthony Smith who lost his daughter Norma who was 17 said;
'I feel very upset about it, we were offered £500 and so far I have refused to accept it. It cost me £400 last year to fly my wife and three children out there to see the grave where all the victims were buried.' Dan-Air offered to fly families out free of charge, but Mr.Smith said they had to travel by road as they will never fly again. He went on 'The only was I could justify the cost was to combine the trip with a holiday and it cost nearly as much as we have been offered by the airline company. Yet I feel we should go and visit the grave one a year if we can.' Normas had been going on holiday with her boyfriend George. 'I know George's family have accepted the £500 he was offered just so he could go over there. I have always thought that it just wasn't enough compesnation for the loss of my daughter's life. But when the victims of the Trident crash are being paid up to £23,000 it just seems unfair.' A spokesman for Dan-Air said 'I am afraid that the £500 is the amount that Dan-Air is required to pay by law under the Carriage by Air act of 1961 - Payments were different, depending on whether the victims had dependents or not, and the maximum under the act was £6,909.90.' British European Airways said that they were legally obliged to pay the maximum of £9,000 under International Air Transport Association (IATA) Dan-Air were not members of IATA at the time.

Rules regarding the Affinity Flights to America were finally changed this year. Previously passengers had to be part of a specific group for a period of three months. This system was open to fraud. Fake groups had sprung up to claim an affinity with the US or Canada. Membership of genuine clubs were forged as a matter of routine. Airport staff were employed to patrol check in queues and verify the genuine and rout out the fake.  The new rules, which would commence in 1973 would require a simple advance booking - ABC flights - Advance Booking Charters became the new standard. Lloyd International had been a victim of the stiff competition from Dan-Air, Caledonian and Laker.
The price of fuel was beginning to hit airlines hard by September most UK carriers applied to the CAA for an increase in fares of up to 20%. With the uncertainty of the economy it was a surprise in September when Dan-Air finally announced to the press that they had purchased the three Boeing 727 aircraft. Meanwhile Court Line took delivery of the first of its Tristar jets. These 400 seat aircraft were new to the UK register and cost £9,000,000 each. Dan-Air and other UK airline executives were treated to a flight on the aircraft when Lockheed delivered it to Gatwick. Lockheed had  orders in mind - Dan-Air did not see the potential of a 400 seat aircraft plying European sunspot routes. Despite the obvious fuel saving advantages. Clarkson's was, by now, the second largest UK Tour Operator, and owner of Court Line. Clarkson's programme was to expand next year, adding East Midlands to its list of airports. Dan-Air would fly Comet aircraft to eight airports in three countries on behalf of them.

In October it was announced that Dan-Air would close operations at Lympne airport and move them to another airport in Kent, Lydd. Shortly after the announcement, following negotiations it was announced that Dan-Air would continue to use Lympne for the next three years.
Tragedy was norrowly avoided in December at Birmingham airport when a cleaner opened a hold door. He then stood back and was struck by a rotating propeller which threw him under the aircraft and into the other propeller of the HS-748.
As the year drew to a close the fleet stood at thirty aircraft. The largest, the Boeing 707 numbered two and carried 189 people. Five BAC 1-11s of two series carried between 89 and 119 passengers. An impressive nineteen Comets with between 96 and 119 passengers were operated. Finally, six Hawker Siddeley 748 were flying with the carrier.

New services were:
  • Bournemouth - Birmingham - Liverpool / Manchester - Newcastle - 10th April
  • Luton - Leeds - Glasgow - 11th April
  • Swansea - Jersey &  Newcastle Carlisle - Jersey - 26th May
  • Gatwick - Beme service started. 5th June
  • Bournemouth - Guernsey / Jersey 1st July



NETWORK & PRESS 1972
1973


In January this year Dan-Air was successful with their licence application to increase the number of London to Jersey services from six to seven flights a week. This would increase the number of seats available from 275 to 336.The Bournemouth to Jersey and Guernsey service was also permitted to increase from 20 to 30 per week. It was also announced that the Isle of Man would be served from Newcastle would commence in May.
In late January it the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that from May, a new style of charter flights would be available to the travelling public. Advance Booking Charter flights (ABC) would enable passengers to cross the Atlantic on charter flights without being affiliated to any affinity group. The rules would mean that passengers would simply have to book in advance to travel. There were restrictions in place that did not allow for odd durations. These would be for holiday flights of seven, ten and fourteen days. There could not be any changes once the ticket had been purchased. The legacy carriers such as British Airways opposed the new ABC flights to the USA from their announcement. Despite this British Caledonian succeeded in a US court case which would allow them to carry out the flights.
In January, a Comet took of from Manchester with 103 passengers on board, bound for Tunis. Thirty minutes into the flight the flight deck crew were alerted to a major fault with one engine. The aircraft was diverted to Gatwick where a replacement Comet was available. Three passengers changed their mind and decided not to board the second aircraft. The replacement Comet took off and within minutes into the flight the pilot noticed a warning light in the cockpit indicating a fire in an engine. This aircraft also returned to Gatwick where emergency services, including fire engines, were on standby. After routine maintainence was carried out, the aircraft was given the all clear to fly to Tunis. Twelve further passengers opted out of continuing their holiday and the aircraft flew to Tunis without a hitch.  
Dan-Air Skyways continued to fly Domestic Services as a subsidiary company. The HS-748 aircraft in the fleet had a livery distinct to that of regular Dan-Air aircraft. Their distinct green cheat-line stripe on the aircraft was inherited from Skyways International, the small airline Dan-Air had purchased the year before. Dan-Air added a red stripe underneath. It was decided that next year, the whole 'Skyways' operation would be fully integrated into the regular Dan-Air fleet and that their aircraft and titles carry the new bold livery introduced for the arrival of the Boeing 707.
February saw the announcement that Dan-Air would be cutting operations at Bristol to two days a week, down from their present five days. Cardiff airport, with better weather, would see an increase from ten to sixteen flights a week on the 'Link-City' network. The network at Birmingham would also see a reduction of three days to just two days a week The flights affected linked Birmingham with Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Bournemouth. Dan-Air said that the change was to make Birmingham more viable; 'Birmingham has always been a slightly difficult place to build up an air service. It was a new route for us, whereas the others have been operating to ten years.'

A Dan-Air Boeing 707 en-route for Mauritius was forced to land at Mogadishu on April 24th. the airliner had strayed into Somali air-space and was forced to land when MIG fighter jets flew alongside it and demanded that it land. The pilot, Captain Anthony Kirk was taken to court and fined £600 for violating the North East African country's air-space. After he paid the fine, the crew and 83 passengers were allowed to resume their flight. Captain Kirk informed operations that they had been treated well and had been put up in a hotel. The crew would normally have flown over Kenya, and assumed that they were given permission to fly over Somalia. An administrative error had seen no permission granted.
19th May saw high drama at Manston when a company Comet with 113 passengers and crew performed a crash landing at the RAF base. The flight, returning from Alicante was due to land at Gatwick when the front undercarriage failed to lower. Passengers were informed that their was a 'slight technical hitch' and that the flight was diverted. Passengers suspected that there was something more serious afoot. Jack Seddon from Bolton said;
'I thought we were in serious trouble when a member of the crew went down a trap door to look at the landing gear. We circled Gatwick about ten times and then headed for Manston. I think that by that time, everyone was scared.
Dorothy Bell from Chester said 'There was no panic, but everyone was scared out of our wits. The men had to take off their ties and we had to curl up with our arms over our heads.'
After forty agonising minutes while the aircraft burned off fuel, the aircraft approached the runway. As the aircraft touched down, the nose wheel collapsed and the aircraft skidded for 600 yards down the runway before coming to a stop. Emergency shoots we deployed and shaken passengers began deplaning. Some were treated for shock and for others a cup of tea was enough. Coaches were laid on to take the passengers onwards to Manchester.
In June an application was made to the CAA to add Brussels to the Bristol-Glamorgan-Liverpool service. The airline also applied to have the Boeing 727 added to the UK register after final arrangements had been made with Japan Airlines and Boeing.
Dan-Air's decision to order the Boeing 727 made news headlines. It was the first time any UK carrier had purchased the aircraft. At the time it was the world's best selling jet liner with more than a thousand flying for almost all the leading airlines in the world. Dan-Air had expressed an interest in the Boeing 737 with a 140 seat configuration, ultimately Dan-Air chose the Boeing 727 and sourced three available models from Japan Airlines.   
The 727's looked resplendent in their distinctive new livery. One would go on to be based in Berlin, operating for German The Tour Operator, Neckermann & Reiss. The Germans did not wish the cabin to be so densely laid out, instead opting for a 141 seat configuration. The aircraft would need to have extra fuel tanks installed to allow the aircraft to fly non-stop to the Canary Islands, a flying time of more than five hours and a distance similar to the shortest Atlantic crossing, from west coast of Ireland to the USA. The Germans expected high standards of in flight service and operation. The company employed locally recruited stewardesses and UK flight deck crews who would be based in Germany for short periods. The 727 was popular with Neckermann & Reiss as well as a hit with UK Tour Operators.
When the aircraft arrived at Lasham they had undergone a great deal of modification. Captain Alan Selby recalls;

'There was a great deal of discussion between the CAA and ourselves. As the type had never had a UK certification they insisted that we install a stick pusher, a stick nudger and stick shaker. In very simple terms this is a series of devices to alert a pilot if the angle the aircraft is flying as might result in a stall. This was considered essential to them as the aircraft had rear mounted engines and a T shaped tail. The CAA wanted this as a result of a BEA Trident going into a stall. They had insisted that all Trident jets be fitted with this system. The Trident had a similar appearance, although the type was British designed. It had very few orders and was pretty much a commercial disaster. British European were by far the biggest user of the type. It was under-powered and in later models a fourth engine was added inside the tail as a booster. The Boeing 727 was, as far as I am concerned, vastly superior to the Trident in every way. Well over a thousand of them were flying with most major airlines around the world. None of them fitted with this system. Pilots were well aware about stalls and I very strongly felt that I didn't wish to have a system in place that would tell me to change how I flew, and then over-rule me if I chose to carry on flying the way I was. Apart from that, it was expensive. We also had a problem in the the Japan Airlines aircraft had all their instruments in metric. We needed ours to be in Imperial. The 727 also lacked High Frequency radio. Dan-Air had decided that their 727's would carry 150 passengers, which was something that the type had never under-taken. Boeing had given us assurances that this was perfectly do-able, provided modifications were made. This principally involved adding an additional emergency exit on either side. There are very strict rules about this matter, an aircraft has to be able to evacuated in a very short time and to have such a high density meant extra exits made sense. Other modifications could be carried out at Lasham by ourselves. This included new galleys, which were smaller, and the removal of bulkhead walls that separate the passengers in a two-class cabin and at the front. We had seating that was much lighter than those used by JAL. I don't think that this greatly affected our passengers, who largely were on the aircraft for no more than four hours or so. The aircraft itself was very elegant to look at with impressive lines. The new livery was also striking on the 727. I think the aircraft was a very welcome addition to the fleet. It had been decided that it would be the replacement type for the Comet if it was successful with our operation.  Which undoubtedly it was.'

A cabin crew member has another take on the aircraft.

'Oh yes, the good old 727, when I joined in the mid eighties it was with the emphasis on the 'old'. The aircraft looked good, but I have to confess that I hated the 100 series. We were replacing them with the 200 which was divine to work on. The 100 had a galley on the right that was just in front of the wing. We all hated it, as it made serving meals a pain. It made everything a pain. We also had this terrible seating arrangement at the emergency exits. Passengers faced each other, like on old trains. The company was not generous with leg room, and it was awful to see the exit seats with passengers who's knees were practically touching the knees of the stranger sat opposite. Passengers didn't like flying backwards either! The worst thing about those, and those on the front row, or any other exit row, was that we had these tray tables, and they were hysterical. They were made of this white, well off-white plastic. They had some metal pole things in the side that extended the tray. We had to open them and put the pole into a hole in each seat armrest. Well, you can imagine, not all armrests were at the same level so as soon as they went into the holes they looked odd. They were wobbly and not at all sturdy. They annoyed everyone who used them. It was not uncommon for a pole to come out if we hit a bit of turbulence, or if someone got up from a seat behind at used the headrest of the seat in front to gain traction. That could result in the tray contents on the floor - or the passenger's lap. It was our job to take about twenty of these sodding things out before the service began and assist passengers with them. I wanted to chuck them in the bin. The ones that went to Germany had a much more generous pitch, and were slightly better to work on. I was going out on one flight and was giving the safety demonstration through the public address system. We had a phone at the front which was made of Bakelite! one of the passengers said 'We had a phone like that in the 1960s!!!'

The Boeing 727 made an impressive debut on April 13th with the first revenue flight for the company being Manchester to Alicante. The aircraft would be chartered by Global Holidays, Horizon, Thomas Cook, and Ellerman Sunflight amongst others. Over the next nineteen years the airline would operate twenty B727s.

In June this year, Laker Airways was given permission to commence Affinity Group Charters and ABC flights, meaning more competition on an already overcrowded market. One of the Dan-Air Boeing 707s was leased to Bangladesh Biman who were short of aircraft. Any spare capacity on the 707 fleet would see them operating from Gatwick and Manchester on the (Inclusive Tour) IT network, and a series of flights were also undertaken to Hong Kong.

Liverpool had seen huge increases of 137% of Dan-Air traffic. The 'Link City' Network was gaining results after several poorly performing years. This year saw Dan-Air launch a new "Coach Air Service" This was the cheapest way of getting between the UK and French capitals. Passengers would board a coach at London's Victoria station, travel to Ashford in Kent where the passengers would board a Dan-Air flight. The flight to Beauvais was then just a short trip. Upon landing passengers boarded another coach which would take them to the centre of Paris. The cost of the whole trip was £11-05. The take up was impressive leading to the introduction of a second 'Coach Air' service in March. On this occasion the coach departed from central London, travelling to Bournemouth Hurn Airport. Passengers would then fly to Jersey. The fare was £14:10 this was £3:40 than the standard London-Jersey air fare. Total travel time was four hours twenty minutes. The Newcastle - Carlisle - Isle Of Man service was changed this year with Carlisle being dropped because of low yields. In addition,  Dan-Air had complained about the standard of the runways at Carlisle and passenger numbers hadn't risen.
Court Line Aviation took delivery of the first of their Tristar jetliners. These massive, 400 seat airliners would be used by Clarkson's Holidays for long-haul charters as well as high density routes to Spain. The aircraft were impressive. Purchased new from Lockheed, who were keen to see more UK orders for the type. Upon delivery Lockheed invited senior staff from most UK airlines to enjoy a flight before it was handed over to Court Line fully. Fred Newman the Chairman of Dan-Air was impressed, but said he could not envisage a time when Dan-Air would need an aircraft of that size.

On 7th July a company Comet took off from Glasgow bound for Barcelona when the undercarriage doors failed to close. Te Captain declared the problem on the radio was was instructed to bring the 119 passegners back to Glasgow. An alternative Comet took them to Gatwick where they were able to fly to Barcelona, arriving five hours late.

In August Dan-Air signed a £1,700,000 deal with Jetsave for ABC charters to Canada using their Boeing 707. Thomas Cook launched Cook's 'Thriftways' in August - using the Dan-Air Boeing 707s for flights to the USA.
The Boeing 707s that Britannia had operated were leased to British Caledonian. Having been denied permission to operate on the Affinity Group flights, they then gave BCal the bookings they had already taken before they were removed from the list of designated carriers. The Thomson organisation rarely gave Dan-Air anything! With the ABC charters now operating, Britannia could have come back on the scene, but they chose not to. 'Thriftways' offered return flights to New York from £58 and flights to Canada from £70. Thomas Cook also chartered the Boeing 707 for a series of ABC flights to Toronto in December.


The ongoing troubles in Northern Ireland affected Dan-Air.  The airline's Engineering division at Lasham received a call to say that a bomb had been placed on a Dan-Air aircraft which was timed to explode in three hours. Frantic staff and police searched aircraft at Lasham, Manchester, Gatwick and Kent but nothing was found.
The year was also the year of the Arab Israeli war. The Saudi Government imposed restrictions on oil and there was a Worldwide fuel crisis. Dan-Air, along with most other airlines saw a huge drop in passenger numbers as people could not afford the cost of a holiday. The UK economy had suffered as a result and strikes saw the economy hit even harder. Power cuts became commonplace. Finally, UK public sector workers were reduced to a three day week. Holiday bookings suffered but despite this Dan-Air's production of revenue passenger-miles in 1973 was 2,200,000 and was up 26-8% on the 1972 total. It was 78% over that of British Caledonian and 110% of that of Britannia Airways. In terms of passengers Dan-Air was Britain's second-largest carrier, with a  total of  2.22 million sector passengers carried compared with the BCal total of 2.1 million and the Britannia total of 1.95 million.  With bookings so heavily affected several UK airlines had to pay large costs to have their empty aircraft parked at airports. Dan-Air were fortunate to have adequate space at Lasham where aircraft could be moth-balled and have maintainence work undertaken.

It was at this time that a new department was created at the company. With spiralling fuel costs taking their toll on airlines, something had to be done. The aviation industry, even today, runs on the smallest of margins. The Comet was well known to be fuel thirsty, but what about other aircraft in the fleet? The Fuel Control Unit was set up in 1973. A pilot from each type in the fleet was recruited to analyse their type's performance, along with staff from Engineering, Accounts, Commercial Department, Training and Route Planning. They would look into every aspect of fuel consumption.  It soon emerged that some flight deck crew were using the aircraft Auxilliary Power Units when the aircraft was on the ground, when ground power units were available. When individual Captains were noted to be over using fuel, a training Captain would fly with them to point out where the use was excessive and correct it. Over time the FCU became a useful department that saved the airline a lot of money. Word spread about the work and other airlines contacted Dan-Air for assistance in their own operation. Most notably Delta Airlines in the USA.
When Dan-Air applied to serve London directly from Newcastle both Northeast Airlines and British Rail objected as they felt they would lose out. It seemed incredible in these days of free competition that a state owned railway company would attempt to thwart an expanding airline's growth. Northeast Airlines, who had recently merged with Cambrian Airways, to form British Air Services was 70% owned by British Airways. British Airways were now ojecting to Dan-Air's application to fly from Liverpool to Brussels as BEA were flying from Manchester to the Belgian capital.
Dan-Air's Comet fleet had now grown to a total of 22 aircraft. All of them were used on charter and IT market. The HS 748 fleet grew to seven aircraft. These were used on the scheduled service network, including the 'Link City' UK domestic routes. The BAC 1-11 fleet was unchanged with five in service, two of which were based in Berlin. The two Boeing 707 aircraft were used on affinity charters across the Atlantic and occasionally IT services. The three Boeing 727, over time, would replace the Comets and become the flagship of the airline.

New routes:
  • Tees-side added to the 'Link City' network. 1st March
  • Tees-side-Amsterdam service started. 2nd April
  • Ashford (Lympne)-Jersey services started. May 1st
  • Applied for: Leeds/Bradford - Glasgow & Edinburgh



NETWORK & PRESS 1973
1974



Nineteen seventy four was one of the most tumultuous year in aviation history. The previous year had been difficult for all airlines as a result of the World oil crisis. Without going into the politics and economics of it, the cost of fuel had rocketed. Several airlines had gone under, some as a direct result of the crisis. Charter flights were cut as the UK economy suffered. Dan-Air were fortunate to have an engineering base at Lasham which allowed several aircraft to be stored and undertake a more casual maintenance schedule. Despite this, the Advance Booking Charter (ABC)  flights continued apace with additional flights laid on operating to Hong Kong. Comets were also chartered for a series of 'Pilgrimage' flights to Mecca. Jetsave was the largest charterer of Dan-Air aircraft on Transatlantic and Worldwide ABC flights.
In January an aptly named Comet of Dan-Air was chartered by a group of Merseyside stargazers for a special flight from Manchester. The group would depart at 5pm and fly towards the Isle of Man where they hoped to spot Comet Kohoutek from the Port Side of the Comet. Two other flights would leave Gatwick later in the week.
Full year profits went above the £1 million mark in April. Turnover was up by 35%. Fred Newman, Chairman of Davies And Newman, parent company of Dan-Air said 'We are well placed to maintain our share of the market.'

Clarkson's Tours had grown into the UK's second largest Tour Operator, second only to Thomson.  Court Line itself had been operating as a shipping company since 1905, before entering the Tour Operator business, which was managed by maverick executive Tom Gullick.  Dan-Air, and hitherto, Autair were used extensively by Gullick for the Clarkson's holiday programme. Autair itself was much too small an operation to carry all of the ever growing number of Clarkson's holiday makers. In just four years Autair's passenger numbers had gone up from 4000 to 175,000, just 12% of these were carried on Autair scheduled services. The newly acquired airline decided to sell their turboprop aircraft, stop scheduled services and order seven BAC 1-11 500 series. These larger models could carry 119 passengers. In January 1970 Autair was re-branded as Court Line Aviation. By 1973 Clarkson's sold 1.1 million holidays. Which was roughly the same number for the entire industry just five years prior. Court Line ordered brand new Lockheed Tristar aircraft capable of carrying 400 passengers on long haul flights. This saw the introduction of Package Tours to the Caribbean and St. Lucia, the first charter flights of this kind in Europe.
By 1972 the company was in the red to the tune of $4.8 million. The trickle of 1-11's joining the Court Line fleet could in no way provide all the flights in the Clarkson's summer programme, and despite having their own in house airline, Dan-Air flew by far the largest number of passengers for Clarkson's. From the very start, Clarkson's had been determined to dominate the Package Tour industry. They had high hopes of knocking  Thomson off their self proclaimed throne. Clarkson's strategy was to aggressively slash prices to a level that no one could compete. This would, they foresaw, see travellers abandon all other Tour Operators in search of a Clarkson's holiday. When other companies fell, Clarkson's could then raise prices to a level that was profitable for them. In some respects it worked, many rival Tour Operators did go out of business.
Clarkson's worked along the lines of 'Pile them high and sell them cheap'.  Something never attempted on such a grand scale. Gullick had built hotels in Spain, imported donkeys for holidaymakers to ride on and even obtained an egg farm when local firms began charging Clarkson's too much for eggs. The industry, whilst heavily regulated did not foresee what was about to unfold. Clarkson's had undergone financial difficulties in 1972 and had been taken over by the Court Line Group.
In January of 1974 the Court Line Group saw a fall in their share price that continued for much of the month and industry analysts had said that the results were 'grim'. January was traditionally the travel industry's biggest month, with all Tour Operators launching a push for the Summer programme. Clarkson's for their part, installed a state-of-the-art computerised system for real time ticketing of booking, hotels and flights. The system boasted that it could handle three tickets per second. The computer needed to be kept in temperature controlled rooms and had a full time staff working on it, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The machine, that had cost a small fortune, was beset with technical issues from the very start. The shipping division and engine manufacturing divisions in Sunderland had seen redundancies of 200 workers at the end of the month.
For the first time Clarkson's was now the largest Tour Operator in the UK. Bonds to secure holiday-makers against being stranded would cost each Tour Operator 5% of what they were expected to sell that year.
Meanwhile, Horizon Midlands, the Birmingham based Tour Operator had their shares suspended on the Stock Exchange. The parent company, Horizon Holidays were both under the Chairmanship of founder Vladimir Raitz who was now in talks with Court Line about a take-over. Raitz for his part, stressed that Horizon  Holidays was in a good financial position. Horizon Midlands was between 25 and 30% down on the previous year. Clarkson's with a turnover of £36.5 million had lost £4.8 million. Thomson had lost £1.6 with a £25.6 million turn-over.
Despite such hostile trading conditions, Court Line went ahead and purchased Horizon Midlands and a smaller Tour Operator Four S with a deferred payment of £600,000. They would also buy the 58% holding of Horizon Midlands from the parent company for £400,000. Horizon Midlands would operate as an autonomous company. Their Summer and Winter programme would not be affected. This meant, for the time being at least, The Britannia Airways and British Caledonian, who carried most of HM's passengers would not be affected. Although it was ruled by a take-over panel that Court Line were free to use whichever airline they wanted to. Britannia and BCal had a substantial programme with HM's and were aware that Court Line would want to use their own fleet the following year.
In February, the Government hiked fuel surcharges which would adversely effect charter flights. The Tour Operators Council were seeking to obtain a fair rate for all destinations. Court Line and Laker's DC10's stood out for lower charges, but the majority of holiday flights were carried out using Boeing 727, 737, 720 and BAC 1-11 aircraft which used a higher ratio of fuel. Winter sports destinations would see prices hiked from £3 to £5. the biggest rises would be to the Canary Islands where surcharges would increase from the £8 at present to £11:75. Those prices were only from Heathrow and Gatwick, all other UK airports would have a further £1 added. Adam Thomson, the Chairman of British Caledonian said that the money given to state owned airlines should be more carefully controlled to decrease reckless practices. Going on to say that it was nigh on impossible for independents to compete against Nationalised airlines.
British Caledonian said they would contest the take-over of Horizon Midlands by Court Line at a hearing in February BCal walked away happy that Court Line had expressed a desire to continue with all the airlines used previously.
Meanwhile, Greek and Spanish Tourism chiefs wanted the money owed to them by Horizon Midlands. The Spanish debt alone was £1.5 million, and Court Line had taken on the 'goodwill but not the debts' of Horizon Midlands. The Spanish said that if the money wasn't paid, they would not accept any bookings from Horizon Midlands, or more worryingly, Court Line and Clarkson's. Horizon were responsible for 15% of UK travellers to Greece, and their debt was £500,000. The Greek Tourism Board made the same threats to Court Line. Horizon did not feature Greece in the 1974 programme.
Auditors delving into the accounts of Court Line found discrepancies in the Sip-Broker business and by April £1.75 million had been wiped off the company's value. The share price plunged 12p to just 28p. A week later they fell a further 4p.
Meanwhile Dan-air were given permission to carry 'fly-drive' passengers to Spain. This revolutionary idea would allow people to book a flight and car hire, but no accommodation. The fares would be aimed at those wishing to enjoy camping holidays and the few passengers who owned a second property overseas.
Horizon Midlands were now in deficit to the tune of £3.3 million in their annual accounts. But the firm told shareholders at the annual general meeting that there was no problem with liquidity. Share prices went up in April when Court Line were awarded a £27 million contract to build three new ships at Sunderland for Yugoslavia, the biggest contract for the company. One of Court Line's ships, Halcyon Wave was sold and a second, Halcyon Loch was believed to be on the market in June. The cash injection did not help share-prices which collapsed to 5p from 26p on June 20th. John Young of Court Line said 'we are now in the process of completing an in-depth analysis of the company.'
The following day, June 21st trading in Court Line was halted. Consultants were called in to evaluate the company. Talks were hastily arranged between Court Line and the Government, where rumours of a £9 million rescue deal were floated. This was because of a load Tony Benn had promised the Government would give the company, on generous terms to modernise its ship building division. Flights were leaving as normal from Luton and Manchester, as the National Westminster Bank had agreed to loan £4 million to the company.  On June 29th the Government rescued the shipping firm with a £16 buy out, after which the Shipping firm would be Nationalised. With the money Court Line would pay back £4 million debts and arrange to pay the other half off in instalments. The remaining business within the group would return to stock market trading the following Monday.

August 8th this year Donaldson International  Airways went bankrupt with the loss of many jobs, but the biggest shock in the Air Transport world was the collapse of Clarkson's and Court Line.  Clarkson's Tours had been formed in 1964 as a Tour Operator providing low cost holidays. The brand had been successful, albeit downmarket.

Court Line went bust on August 15th this year. Horizon and Clarkson's, as well as Court Line Aviation would stop. The two Tour Operators could not have been more different companies. Horizon, had a first class reputation and Clarkson's operated with a terrible brand image. The new real time computer system was installed with great fanfare, turned out to be hopeless at just about everything it was designed to do. Invoices were late and passengers were actually returning from holiday without having paid any money for the trip. It was estimated that almost £2m was outstanding from Travel Agents and individual passengers. The computer system itself was costing Clarkson's £100,000 a year to hire. As it was, Clarkson's accounted for 11% of Dan-Air's charter business. The figure was significant, and it was reported that a less robust carrier would not had fared so well. Fred Newman announced in the company reports that they had made a claim to the liquidators for outstanding money owed.
The subsequent chasing up of funds was costly and time consuming. Still Clarkson's carried on. Undercutting all competitors. Airlines were so desperate to have Clarkson's charters that they bought aircraft solely on the provision that they would be chartered by Clarkson's. There had been several attempts to buy the firm, and all had been resisted. When Court Line bought the firm in August 1973, it did so for a nominal £1. With this they obtained an in house Tour Operator, all the hotels and shares that Clarkson's had and all its companies. It also inherited its liabilities - Of which, there were lots. Despite all of this, the group acquired brand new, state-of-the-art, 400 seat Lockheed Tristars and began flying them to European destinations. Something never attempted before. The group then purchased ATLAS which was a consolidating company that allowed customers to be able to purchase charter flights in many combinations, bypassing many of the UK regulations. It all came crashing down in the middle of the Summer Season. Court Line itself was a relatively small airline with just eleven BAC 1-11 and two Tristar aircraft. Therefore the majority of Clarkson's Holiday flights were carried out by other operators. Dan-Air operating, by far, the largest majority of flights. As soon as the bankruptcy became public Dan-Air cancelled all Clarkson's flights. They were well aware that they wouldn't be paid. Those due to fly were told not to go to the airport. Even radio stations alerted passengers not to travel to airports. One former stewardess told us;

'I was based at Luton, we had heard gossip about them not being in a good financial shape, my then boyfriend, worked in Luton Airport accounts, he told me that Court Line had paid their landing fees and bills right up to the end of the month. So I thought it was just gossip. So the day that it happened, which I remember was a Friday, I heard something on the radio as I drove into work. Luton Authority had impounded two BAC 1-11s. As I got ready for my flight I called my boyfriend at work and he told me that the debts Court Line owed did not come anywhere close to the value of two jet aircraft! In the terminal I saw people arriving for their holidays only to be told that they should go home. I saw coaches pulling up and then leaving. It was so upsetting. At that time, I had no idea of how much worse it would become. My own flight went out with a full load of passengers on board. I think they were Pontinental clients. The flight was full on the return. The Agents at Palma were desperately trying to fill any available seats to anywhere in the UK with Court Line passengers. Our return flight had Pontinetal passengers on and we had no spare seats. Back at Luton it was still pandemonium. With passengers refusing to go home. Even though there would not be any flights to take them on holiday.'

On the day of the collapse Dan-Air carried out the scheduled return flights, saying they would continue to bring people home - if the flight balance had been paid. Several smaller Tour Operators like Pontinental and OSL had chartered seats on Court Line aircraft and, where possible, these were transferred to Dan-Air. The repatriation of 40,000 holiday-makers was estimated to have cost more than £4.5m. Tour Operators were able to offer spare capacity for holidays, but that would mean holiday makers having to pay twice. They would have no way of knowing if they would get their money back. People told not to go to the airport did the very opposite and there were angry scenes when no Clarkson's agents were on hand to help. Clarkson's head office was stormed by angry people who were incensed at having paid only days before for their holiday. They believed that Clarkson's knew what was coming. Court Line had been forced previously to deposit £3m in a bond which would help pay for repatriation flights should this very thing happen. Peter Shore, the Government Minister, blasted Court Line saying "Foreign holidays have become one of the cheapest items on a family budget. How can it be that things like clothes and food have quadrupled in price over the last twenty years and holidays have only doubled?' He went on to say 'Court Line used the fact that Spain, Greece and North Africa are poor countries where food and cost of building is much cheaper than the UK. Court Line have been flying people in huge, fast aircraft and only been making £1 or £2 per person in profit. That is ok if the aircraft is full all the time. But with the fuel crisis and the economy as it is then they went into a state where they were losing £4 per person. They were taking risks with security and that will mean an end to the cheap holiday as we know it."

Dan-Air and other companies flew the stranded passengers home. The association of British Travel Agents accepted responsibility for bringing passengers home and chartered Dan-Air and Britannia Airways' aircraft to bring them back.
Many thousands more, who were yet to travel, would lose out. The Secretary of state Peter Shore was criticised for "Hiding behind the CAA" and Tony Benn was mauled for misleading people with a statement to the House of Commons, saying that Nationalisation of the parent companies' ship broker business would secure business. Dan-Air was also hit because it carried many passengers on Clarkson's Holidays charters.
Cosmos' charters using Court Line were transferred to Dan-Air. Other airlines and Tour Operators were offering discounted flights and holidays. This was limited as discounts had to be pre-approved. In a cruel twist, several Dan-Air flights that had been chartered flew, as planned, but empty, to their destinations to pick up holidaymakers stranded in resort. The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) quickly hammered out a deal with Dan-Air to charter repatriation flights. It was a boost to the company after a difficult trading year. Not only were 40,000 people stranded overseas, 100,000 others had holidays booked with Clarkson's. Those people were unlikely to get their money back. The bonds paid to ABTA for this very thing would be used up trying to get passengers home. Lunn Poly said at the time; 'Those who have only paid a deposit may be lucky, the rest will probably have to write it off.'
Court Line issued a statement saying 'The root cause is the oil crisis and the economic picture in the country right now.' Rupert Nicholson was appointed Receiver.  The fleet was grounded at Luton.

In the mid 1960s Harry Goodman, a London based businessman opened a small tour operator company 'Sunair' which chartered aircraft and provided cut price holidays. The small company did well in the London area before being re-branded 'Intasun' in 1973. Intasun aimed its business at the lower end of the market and concentrated on the Gatwick catchment area. In 1974 Goodman's company aimed his sights at other areas. The first region he expanded to was Manchester in 1974. Having had a successful year, Intasun would now be offering flights from East Midlands Airport. A press release in late 1974 stated that Intasun would be flying to Alicante, Majorca and the Costa Brava using Dan-Air aircraft from East Midlands. Three flights a week would be departing on Saturdays and Sundays. Intasun hoped to carry 7,200 passengers  from East Midlands alone. It is worth noting that, the very market Intasun was aiming for was that of Clarkson's. With such a gap in the market, Goodman was able to clean up.


The oil industry charters began to be established for Dan-Air, they would go on to become a large part of Dan-Air's operations. Therefore a HS-748 was based permanently in Aberdeen to serve the Shetland and Orkney Islands. The Newcastle  - Isle of Man was restarted after an absence of several years and a Cesna C-150 was purchased to ferry crew to join flights that had been re positioned.
The chaotic collapse of Court Line and Clarkson's was resolved by the end of August. The total cost of returning stranded holidaymakers was in excess of £2m. All airlines paid into a bond scheme and the £3m that Court Line had paid was used on repatriation flights. The CAA said that any money left over would be used to help those who had had their holidays cancelled.

In September Dan-Air signed a two year contract with Conoco to provide oil related flights from Aberdeen to Sumburgh.  Meanwhile  Dan-Air with its small scheduled services network carried on with moderate success. The Link City network was popular. Local newspaper advertisements at the time claimed their stewardesses clearly loved their job and that flying on the link city network would be smooth and comfortable. They even boasted that they would offer things that no other company would - such as Pilots radioing ahead to arrange car hire for passengers! 1974 saw jet services being introduced on the Newcastle - Gatwick service. It had not proved to be an instant success when it was introduced. By October the route would be served with Comet aircraft. Load factors were disappointing, Dan-Air said 'The flights are underpopulated' Blaming the timing of the introduction. British Airways were operating into Heathrow with also with limited success as were North East Airways. None of the carriers were willing to reduce the numbers of flights that they operated.
Despite losing business following the Clarkson's failure, Dan Air were able to report that 'Trading is buoyant and our financial position is strong' trading profit in the first six months of the year rose 52% to £385,000, but after interest and depreciation charges, both higher at £693,000 and £177,000 respectively the seasonal pre tax loss comes in at £392,000 compared to £481,000 last year. Fred Newman went on to say that he expected to end the year in a satisfactory position.
With a loss of 11% of charter business, following the demise of Clarkson's Dan-Air had every reason to be worried. That anxiety was short lived when charters for the following years increased. Court Line had carried many Clarkson's passengers. Many other Tour Operators saw an increase in their own bookings. Not all  of those operators had their own airline. Court Line had eight  BAC 1-11 thatt were up for disposal. The aircraft were relatively young and the receivers were keen to see them sold. Dan-Air purchased four of them, and Monarch the other four. Monarch needed to increase their capacity as their own in house Tour Operator had seen a significant increase in bookings.

It was hoped that Clarkson's departure might also see the end of the dreaded 'seat back catering'. This budget friendly form of catering came at the request of Clarkson's, who had introduced it on their own aircraft. By having galley space freed up, the result being an extra three seats. The savings that Clarkson's made did not go unnoticed by rival firms. Global holidays soon followed in demanding that aircraft they chartered do the same. Global stated that they wanted costs brought down to 'the bare minimum'  indicating that it was simply aiming to give passenger 'a slice of pie' - something that was derided by industry insiders as 'Global Pie'.  As a result, the cost advantage gained by Global and Clarkson's forced every major UK charter airline to adopt seat back catering on most short and medium haul flights.
As the name implies, each seat would have a compartment installed in the back of it. These two tier compartments would have the catering for the outbound flight in the top compartment, and the inbound meal would be in a locked compartment on the bottom. Outbound catering was usually a 'Spam' salad, and the return meal, more often than not, a sandwich.  This would sit on top of a dry ice pellet to prevent it from perishing. The bottom compartment could be unlocked with a special key that crew could unlock during turnaround. The lock didn't deter determined passengers from accessing the compartment and stealing the food for the return flight.  

One stewardess told us:
'Oh the bloody seat back catering saga - what a nightmare. The times I caught passengers getting into the return compartment....All they needed was a nail file or a coin and they were in. The concept was awful - we were told that it would mean we would have less work to do, because catering staff would load in the meals - If you can call them meals. We also got told how great it was that the passengers could eat their meals whenever they wanted - not at a time we decided to feed them. We announced to passengers that when they finished, to put the packaging back in the compartment. They did so, and often, if there was a bit of turbulence, the thing would come open and all the contents fell out. Passengers complained about them to me, saying that it wasn't like this when they went with Britannia last year, which was hilarious really. They didn't get fortnight's holiday for forty quid with Thomsons! The seats were also quite big and unattractive. I can't say that there was anything nice about it. Sometimes the ice would thaw, especially if we had been delayed. So a two hour delay in Tenerife would mean that the sandwich had been in that poky compartment for seven hours. They were revolting. I think it went out of fashion quickly afterwards when tour firms wanted to try and look a bit more upmarket.'We were in a position to get our own back....As seats were pre allocated, it didn't take the crew much hard work to find out the names of the guilty passengers who had devoured two meals. When these passengers returned home and looked for their meals they found a note from the crew saying as they had already eaten their meals on the outbound leg, there was no food available for them.'

The Ashford Lympne to Paris Beauvais service had not proved to be the success the company hoped it would be. In October it was announced that the service would move to Lydd Airport, several miles up the coast. Trades Unions claimed that 75% of the 87 staff based at Lympne would lose their jobs and were fighting the decision, which had now been brought to the attention of the Secretary of State for Transport, Peter Shore. Negotiations between Dan-Air and the Unions were aiming to save 50 of the jobs. The main reason for leaving Lympne was that Lydd had better facilities and would be able to handle larger aircraft.

The loss of Clarkson's business had resulted in a financial hit, but Fred Newman, Chairman of Davies and Newman said;
'Despite the loss of Clarkson's our air and shipping businesses are buoyant and our financial position remains strong. Both divisions are well maintained and barring the usual unexpected occurrences, the group will finish the year in a satisfactory position.'
Trading profits for the first six months of the year in October were up 52% at £385,000. Clarkson's accounted for ten per cent of Dan-Air total passenger numbers and it was hoped that new emerging Tour Operators would charter Dan-Air aircraft the following year. Most of the fleet was already utilised.
The scheduled service between Newcastle and Gatwick was also operating at a loss. The CAA had approved the service despite North East Airways already operating from Newcastle to Heathrow. North East had seen a downturn of about 8% on their flights and complained to the press that their service had suffered because of Dan-Air.  North East flew using BAC 1-11 jets and Dan-Air were operating 119 seat Comet jets, which Dan-Air said 'were not very well populated' The morning service into London was particularly affected, with the company saying 'we even have empty seats on our evening return flight.' The spokesman said that the service had begun in Summer which was a 'difficult time to assess what the load was going to be.'

The fifth Boeing 727 to join the fleet had been purchased outright, four additional BAC 1-11 500 series were acquired to supplement those already in the fleet. Two BAC 1-11 200 series jets were leased. Newman was pleased that the engines on the 200 were interchangeable with those on the 400 series. In June, a company Boeing 727 lost its engine cowelling after taking off on a holiday flight to Spain, the debris, some of which was fifteen feet long landed on farmland and on a golf course in Congleton, Cheshire. In July, a company Boeing 707 on its return flight to England took off from Toronto. When the jet reached 16,000 feet, one of the engines caught fire. After extinguishing the fire, the airliner had to circle for three hours, dumping fuel into Lake Ontario. Subsequently, the aircraft's cooling equipment and lights were not working. Cabin crew brought wet towels to children to wrap around them in an effort to keep them cool. Several women fainted and one woman collapsed in the heat. Local radio reported the aircraft circling at night, which was uncommon as the airport was closed at night. Several pieces of wreckage were also found the next day. Captain Keith Moody brought the aircraft down safely, where it was met by fifteen emergency vehicles. The passengers rested overnight and were brought back to the UK the next day on an alternative Boeing 707.

Comet aircraft were, for the first time, reduced in number. This was partly due to the fuel crisis the previous year. The Comets were fuel thirsty and even in the early 1970s they were inefficient when compared to jet liners other carriers used. By 1973 it was noted that a Comet carrying 119 passengers burned as much fuel as a DC10 carrying 345. However, on some international scheduled routes Dan-Air began using their Comets. The Leeds - Luton service was dropped following poor passenger numbers. In its place, a Leeds/Bradford - Bournemouth service was introduced. In total 2,193,000 passengers were carried. The carrier's largest number to date.

NEW ROUTES
  • Newcastle-lsle of Man weekend service started -  14th April
  • Cardiff  - Bristol - Amsterdam - 14th April
  • Twice daily Gatwick - Newcastle - 29th April
  • All cross channel flights were transferred from Lympne to Lydd 31st April


NETWORK & PRESS 1974
1975




With a fleet of forty nine aircraft, and more than 2.5 million passengers, there can be no doubt that Dan-Air was the second largest UK airline. British Caledonian's claim to that mantle was based upon the mileage of the route network and scheduled passengers. Dan-Air was not one to shout about their achievements from the rooftops. Britannia Airways claimed to be the largest charter airline in the world, and yet, carried less charter passengers than Dan-Air. This year saw Dan-Air carry more than half a million more passengers than Caledonian. More people flew with the airline than on Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Sabena and the next British airline was British Midland who carried 560,000.

1975 had started with an application to expand the Newcastle - Kritiansand service.  Further applications were made to serve Gatwick - Leeds/Bradford - Tees Side - Newcastle to Stavanger, Kristiansand and Oslo. In January the airline announced it was to take delivery of four BAC 1-11 500s to be leased on a 'long term' basis from BAC. The 500 series aircraft would be configured to carry 119 passengers. In some cases they would fly to the Canary Islands with a refuelling stop. The Boeing 727 could fly there none stop, as could the Comet and 707. The BAC 1-11 had a capacity of between 86 and 119 passengers. Some of the smaller 1-11s had greater range than the largest models. This diversity gave Tour Operators a greater choice.

Some of the aircraft were due a new look cabin interior. Along with the aircraft purchased from Court Line, a very large selection of seat covers was also acquired.  The previous seat covers had seen different colours from green to orange. The new covers, designed to reflect Court Line's bright and cheery holiday image, soon appeared on all types of aircraft.

   
 
THE  COURT LINE SEAT COVERS - IMAGES CAN BE ENLARGED

The success of the oil related charters meant more aircraft needed to be based in Aberdeen. This led to a shortage of HS-748 aircraft, which was the given reason for Dan-Air's decision to prune its daily Newcastle-Manchester service to a Tuesdays and Thursdays product. John Clementson, Dan-Air's station manager at Newcastle said that it was also part of a rationalisation programme. It was, he said, a reflection of the difficult time the aviation world was having, particularly on domestic services. British Airways announced that they were axing 1,800 jobs, many of them pilots. It is a good time to mention that Dan-Air had several women pilots at this time. Although the airline insisted that they were pilots who happened to be women, and were a valued part of the team. The company went to lengths to announce that they did employ them. For now, Dan-Air was the only airline in the UK to employ women pilots. British Caledonian made a huge fanfare when they employed one in the 1980s.
When British Airways was attacked by the press for not employing women pilots they began a campaign in 1987 to poach women from Dan-Air with offers of speedy promotion onto long-haul flights and Jumbo jet aircraft.

Dan-Air were able to grow as a company despite the bleak economic picture. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted Dan-Air the right to fly to Norway no more than 14 times a week in both directions. The flights would originate from London Gatwick and/or Newcastle  and/or Tees Side and/or Leeds/Bradford to Kristiansand and/or Stavanger, the licence was for a ten year period. The BAC 1-11 would serve the routes and promised to be cheaper than a boat crossing. The flights would be carried out by BAC 1-11 200 series aircraft, two of which, were quickly purchased from Zambia Airways.  During the economic crisis of the previous year, several Dan-Air Comets had been stored at Lasham. The advantage of the Lasham facility cannot be underestimated.  Aircraft could be stored there free of charge. Other airlines with no such facilities were facing heavy airport parking fees. This led to airlines going out of business or selling aircraft.
Although much charter work had been lost by the Clarkson's failure. Lunn Poly had seized the initiative and expanded their programme, chartering more Dan-Air aircraft. It was the same for Thomas Cook, Cosmos, Blue Sky, Airtours and Arrowsmith and Blue Sky.
A new bonded scheme would come into force this year. To protect holiday makers. The ATOL Licence would see all Tour Operators would pay into the scheme, the funds would then be available if any airline or Tour Operator collapsed. Initially it was suggested all companies pay the same amount, but in a later, amended agreement, smaller Tour Operators were enabled to pay less. This would mean that Tour Operators would have to give the CAA access to their accounts. If a company did not have a sufficiently good set of trading figures, licences would not be given until the company had an injection of funds. That system is still in place today. The government also set up the Air Travel reserve fund. That fund was to be repaid by Tour Operators with a 1% levy on all package holidays. The scheme was also extended to all ABTA travel agents.

In late January Dan-Air Boeing 707's were chartered to fly a series of Advance Booking Charters (ABC) to Africa. The flights would operate from Gatwick to Nairobi and prices would be £180 compared to the scheduled fare of £320. In March Dan-Air withdrew their Liverpool-Amsterdam service. It marked the end of Liverpool's scheduled link with the continent was ended. Liverpool Airport blamed Dan-Air for not scheduling times that were convenient to passengers. Dan-Air said that they had operated the service since the early sixties and had thrown everything at it it make it a success;

'We started flying to Rotterdam with a Dakota aircraft and have updated that to an Ambassador into Amsterdam, then the airport said the service would only be a success if we flew jets on the route, which we did. They said we needed to advertise it, which we did. We then tried with a HS-748 turboprop aircraft. Each time the load factors never changed. We have tried a variety of days and schedules, linking Liverpool with a whole host of cities, so they can travel onwards to Amsterdam. I don't think anyone could accuse us of not trying. We operated the service for six years without it even breaking even. The last few years have more or less broke even, but we are, after all, a business who needs to operate at a profit. We don't receive any Government subsidies, unlike British Airways, if we don't make a profit we go out of business.'

As mentioned previously, Harry Goodman had set up a company called Sunair in 1966. Sunair had purchased Lunn Poly, which it then sold to Thomson. Eventually Goodman sold Sunair to Cunard. In its first year, 1973,  Intasun sold just 4,000 holidays. Goodman was also eager to capitalise on the crash of Clarkson's/Court Line. He had arranged to have two chartered jets on standby, and had used them to pick up the pieces of Clarkson's' failure. In 1975 his company had sold 50,000 holidays and made a profit of £300,000. Intasun's operation was similar to Clarkson's, in as far as they wanted to sell holidays cheap. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) relaxed the rules on charter flights this year. Until now, a would be Tour Operator would have to charter an entire aircraft for any flight it wished to carry out. This meant that Tour Operators were risking a great deal should the holiday not sell. From 1975 Tour Operators would be able to charter a limited number of seats on a chartered aircraft. This would then leave other, smaller Tour Operators to contact an airline to find out about excess capacity and grab it - often at a reduced rate. Goodman was one of the first to make use of this change of rules. His company, now re-named Intasun was to be a major proponent of this method. Goodman and his team, waited until all the aircraft had been chartered for the Summer, before sweeping in and booking up all the available spare seats at a reduced rate. Where Intasun did charter whole aircraft, it did so on late night flights that were cheaper to operate as landing fees and aircraft parking charges were considerably lower. This arrangement suited Dan-Air too.  
Dan-Air's regular clients included most of the leading Tour Operators. For many years one of the biggest clients was Lunn Poly, who had enjoyed a fantastic working relationship. In 1975 Lunn Poly was taken over by Thomson. With the take-over a chain of Travel Agents was included as well as their Tour Operation. Almost immediately Lunn Poly reduced its charters with Dan-Air.  The acquisition by Thomson meant that where possible Lunn Poly would Britannia Airways aircraft. The facts were, that Britannia was still a relatively small airline with just thirteen Boeing 737 aircraft, meaning it couldn't supply all of Lunn Poly's flights. British Caledonian's in-house Tour Operator, Blue Sky chartered Dan-Air BAC 1-11 aircraft for the 1975 season to fly holidaymakers from Aberdeen to Majorca.

The move from Lympne to Lydd in late 1974 had been a tremendous success. Three HS-748 would fly none stop from nine in the morning until three the following morning carrying upwards of 3,000 passengers across the channel on the 'Coach-Air' service which included transport from London city by coach, a flight to Beauvais, and a coach to Paris. Meanwhile, the Newcastle - Norway flights would begin operating with BAC 1-11 jets, with fares that were cheaper than travelling by sea.

Pre-tax profits announced in April were up 10% from £684,000 to £853,000. The high levels of corporation tax in the seventies saw £625,000 taken from the total. Giving the group a profit of just £312,000. Shares remained unchanged at 68p. The UK has corporation tax rates of 19% in 2021. In 1975 these tax rates were almost 80%!  This year saw Dan-Air Skyways, the subsidiary company being fully absorbed into Dan-Air. The livery of the HS-748 aircraft were repainted in standard Dan-Air colours and the titles now displayed 'Dan-Air London', marking the end of the Dan Air Skyways brand.


A major coup was achieved by Dan-Air in September. A Newcastle based Tour Operator, Airways Ltd dropped British Airways as its preferred airline. The company had used BA (Or its predecessors') aircraft for the last 27 years, carrying a record 41,000 holidaymakers in 1975. Airways planned to sell 54,000 holidays in the next twelve months, with holidays on sale from November onwards. Airways Ltd would be offering holidays to Rome, Venice and Rimini in Italy and Pula and Dubrovnik in Yugoslavia. Airways said that British Airways (Whom Airways founder, Harry Sedman's equity was 25% owned by BA) could 'not offer the right price at the right time'. Airways would charter Dan-Air's 89 seat BAC 1-11 series and 119 seat Comet aircraft. Further good news came when in October the American company International Weekends Inc. signed a £5 million deal with Dan-Air to charter flights from Gatwick to Boston and other US coastal cities. It came when the half year losses were reported in November at being £899,000.
The delivery of a further Boeing 727 and four more BAC 1-11 that had been fully employed all Summer would make up the short fall when the second half figures would be published the following April. Jetsave, who were Dan-Air's largest customer on Transatlantic charter flights announced it would be flying six flights out of Birmingham and six from Newcastle to the USA using Dan-Air Boeing 707 aircraft. The 189 seat jets would have a fare between £115 and £147. The flights would have a refuelling stop at Prestwick. The licence for Gatwick-Montpellier was approved and flights would commence in 1976.
Three Viscounts were leased or purchased and the HS 748 fleet increased to 9.  In total 2,582,000 passengers were carried in 1975, a further year on increase. Following the increase in passenger numbers Dan-Air could offer pure jet services on many of their scheduled services, most notably the Gatwick to Ostend and Jersey services, and the Newcastle-Bergen route. The Newcastle-Kristiansand route was expanded to a daily service. As was the Gatwick-Berne service. The Comet aircraft remained strong in charter fleet with the number standing at 19. The Comet variants operated were - The 4, 4B and 4C. Across the three variants, the Comet could accommodate  99, 109 or 119 passengers respectively. Despite this, replacements were needed sooner rather than later. One former pilot noted.

'The Comet was a gorgeous aircraft to fly, but it used so much fuel. To put it into context, our Comet 4B aircraft burned 5,200kg of fuel per hour with 119 passengers. The 4C about 4,000kg. Our BAC 1-11 500s used a fraction of this at 2,800 and they both had the same seating capacity. Granted, our Boeing 707 used over 6,000kg per hour - but they did have 189 seats. The 727 was quite thirsty too burning 4,100kg per hour. Britannia's 737 used just 2,800kg per hour. So the obvious choice was to use the 1-11 where possible. They used the same amount as a 737 but they didn't have same range or capacity. Dan-Air's logic was that if you bought a jet outright, or on a hire purchase over a year,  then it was earning money immediately and we weren't paying out  for it over years and years. Let's face it, some of the Comets we bought were in a terrible state. Not really airworthy at all. They arrived at Lasham and were used for spares. Even those that did see service were, frankly, awful from a passenger's point of view. The flight deck didn't even have a door - just a curtain! The windows had fabric curtains and not blinds. The seat pitch was a nightmare for anyone who was above average height. We couldn't use the new style air bridges as our main door was on the wrong side of the aircraft. The aircraft was unbelievably robust and massively overpowered. Because of the Comet 1's history De Havilland did everything they could to make it safe. I think all flight deck crews loved the aircraft. It handled beautifully, a real joy to fly. I doubt the ground staff thought so highly of it. It was noisy and leaked a lot. I suspect the Dan Dare moniker came about at this time, because of how the aircraft looked inside and out. If I'm honest, those aircraft looked exactly what they were, old jets from the early sixties. Dan-Air never thought to give them a complete refit. I'm pretty sure that management knew they would be phased out by 1980 so what was the point of such an investment? Of course, the period you are talking about, we had nineteen or twenty of them, so there was absolutely no question of Fred Newman ordering twenty Boeing 727s!! It was always a case of one out one in. Alan Snudden had already started urging him to get the 737 as the figures spoke for themselves. But it was just not in Newman's nature to be so flash with cash.'

This did explain why Dan-Air wished to obtain more BAC 1-11 aircraft with a similar capacity as the Comet. Technically the Comets were well maintained and still had relatively low hours on their clock. Another of our contributor pilots notes;

"I always adored the Comets, but, and I say this carefully.....They were.....starting to show their age. It wasn't just their inefficiency, it was that passengers were now far more used to flying than they were a decade earlier. Some of our Comets were perhaps fifteen years old. Whilst that is relatively normal, say in 2020 to fly in a jet that was made in 2004. The advances from  1958 to 1974 were colossal. Our Comets had hat racks and not overhead lockers. I don't think passengers had hats that much by then! The aircraft were noisy, they were practically obsolete in every way apart from the fact that they were well maintained. I wasn't privy to meetings with Tour Operators of course, but I am sure they must have noted it from passenger feedback. I'm sure that Tour Operators were actively refusing to use them. I gained my licences on the Boeing 727 pretty quickly after it came into the fleet and it was a marvellous machine. If Dan-Air had made a mistake it was that we didn't get rid of the Comet sooner. We had lost quite a lot of business when Lunns were taken over by Thomson because they would barely touch us. When they did, I believe that it was under the stipulation that they wouldn't use the Comet. I also think if we had more modern aircraft to offer Thomson's might have been more inclined to charter our aircraft. The problem, as far as I can see it, is that good quality second hand aircraft were difficult to source. Fred Newman was not one for extravagant gestures like announcing an order for ten brand new Boeing 737s direct from the manufacturer. I think we would all have been pole axed had he done that. Perhaps the Gods were on our side, some airlines had disappeared and some didn't have the capacity we had, and so we were able to utilise the fleet fully every year, even with our short comings."

One of the Comet fleet was retired an sent to Duxford to be on permanent display in Dan-Air colours, as part of the British civil airliner collection. The model donated was G-APDB, the second Comet 4 production model. The very aircraft that made the first jet service from London to New York. The museum was taken over by the Imperial  War Museum and the Comet repainted in BOAC's colours.

New Routes.

  • Tees Side - Isle Of Man - 24th May
  • Aberdeen - Isle Of Man - 24th May
  • Gatwick - Isle Of Man - 24th May
  • Gatwick - Perpignan - 1st June
  • Gatwick - Belfast (Cargo) 1st  June



NETWORK & PRESS 1975
1976


Dan Air went into 1976 with a fresh application to re-start a route relinquished by British Caledonian the previous year. If successful flights would operate BAC 1-11 jets from Newcastle to Hamburg and then onto Copenhagen. British Caledonian, who still held the license said they had no objections to Dan-Air operating the service. Route proving a new service cost £200,000 according to Dan-Air, who were confident that they could make the service a success.

The charter programme was very successful this year, Page and Moy chartered Dan-Air Comet aircraft for a series of holiday flights to Austria for the Summer months of 1976. The upmarket brand was a feather in the airline's cap. Malta Villas Ltd would use Dan-Air Boeing 727 for a series of flights to Malta and Majorca from Manchester. Following the retiring of a further Comet, a total of 18 models would fly in Dan Air colours for the 1976 season, they were complimented by 14 BAC 1-11, 6 Boeing 727 (an increase of one) Four Boeing 707 and eleven HS 748 prop-liners. In total, they carried a record 2,846,000 passengers. In early January, a second engineering base was opened at Manchester. This facility would service the airline's HS-748 and BAC 1-11 fleets.   Newcastle Airport also had extensive maintenance facilities for any technical issues that aircraft often had down route. DAE had built up a significant reputation and many other airlines used them to maintain their aircraft. Even the Royal Flight of foreign nations and private jet owners came to DAE. They were CAA approved and their American counterpart the FAA had also approved them. British Airways, which had been formed in 1973, following the merger with BOAC and BEA continued to protest at any new route applications the independents applied for. Dan-Air and others fought for any of the available market share. Independents even objected to other independents increasing their own network. By 1976 Dan-Air were flying scheduled services from more UK airports than British Airways or any other UK carrier.  Dan-Air applied to serve Stavanger from Edinburgh, Air Anglia formally objected. Meanwhile,  a new route from Aberdeen-Isle of Man was launched.
Transatlantic Tour Operator Jetsave were delighted with the results of their 1975 programme of charter flights, and in 1977 they wanted to repeat the flights. Six flights were initially planned for the season.  Due to high demand, the number was increased to ten, with many flight sold out entirely to North East locals. The ten flights would see five depart for New York and five to Ontario. There was even the promise that more would be added if demand warranted. Within a few days Jetsave announced that there would be a further six flights to New York and six flights to Ontario from Birmingham. Bookings were said to be strong, with fares ranging from £117-£147 return.


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Oberland Travel who specialised in Northern European Holidays would exclusively charter Dan-Air for their 1976 programme, offering flights from Cardiff, Manchester and Gatwick for holidays to Ireland, Germany, Holland, Austria and Switzerland. This would involve the use of a Dan-Air BAC 1-11 jets operating up to twenty flights a week. A new scheduled service from Bournemouth to Dinard service started in April, and April 18th saw the start of the Carlisle-Jersey schedule. Just one month later, on May 28th the Newcastle - Stavanger flights commenced, using a HS 748, followed by the Gatwick - Perpignan and Gatwick -Kristiansand services joining the network in June. Dan-Air's scheduled service network grew slowly, the charter division however, saw substantial growth, with Israel added as a Summer '76 destination with holidays from £179.

In March, a newspaper team followed a Dan-Air Boeing 727 for the day from Manchester. The airport saw the airline in action.  Dan-air carried 395,000 passengers from Manchester the previous year, including 10,000 Transatlantic passengers. For 1976 Manchester would have five Comet, two BAC 1-11 and a Boeing 727 permanently based at the airport. The base had 46 flight deck crew and 55 stewardesses.


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The Lydd-Beauvais 'Coach Air' service continued to grow, in August 5,000 passengers were carried. the success of the service had necessitated the acquisition of three Viscount prop-liners. The first arrived from Air Bridge in March 1975. The following two arrived in October and December of 1975 from Alidair in Scotland. The aircraft carried more passengers than the HS-748 but were quite fuel thirsty. The type never fully integrated itself to the fleet, although over the years ten of them came and went on lease and occasionally a purchase. One stewardess told us;

'I was used to working on the 748 and did a short course on the Viscount. There were about 12 of us who did it. It wasn't that intense more of a way of learning how to open and close emergency doors, main doors and the location of equipment really. And they gave us this printed booklet about the galley. We had a day learning about that as well. I know the 748 wasn't the most modern of aircraft, but I was shocked at how basic the Viscount was. The toilets had this wooden ledge thing with a toilet seat on it. Sort of covering one corner of the room. I have to say I didn't like it much, but we had to have a bigger aircraft. The runways at Lydd back then I don't think could handle jets. Passengers seemed to like the windows! Catering was a cup of tea or coffee and a pack of biscuits. So the galley wasn't necessary. When we started using them on the Jersey and Guernsey flights I think people got a sarnie and a bar service. One of them had a bit of prang as well, so that was splashed across the press which wasn't ideal. The flight deck crew weren't ours, they came with the aircraft. They were very nice people but you are always a little bit wary of someone coming in from another airline. I believe some did do training to fly them. Eventually I got a bit of a promotion and I went to work at Gatwick, which was a lot more exciting.'

The UK authorities had been very slow to change rules that regulated UK air traffic. The protectionist stance that they took, exasperated most airlines. British Airways were in such a dominant position both in terms of their network and their financial muscle. Independent carriers, Tour Operators and MP's had lobbied the Secretary of State for Aviation and the CAA themselves to try to make things more fair. Finally, in 1976, under pressure from Tour Operators and Airlines, the Government abolished minimum fares on charter flights.  Trials that had been carried out over the Winter months of 1975 had been a success. From Summer of this year there would be no minimum fares, all year round, on any route. Tour Operators would be obligated to be bonded with ATOL and ABTA, and all airlines fully licensed with the CAA.
No-one could foresee any problems arising. The new rules still forbade discounting of holidays, which basically meant if a holiday was advertised in a brochure at, say, £70; that price could not be reduced at any time for the whole season.   Two new initiatives emerged from the new rules; Whilst Tour Operators were not allowed to discount on brochure price - they would be able to sell holidays with a new format; "Accommodation Allocated On Arrival". These holidays, as the title suggests meant that holiday makers could choose a destination and upon arrival would be told where they were staying. This had advantages as well as pitfalls. In a large country like Spain there are many resorts served from a single airport. A smaller place like Malta would have just a few. The main advantage to holiday makers would be the much lower price. It could also mean that a party wishing to have a very quiet holiday could find themselves in a bustling resort with rowdy night-clubs. Tour Operators would benefit from having their spare capacity filled. Guests could find themselves in the best hotels the Tour Operator used, and just as equally in the one with the lowest rating. the main advantage was that if a client did not know what hotel or resort they were staying in in, how could they know if they had been given a discount or not? This new ruling brought a welcome increase of Dan-Air's business These holidays were often chosen by young people, who very often were not as particular about their overseas accommodation as older guests, or those on a tight budget, who could not afford to be choosy.

As the 1970s had progressed, people had became more accustomed to air travel and independently minded.. some of the more affluent had even began purchasing a second home overseas. The time share business had just emerged, giving aspirational Brits an apartment or villa of their own for a week or two every year. The time shares could be swapped for other locations. Many British timeshare owners preferred returning to their chosen location every year. In several cases, the second homes overseas would not be used for long periods and agents were available to manage lettings for times when the home would be unoccupied. These properties began to appear in classified newspapers adverts, most notably Dalton's Weekly. The thing that these holiday makers did not need was accommodation. Should they choose to fly on a scheduled service, the fares would be as high as the entire package holiday. It was another hurdle for the industry to clear. In 1976 this was finally achieved, when the second, equally innovative rule change came into force - "Seat Only Sales"  This ruling was the one that worried British Airways the most. It certainly did not mean that an entire aircraft could be chartered, carrying 'flight only' passengers. In fact, just 10% of seats could be sold on that basis. The rules indicated that these 'flight only' offers would have to include basic accommodation. It would be up to the traveller if they chose to take it or not. Michael Croft,  a travel agent who has been in the industry for many years explains further;

"The rule change was sort of kept quiet, I'm not even sure that Tour Operators wanted it. But in any case, all these cheap looking brochures came out. I worked for a big company and was told that these brochures were to be kept behind the counter, on display, but not 'on display'. So the thinking was that people would have to actually ask for them, rather than pick them up. For some reason, Cyprus was excluded from the deal, and all the Eastern Bloc countries of course. The notes about accommodation were always tucked away in the small print. We would book the flights and point out casually about the accommodation. It was clear that the vast majority of people wanting these flights already had accommodation sorted out, so most people barely listened to that part. More than once though, people came into the shop upon return, angry that their 'accommodation' was a shed in a field, a hostel or someone's house that didn't know who they were. I have no idea who worked out these addresses. The thing was, these brochures had FLIGHT ONLY printed on the front of them! The prices were really fair and because only limited numbers could be sold, they often were not easy to obtain. The whole thing changed in the eighties, it had become ridiculous. For instance, one family had family who lived in Spain, they wanted to visit, but couldn't go unless they went scheduled, but BA didn't fly from Manchester to Alicante, so it would have to be Manchester to Madrid and then Alicante with Iberia, or BA which was Manchester to London and then Barcelona with a long road trip afterwards. This all cost a fortune compared to a charter deal. But a charter deal included accommodation, that they didn't need. If they could get a flight only to a place that the schedules didn't fly to, why the hell shouldn't they be able to. Afterwards the charter carriers started their own schedules to these places anyway. BA knew most people couldn't afford their fares, so they didn't operate the routes, they just didn't want anyone else to operate them either.'

British Airways reacted furiously to the rule changes, seeing them as a further erosion of their territory. British Caledonian had returned to the charter market following the substantial downturn in their own scheduled network in recent years. BCal had spent the last few years boasting about their own service and rubbishing charter carriers at every opportunity. In recent times, many of BCal's routes had become unworkable, in particular their Tripoli service in light of the recent political situation there. Now BCal wanted to return to the charter market.
In June, British Petroleum chartered three HS-748 aircraft for flights from Glasgow and Aberdeen to fly oil support workers. The flights would operate to Sumburgh and the Shetlands. The two year deal was said to be worth £1,500,000. A  month later Dan-Air was awarded a Ministry of Defence contract for Gatwick to Gibraltar flights.
Tees Side Airport in the North East of England had often had a difficult time finding routes that would be popular with the travelling public. One route that had worked out was to Amsterdam. Dan-Air stated that when the new timetables came into force in November, the service would increase from Monday, Wednesday and Friday to a daily one, with standardised timings. Dan-Air would double their flights to Stavanger using HS-748 prop-liners and they applied to commence services from Newcastle to Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Copenhagen. None of which were granted, British Airways had objected, as did British Caledonian who said they would not earlier in the year..

A unique charter in October saw 151 pilgrims board a Dan-Air Boeing 727 from Aberdeen. The aircraft was chartered to fly to Lourdes, and included the eldest passenger who was flying for the first time, aged 84. One of the pilgrims (The 84 year old's Granddaughter said;
"We had been awake since 4am to get to Aberdeen from Manchester to be with the rest of the party. The weather was atrocious. Dan-Air were very kind with us, the flight was delayed a while because of thunderstorms, but we eventually got in the air. The flight was really bumpy, my Grandmother and I were terrified, but the crew soldiered on, smiling and reassuring those who were nervous. I was always well disposed towards Dan-Air after that. In fact my travel agent used to say 'Are you sure?' when I chose a slightly more expensive holiday with Dan-Air flights than a cheaper one with another airline."

Bad publicity came in August when a quartet of stewardesses went to the national press to complain about being dumped by Dan-Air. Judy Dove, Mandi Baker, Catriona Mann and Anne Power were taken on with a six months contract after training as stewardesses. At the end of the six months the girls were let go, as was standard with charter airlines at the end of the summer period. The girls then found out that the airline had taken of 60 new girls. Les Shorter, the aviation secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union said 'I will certainly be looking into this, it is a most disturbing situation.'
The stewardesses were under the impression that they would be taken on a permanent cabin crew if their work had been good.
'I know I haven't been terminated because I am unsuitable' said Judy Dove. 'We asked to see our check reports and they were all good. It's not as if there is not enough work for us because I know they have taken on more girls.'
Anne Power said 'I always wanted to be a hostess, I have worked hard to get good reports, now I'm left with nothing - I feel as though I've just been dumped.'
Mandi Baker who came over to the UK from Canada to train with Dan-Air said 'I never dreamed I'd be out of a job within six months, I call them Dan Unfair'
The Union official who represents the UK's 8,000 cabin crew went on to say 'Dan Air always take on too many temporary staff, and they are the only airline that pay them less than they pay their permanent staff.' Dan-Air's public relations officer Ted Sessions said 'It is true, not all the girls who are taken on were kept on, but they know from the start that their contract is only for six months, if they are needed at the end of that period then  they are given a permanent  contract.'



The Bonded Stores manager at Bristol airport was sentenced to two years imprisonment in August after he was caught fiddling duty free goods to the value of £3,350. The charges related to Five cartons of ham as well as crates of spirits, cans of beer and watches. The accused asked for 99 similar offences to be taken into consideration. He had altered customs documents meaning that an aircraft would appear to have left the airport with much more on board than it actually had.
Pre tax profits for the first six months of trade showed that turnover was up from £19.4m to £30.3m an increase of 30%. Dan-Air made a pre tax loss of £1.4m against last years £763,000. The fleet had grown from 36 to 45 aircraft and leasing charges had cost £1.3m. As the six months trade only included one of the peak months (June) Dan-Air management were confident that the airline would return to profitability when the full year figure would be shown the following April. This was the usual routine with airlines and one explanation was that as the airline had grown so much over the last few years the figures would also be far greater. The extra aircraft would all be operated at their full utilisation.
When the financial year closed in April the airline had made a pre tax profit of £1.35m up 20% on last year. the airline had a turnover of more than £52m. There was further good news when in April Dan-air was able to state that the enlarged charter fleet was fully booked for the whole Summer. During the last twelve months 2.5 million passengers had been carried. More than any other UK airline with the exception of the state owned giant British Airways. As the year drew to a close the fleet had reached fifty aircraft, which was impressive by any standards. The airline could boast that they carried more passengers and had a larger fleet than several national airlines, Aer Lingus, TAP and Sabena included.

The year was rounded off with Fist Officer Yvonne Sintes (Pope) being given her Captaincy of the BAC 1-11. She became the first woman to be in command of a large jet airliner. Captain Sintes had a number of firsts to her credit. The first woman air traffic controller for the Ministry of Aviation, the first woman co-pilot of a scheduled passenger aircraft and now her latest achievement. Captain Sintes had first gained her pilot's licence aged 23.

The Boeing 727 had proved to be an excellent replacement for the Comet, more 727s would soon join the fleet which now stood at six. The BAC 1-11 stood at 14 and four Boeing 707s were used on ABC charters around the world, but the largest number of one type remained the Comet. Eighteen of them worked flat out for the year. It would be difficult to replace them quickly without significant investment. The HS-748  now totalled eleven and were used  on oil related charter flights as well as UK domestic scheduled services.
The airline could look forward to the next year.




Above: The 'dumped' stewardesses.

New Routes

  • Bristol - Cardiff - Leeds - Glasgow service commenced with HS 748s - 6th January
  • Boumemouth - Dinard service commenced - 17th April
  • Carlisle-Jersey service began - 18th April
  • Newcastle - Stavanger service opened - 28th May
  • Gatwick - Perpignan and service started - 20th June
  • Gatwick - Kristiansand - service opened - 20th June






NETWORK & PRESS 1976
1977



Dan-Air, with a fleet of more than sixty aircraft had grown in size and was now larger than many national carriers. The fleet was larger than Sabena and the company carried more passengers than Aer Lingus. As well as having aircraft based at London Gatwick, Manchester and Aberdeen, a second hub had been established at West Berlin, where three Boeing 727 and two BAC 1-11 aircraft operated the programmes for many leading West German Tour Operators. Stewardesses and ground crew were recruited locally and flight deck crews rotated from UK bases.  The Berlin base had full operational, management and engineering support. By 1977 Dan-Air had become the largest charter operator at Berlin Tegal airport.
The largest and most prestigious Tour Operator Neckermann & Reisen were one of Dan-Air's largest clients. They had very specific requirements for their programme, including a very generous seat pitch, which required Dan-Air to carry few passengers on flights. The Boeing 727s were fitted with extra fuel tanks to enable them to reach the Canary Islands, which at five hours thirty minutes would reach the operational limits of the type.

On January 11th a company HS-748 crash landed at Sumburgh after landing in slush. The aircraft was ferrying fifty Irish construction workers and their families from Sullem Voe, no-one was hurt. Just a few days later, a Vickers Viscount suffered a damaged nose wheel upon landing at Lydd airport in Kent. The aircraft had taken off without incident. Shortly after take-off and twenty miles into the English Channel, the Captain noticed engine vibration in the flight deck and decided to return to Lydd. Emergency services were on hand to assist, but the Captain landed safely.

Dan-Air served the Isle of Man from eight UK airports and in February the airline applied to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to serve the island from East Midlands. The route had previously been operated by British Midland who having withdrawn from the service had no objections to Dan-Air taking it over.
A small Tour Operator, Pearl Island Holidays went bankrupt this year, Dan-Air were left with extra capacity as they had chartered Dan-Air jets for their programme. The company could take consolation when a massive charter contract was awarded to Dan-Air relating to oil support workers. The flights would take off from Aberdeen for the 170 mile trip north to Sumburgh, where workers would board a helicopter to fly directly onto oil rigs. The new contract required that Dan-Air purchase six new HS-748 aircraft. The aircraft were sourced from Aerolineas Argentinas. It was hinted that the aircraft were in some kind of decrepit state. Local journalist Bob Cummings said;

'Dan-Air was known as the 'quiet airline' which was borne out by the fact that they said very little about these 'new' aircraft. But it was known that most, if not all would join the ones already in the oil patch at Aberdeen. No price was put on the Argentine aircraft, but it was only a small proportion of what it would cost them to refurbish them and to bring the aircraft up to Civil Aviation Authority specification. The price was going to be well over £2,000,000.'

Dan-Air took over the former Fire Station at Sumburgh where operations, engineering and flight crews would work from. The new charters saw a 45% increase in passenger traffic at Aberdeen in February alone. In total, 20,000 passengers used the airport that month, a rise of 32%. One of the Aberdeen ground crew said;

'You have to laugh. Dan-Air would always get things done, but from a PR viewpoint - we were sometimes a disaster. If we saw an opportunity we took it. It didn't seem to matter what it looked like. The main thing was that when it came to running an airline - God, we were good. It didn't matter what stripes you had on your uniform, if baggage handlers were on strike, we would put cases on ourselves. If someone on check in was ill, we'd somehow do it ourselves. The people at larger bases had lots of options. We were just a small team and if that meant rolling your sleeves up and getting your hands dirty then, so be it. They were the best years of my working life.'

Residents close to Newcastle Airport became angry with Dan-air who carried out engine tests at midnight on a BAC 1-11. More than 50 residents complained bitterly that their sleep was disrupted. Dan-Air issued an apology, saying it was a regular occurrence that had to take place, and had been going on for a long time. As it was the first time residents had complained it was theorised that the wind might have been blowing the wrong way!

Despite negative press saying how much the airline was in the red financially for the first six months of the year, by April, the company reported its highest ever profit at the end of the financial year. Pre tax profits were £1.88m, 38% up on the previous year. Dan-Air could also boast that they carried 2,846,000 passenger in 1976. With such impressive credentials, one would expect that such a successful airline would have licence applications looked at favourably - this was not always the case. Certainly, second division routes from secondary airports would be fairly considered, but any attempt to fly into Heathrow would be rebuffed. Even trunk routes from Gatwick were seldom granted to independent carriers. The very idea of competition seemed to be a bad idea for the CAA. Instead of allowing carriers to try to lure passengers onto their flights with lower fares and better service, the CAA simply refused to give airlines the right to compete fairly. It was the business culture of the time, but very frustrating for airlines. This often led to squabbles and objections amongst the independent airlines. When a licence application was submitted it was more often than not, objected to by another carrier. In one instance, a Tees-Side to London application was refused because another operator flew from Newcastle to London. Such a hearing would never take place today.

The EEC Parliament, with its MEPs and delegations could be lucrative business for Dan-Air, who were successful with an application for the Gatwick-Strasbourg service. As was a new service linking both Birmingham and East Midlands to the Isle of Man was also introduced.

A series of tragedies were averted in April involving three aircraft flying over Spain. The first involved a British Airways Trident flying to Valencia who reported a near-miss with an El Al Boeing 747. The Captain was badly shaken as he reported the near-miss to air traffic controllers. He had reached down to pick up the aircraft log book and noticed the jumbo coming at him at a right angle. The pilot stopped the auto-pilot and pulled the airliner up, avoiding a catastrophe at 33,000 feet.  Shortly afterwards the British Airways pilot was given instruction to descend to a lower flight path as he approached Valencia.  Captain Derek Baker said;

'I said a word to the air traffic controller, I won't say which one. I told him that we had had a near miss and that any passengers looking out of  the El Al jet would have got a very nasty shock. We were no further than 300 yards apart, a split second and it would have been a disaster. Then I couldn't stop shaking. We were at 33,000 feet with 76 passengers. We were then given instructions to descend towards our final approach. My hands were still shaking from the shock as we approached Valencia. Then the air traffic controller told me I was safe to descend to 3,000 - completely ignoring the Dan-Air Boeing 727 flying directly below me. The Dan-Air pilot who was also listening to ATC and cut in saying something like 'Hey you can't do that' - But I was aware of his presence, even if the controller wasn't. It was a trip I wouldn't care to repeat.'

The early part of every year saw Travel Agents and Tour Operators announcing their programmes for the year. Several newspapers tried their hands at being Tour Operators. Regional newspapers in conjunction with a local Travel Agent would often charter a jet from a local airport and book rooms at a hotel. One such flight would see a Dan-Air 727 fly from Birmingham to Lanzarote for a week long holiday for just £138. Many more of these special 'one off' charters were undertaken each year.
Gliders flying around Bristol caused a near-miss in May when a company BAC 1-11 with 86 passengers on a return flight from Ibiza forced the jet to bank steeply to avoid collision. The pilot was praised for his speedy action.

Sadly, one of the company Boeing 707 freighter aircraft was lost on approach to Lusaka whilst on lease to I.A.S.  Six crew died in the accident as a result of a design flaw.  Cracks had been found in the tail. In total 30 British Boeing 707s were grounded while checks were carried out. Several aircraft around the world were found to have similar cracks. More about this accident.
There had been a further sterling crisis in 1976/77. The Labour Government devalued the pound again, which affected the price of fuel in overseas airports. It was an anxious time for the airline industry which has always operated on very low margins.  Tour Operators were forced to impose surcharges on holiday-makers. The CAA reacted by saying that Tour Operators were forbidden from charging surcharges after tickets had been issued. Of course, that didn't stop them adding surcharges on holidays after they were booked. Tickets were usually issued six weeks before travel. The CAA also claimed that the surcharges had been the result of Tour Operators cutting prices too aggressively. The CAA announced that they were considering re-introducing minimum pricing, which soon afterwards, they decided against the measure. Tour firms then were forced to petition their Banks to ask for an extension of how far in advance they could purchase foreign currency. The CAA rejected their requests. Cosmos holidays claimed that the rich - poor and the poor - rich swing had altered. Going on to say that bookings of the upper and middle classes had dropped by 10%, while bookings from the blue collar workers were up 40%. Cosmos saw a gap in this market and announced, with great fanfare, a new feature. "All holiday costs including deposits would be returned if a customer was made redundant".  The public reacted positively to Cosmos' offer Ensuring a surge in their bookings.

Cosmos did have its own airline - Monarch Airlines, and naturally, Cosmos would try to ensure that their holiday-makers would fly with their own carrier. However, Monarch was still a very small airline in terms of fleet size, operating a fleet of three old Boeing 720s and four BAC 1-11s. Monarch didn't have the capacity for all the new bookings  and Cosmos would need to charter other carriers' aircraft, they chose Dan-Air. Other Tour Operators to expand their charter business with Dan-Air were Intasun, Airtours, Arrowsmith, Exchange, Ellerman, Owners Abroad, Neilsons, Inghams, Jetsave and Horizon.
The Exchange charters were notable in that their programme for Malta, Cyprus and Gibraltar from several UK airports would all be carried out using Dan-Air aircraft. Exchange would operate flights from Manchester, Gatwick and Luton, East Midlands, Newcastle and Glasgow with prices from £77 for a weeks holiday. Flights commenced in April. Dillie Mayhew who worked for Exchange says;

'I was invited on an educational trip to Cyprus, somewhere I had never been. My manager told me that we had chartered a Dan-Air Comets. I must admit, we had chartered their Comets before and people did complain about them being old fashioned, cramped and smelly, I had flown on one myself and I had to agree with them!  The bookings came in really strong and management renegotiated with Dan-Air who happened to have some spare capacity with their Boeing 727s, and a change was made. When I boarded the aircraft through stairs under the tail I was in awe. The aircraft was lovely. I'm no expert, but the 727 seemed to go up like a rocket. I was impressed with the overall service and the food we were served. I was more than happy to recommend Dan-Air to customers after that. We continued working with Dan-Air for many years. They were a great airline and I am sorry that they are no longer with us."

Intasun continued their rapid expansion with Newcastle being added to their stable this year. Dan-Air would carry out the charter programme with Costa Brava, Costa Del Sol, Malta and Tenerife  flights undertaken. For the first time the company carried more than three million passengers. (3,591,000) Inclusive Tour passengers accounted for 2,338,360 of the number, leaving 1,252,640 passengers on Scheduled Services. The IT passenger numbers were much higher than rival airlines;
  Dan-Air                2,338,360
   Britannia Airways   2,146,077
   British Airtours         631,238
   Monarch Airlines      599,828
    Laker Airways          459,257
   Caledonian              417,627
    Other carriers          233,037

One office worker, Rita Carrudus  told us;
'Do you know what, the Britannia and Caledonian thing was a source of irritation to me quite often. We carried more passengers as a whole than anyone except BA. We carried more charter passengers than Britannia - yet they had this advert calling themselves the 'world's largest holiday airline', They got away with it because that is all they did - charters. As a holiday airline we always carried more than they did. Caledonian  called themselves the second largest scheduled airline - because they carried more scheduled passengers than us - this was utter rubbish. Numbers are numbers - we carried more than any of them! When I saw the figures you sent me - blimey, if you add up all our rivals together it is only a million more than we carried by ourselves. Take Britannia out of the picture and we carried the same amount of passengers on our charters as the others put together. I don't know why - but it really gets under my skin - It still does, and I will never understand why we didn't shout out a lot more about ourselves.'

In August, British Air Traffic Control Assistants went on strike, they were followed by French and Spanish Air Traffic Controllers who stopped work for four days over the Bank Holiday weekend. Up to a million passengers on up to 5,000 flights a day would be affected. One Dan-Air flight was delayed by eighteen hours and a flight departed from Naples twenty seven hours behind schedule as airlines played catch up. Thousands of passengers were stuck in airports around Europe. Flights were affected for three weeks as industrial action continued. Dan-Air were able to boast that only one of their flights was cancelled. Des Carlisle said;

'We moved Heaven and Earth to keep things going. We had only one flight that was cancelled and that was because the crew did not have enough flying hours left to make the trip to Newcastle and there were no reserve staff. So we laid on a coach to bring them to Newcastle.'

Twickenham Travel of London chartered Dan-Air's 727 for a series of flights to Tel Aviv and Elait. The flights from Gatwick would operate for the Winter season. Red Sea Holidays and Sovereign Holidays also chartered Dan-Air for winter sun holidays to Israel. Cabin crew would be trained at Aberdeen for the first time this year. With several aircraft based at the city, it made sense to train locally. Male cabin crew were not employed by Dan-Air, but this year saw applications invited for 'Loadmasters' these male members of staff would be required to serve drinks and act as cabin crew on oil support charters operating from Scotland. These staff would also be required to load mail and small cargo loads on aircraft. It was felt, that given the nature of some of the Scottish services, a more robust style of operation required a more robust member of cabin crew.

The Boeing 727 had proved to be popular with passengers and the fleet had now grown to eight of the type. The Boeing 707 fleet also grew with an extra model purchased this year; the last that the airline would acquire. Cabin crew enjoyed flying long haul, but many of them have told this site's webmaster that they often felt nervous on the 707 because it was old and shaky. Pat Martin, a stewardess on the 707 said
'When you were in the rear galley, you could actually feel the tail swaying as it flew. I would sit anxiously as it went up the runway.'
Despite this, the 707 served Dan-Air until 1980. Fred Newman, the company chairman, said at the time 'The Boeing 707 was not successful for Dan-Air - it was the wrong type of aircraft for our style of operation.'
The BAC 1-11 was a different story altogether. A company spokesman told the press in 1977;

'The BAC 1-11 is a marvellous machine, we can operate it with between 86 and 119 seats, depending which model is ideal for the job. This means we can even take the aircraft as far as Tenerife with a lower capacity without a re-fuelling stop.. Cities like Bournemouth are a long way from London, and whilst a Boeing 727 can be filled easily from Gatwick, it is perhaps too large for Bournemouth. But Tour Operators are more confident filling a 1-11. Our entire fleet is intentionally flexible. No other charter carrier has such flexibility as we do. We have nine aircraft types that have differing layouts from 40 to 189 seats. Quite literally we can tailor those aircraft to suit any customer. Some of our competitors have single types and in the aviation industry one size certainly does not fit all. You couldn't for instance take a Boeing 737 to Sumburgh.'

The obvious short-coming Dan-Air had was the Comet. Purchasing new jets was certainly expensive, they also had waiting lists. The Comet aircraft had been purchased outright - but the fuel costs were astronomical. Still, the balance sheet when adding fuel, maintenance, and purchase price together still favoured the Comet - but only just. The Comet's long term operation simply wasn't sustainable. The problem of sourcing spare parts was becomming ever more difficult. The decision was finally made, that the remaining aircraft be retired by 1980. Dan-Air, and Fred Newman had placed a great deal of faith in the Boeing 727 as the ultimate Comet replacement.
Among senior management however, there was a lot of talk about investing in the Boeing 737. Group Chairman, Fred Newman had persistently resisted pressure from Martin O'Regan the finance director and commercial director, Errol Cossey to 'leap frog' ahead of main rival Britannia Airways and purchase the Boeing 737 200 ADV. This advanced model had greater range than the standard 200 series operated by Britannia and could take off and land at the airports the 200 couldn't. Discussions were ongoing, but always met with the same response from Newman, a firm 'No'.

It is worth noting that the UK economy in 1977 was not in the best of health. Several airlines had lost money. Dan-Air had remained in profit at a time when the industry was in real difficulty. The following year would be the company's silver anniversary. It was reported that the fleet was 70% utilised for the next summer. The scheduled services department had also planned to make a bid for more European services. Once again, the CAA had favoured British Caledonian by awarding the carrier several European licences including Oslo, Stockholm, Dusseldorf and Brussels at the same hearing Dan-Air were denied all licence applications.



New Routes:

  • Gatwick - Strasburg  - 1st Apri
  • Bristol - Cardiff - Cork -  4th April
  • East Midlands - Birmingham & lsle of Man . 21st May

NETWORK & PRESS 1977
1978



1978 was Dan Air's Silver Jubilee year. It was also a record breaking year in terms of passengers carried. For the first time, in the airline's history, more than four million passengers were carried (4,010,000). The Comet fleet was practically obsolete and a phasing out was well under way in 1978. Nevertheless, thirteen Comets were still carrying out many of this year on charter flights. The obvious problem was a lack of affordable aircraft on the market. It would be futile for Dan-Air to offer charters at significantly higher rates than their competitors. Alan Snudden, Martin O'Regan and Errol Cossey were all senior members of the company board and up were beginning to show their irritation at Chairman, Fred Newman's refusal to obtain new aircraft. In some cases it was reported that Comets had been obtained for as little as £6000. These would not see service, but be broken up for spare parts. The Boeing 727 had been chosen as the Comet's successor and was still in production, but the cost of them was beyond what Newman was willing to invest.
The price of jet fuel continued to affect the airline industry and in particular Dan-Air.  The following chart is a fairly comprehensive list of contemporary airliners. In blue are the types that Dan-Air operated and in red the types flown by competitors. It shows the fuel consumption in kilograms per hour, and the typical seat capacity in charter operation in brackets. Whilst this is not an absolute list, a lot can be gained from the figures. Pilots talked at length to me to explain that fuel consumption is a lot more of an exacting science that this list. Aircraft burn more fuel at higher speeds and less at cruise. With that in mind, one can aim for an average hourly rate of fuel burn. It is also fair to say that different airports had varying landing, take-off, parking charges.  The most fleeting glance shows that the fleet a little over a decade ago,  consisting of Ambassadors that used a mere 600 kg per hour.  The Comet, for all its undeniable charm used up to 5,200 kg per hour. The Boeing 737 operated by Britannia Airways used only 2,800 kg per hour.  In fact, Dan-Air's Airbus A300, introduced in the 1980s used less fuel carrying 336 than the Comet. Monarch were hindered also with the Boeing 720 guzzling 6,400 kg/h. The BAC 1-11 fared well with the 737, but carried 11 less people. Only a few years prior, Dan-Air introduced the Comet on the Liverpool- Amsterdam service, and based on this basic list, the aircraft could have burned as much fuel as the HS-746 would burn in seven hours.  The decision to withdraw from long-haul ABC charter flights was a good choice. The profits had not been forthcoming and the whole operation was costly. Aircraft with technical issues were left down route for hours. Crew had to be accommodated in hotels as replacement crews flew back to the UK. Dan-Air had a fine reputation for being able to operate any kind of flights and to that end - the company had carried out the operation. Whether it fitted with the overall style of business that Dan-Air had pioneered was debatable. Some of the existing 707s would be leased to other operators, sold on or used on European charters.  The Boeing 707 was old, prone to technical problems and had found itself in a very crowded market. Laker Airways and British Caledonian had obtained licenses to operate Transatlantic Scheduled Services, and Laker had visions of commencing low cost flights between the UK and the USA. It was an ideal time for Dan-Air to withdraw.

DC 3 Dakota - 230 kg/h (36)
DH Dove - 100 kg/h (8)
DH Heron - 180 kg/h (12)
Ambassador - 600 kg/h (45-55)
Comet 4B - 5,200 kg/h (119)
Comet 4   - 4,400 kg/h (99-106)
Comet 4C - 4,000 kg/h (99-119)
BAC 1-11 (500) - 2,800 kg/h (119)
Boeing 727 100 4,140 kg/h (131-142)
Boeing 727 200 - 4,500 k/h (ADV 4,860 kg/h) (189)
Boeing 737 (200) - 2,800 kg/h  (130)
Boeing 737 (300) - 2,400 kg/h (149)
Boeing 737 (400) - 2,600 kg/h (170)
Boeing 707 -  6,800 kg/h (189)
HS-748 - 800 kg/h (48)
Vickers Viscount (700) - 1,299 kg/h (70)
BAe 146 100 - 1,180 kg/h (88)
BAe 146 300 - 1,920 (110)
DC 9 (40) - 2,900 kg/h (90)
Airbus A300 - 4,770 kg/h (336)
Douglas DC 8 - 6,200 kg/h (188-220)
Trident - 4,260 kg/h (110-115)
F27 - 660 kg/h (45)
F28 - 2,00 kg/h (70)
HP Herald - 770 kg/h (45-50)
Boeing 720 - 6,400 kg/h (156)
Tupolev 154 - 5,300 kg/h  (120-180)
Caravelle - 2,400 kg/h (128)
Convair 990 - 6,300 kg/h (121)

One of our pilot contributors told us;

"The 707 aircraft that we had were, frankly clapped out. They had carried out the job they were purchased to do, no more, no less. They simply went across the Atlantic and beyond on charter flights. They were sometimes used on flights to the Canaries as well. I had transferred from the Comet to the 707 before joining the 727 permanently. My conversion couldn't come quick enough. When the 707 was at its maximum take off weight it would send a shiver down my spine. Gatwick has a long runway and thank God it has. 'Tango Golf' in particular I felt, only just managed to get airborne before you ran out of runway, it tests your constitution you know. Our 707s had come from Pan Am's first batch of the type and it showed. The damn things regularly went tech down route, so that meant engineers from overseas had to work hard to repair them. It led to disgruntled passengers blaming staff. Far too many times we were sat in the flight deck at the gate with a full aircraft all set to go....You start the push back and the tug is released. Then some warning light came on - something was wrong, which meant that we had to go back to the stand.  Everyone had to deplane and wait. Worse still would be that passengers would have to sit on board the aircraft for hours if we couldn't get back on stand. We would have to put people up in hotels, all at expense to us. Our reputation was getting a hammering on a daily basis. Someone wrote to a newspaper saying the brochure had promised in flight entertainment, of course there was none. They called the aircraft 'dilapidated' which was a little harsh, but, perhaps, not altogether inaccurate. It might have been ok if it meant an extra night in a hotel and a three hour flight back from Spain, but when you are facing an eight hour flight and jet lag, people, understandably wanted the aircraft to leave on time and get home on schedule. One year on the aircraft was enough for me. After that I transferred to the 727. My main theory now, and I think then, was that Dan-Air's abiding flaw was a reluctance to invest in new equipment. We had by far, a bigger company than Laker, so, if he was able to get DC10s, why didn't we?  There has always been more ways than one to acquire aircraft, lease them, buy them in instalments. Dans had all the resources to handle the flights themselves. I think they were downplaying themselves and sticking with the public's perception of us as a cheap charter airline."

The new year got off to a flying start with Dan-Air managing to ferry almost 3,000 oil support workers to Sumburgh after bringing them to the mainland for Christmas. Between Friday 6th and Tuesday 10th of the month 60 flights took off from Sullem Voe air terminal. The busiest of days was the Monday. To cope with Dan-Air's oil charter work an additional HS-748 was acquired. In total, eleven of the prop-liners were now based at Aberdeen for the task.
Dan-Air Engineering's base at Manchester Airport had started a few years previously with 100 employees, by 1978 350 people worked at the base, making it the largest employer at the airport besides the owners Manchester Council. In late January it was announced that DAE Manchester had been awarded contracts to maintain the aircraft of Fred Olsen Lines, The Sultan Of Oman, Royal Swazi National Airlines and Cyprus Airways. The maintenance of the BAC 1-11, Viscount and HS 748 of these companies would be carried out at the base. This would happen alongside contracts already in place with the Ford Motor Company, Aer Lingus and British Caledonian.


In January, The Newcastle Evening Chronicle compared two services from the city to London, Dan-Air to Gatwick and British Airways to Heathrow. The Dan-Air review was outstanding. The piece said the check in staff were chirpy and professional, and the cabin crew were in a class of their own. The BAC 1-11 offered a hot breakfast with Bacon, Eggs, Mushroom and Crispbread with Marmalade. A glass of grapefruit juice and tea or coffee. The British Airways flight to Heathrow had no food, just hot drinks. Dan-Air's staff had handed passengers their coats and wished everyone a pleasant day. Their flight was on time, and the BA flight delayed 15 minutes. When questioned about the lack of a meal, BA said that 'The majority of passengers were businessmen and a meal was not on their list of priorities'. BA also said the Dan-Air flight was TEN MINUTES longer - giving staff the time to serve breakfast! The journalist disagreed. He said that he was charged exorbitant 49p' for a sandwich and coffee at Heathrow. the only snag for Dan-Air was the £2:25 train journey to London itself. It was just 80p to travel from Heathrow to the capital by underground.  Dan-Air charged £24:80 for the flight, British Airways fare was £26.


The number of oil industry charter flights had grown substantially. To meet the demand, the HS 748 fleet had grown in number to eighteen. A 19th came in the shape of a leased model from Mount Cook Airways of New Zealand. During a difficult time two HS-748s collided when a strong gust of wind blew one aircraft off its chocks. The airliner whizzed 20 meters past a French Caravelle smashing the flight deck window of the French airliner with its wing-tip,  before bumping into another 748.. One other HS-748 took off and developed an engine fault within minutes of the aircraft becoming airborne.  It returned to Aberdeen airport safely.
The HS-748 was widely used on the scheduled service network,  including the Isle of Man, which was now served by Dan-Air from eleven UK airports. The airline applied to serve Sumburgh on their scheduled network from Newcastle with a possible stop at Dundee or Edinburgh. The Newcastle - Bournemouth route was increased to a daily service. Further new services commenced including Gatwick - Bergen on 1st April, and just two weeks later, Gatwick-Jersey was restarted. Finally on 27th May the Bournemouth - Isle of Man and Jersey-Cork services commenced.

To mark the occasion of the silver jubilee, Dan-Air were looking for new corporate look for cabin and ground crew. In Spring 1977 all girls were invited to fill out a for asking what they would like in a new  uniform. The new look would have to be popular with a thousand girls. It should not wilt in the heat of Hong Kong nor leave its wearer turning purple from cold in Toronto. It should also be able to withstand the blustery wind on a wet Shetland Island and be relaxed in the mid summer sun at Greece. Management initially chose a brown and beige but were shocked to hear of the universal rejection by senior cabin crew. Management therefore turned the task of getting it right over to the Cabin Crew Department. Questionnaires were sent out to all girls asking what colours they would like how they saw their new image. Replies were quick to come in, some complete with detailed sketches on what they wanted. A pattern quickly emerged that the girls wanted skirts with blouses, trousers and dresses. With jumpers, tank tops, jackets and coats. Universally they wanted materials that didn't crease and colours that would flatter. If you want to see the uniform - check out the uniform Gatwick Handling wore in the late 1970s. The House of Mansfield had won the contract and after several  meetings a new design was created. The cornflower blue outfit came with lemon blouse and summer dress. Trousers were optional, or a skirt with a cream overcoat and blue bowler style hat to complete the look. The new uniform was presented in April, ready for the jubilee in May.





An application was submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to operate scheduled flights from Newcastle and Dundee or Edinburgh to Shetland. In view of Dan-Air's twelve aircraft permanently based in Aberdeen and their unsurpassed operating record on the Shetlands it was widely believed that the application would be successful. At the end of the year the CAA didn't agree and the applications were rejected in October.

El-Al, the national airline of Israel, was affected by industrial action in April. The airline approached Dan-Air to help. A Dan-Air Boeing 707 was chartered by El-Al fly out to Israel and return passengers to Gatwick. The aircraft would then operate the Stansted - Tel Aviv service. Dan-Air would operate both services until the industrial action was settled a month later.
Further meetings between Fred Newman with Finance Director Martin O'Regan and Associate Director Errol Cossey saw the two board members threaten to resign if the company did not order Boeing 737 200 ADV aircraft. This model was superior to the one currently operated by main rival Britannia Airways. The team believed it was the only way for Dan-Air to secure its long term place within the competitive charter market. Ordering the aircraft would give them an advantage over Britannia and secure more work with Intasun. They felt Dan-Air could offer the best rates to Intasun, who were by now the third largest Tour Operator in the UK.
Errol Cossey, had successfully introduced the Comet, BAC 1-11 and Boeing 707/727 to the fleet had also held meetings with Fred Newman. On each occasion Newman refused to order the new jet. At this point O'Regan and Cossey threatened to leave the company. Newman resisted once more. Instead Newman announced he had ordered two Boeing 727 200 series jets. The larger model of they type already in service. The longer range and increased passenger capacity did put Dan-Air into a different league from rival carriers. Only the Boeing 707 had a similar capacity but the latter burned almost 2000 kg per hour of fuel more than the 727. Meetings were also held with Managing Director Alan Snudden who shared the same point of view as O'Regan and Cossey.
At a final meeting Newman is alleged to have told the board that the fleet proposals were in place and would not include the Boeing 737. Operating turnover had increased from £79.4 million to more than £100 million. Pre-tax profit was down from last year's £1.8 million to £802,000. Newman had blamed last year's Air Traffic Control disputes for much of the losses. He also claimed that fleet changes for 1978 would concentrate activities and bring about a better financial result. The Boeing 727 200 would join the fleet in 1980.
Furious at being ignored Martin O'Regan and Errol Cossey left the company. It was not known what their intentions were. Alan Snudden then left the airline and took up a position as Managing Director with Monarch  Airlines, where one of his first moves was to order brand new Boeing 737 200 ADV.

As the Easter Holidays approached both Thomson Cosmos and Intasun announced that all of their holidays had been booked up. A new phenomenon began to affect holiday-makers at this period - that of surcharges. Intasun said that holidays that were booked and paid for would still be liable for a surcharge of between £3 and £4 per person. Tour Operators said that the surcharges came as a result of hotels increasing room rates and higher wages being paid to hotel staff. Thomson said they were 'committed to surcharges' and that clients should expect £2 per person per week as the norm.

In June Harry Goodman, Chairman of Intasun said a new airline was being set up. The as yet unnamed airline had plans to purchase three brand new Boeing 737 200 ADV jets for delivery in Spring 1979. Goodman said the carrier would operate as an entirely separate entity to Intasun. The order, worth £18 would see half of the aircraft's capacity taken up by Intasun and the other half sold to other Tour Operators. The new airline would be able to fulfil 20% of Intasun's total needs. The rest would be supplied by Dan-Air. Goodman went onto say that they had not decided if they would run the airline or have it operate with its own management structure. Behind the scenes those matter had largely been decided. Martin O'Regan and Errol Cossey would join the airline.
Later in the year newspaper advertisements began, with a campaign to recruit cabin staff and flight deck crew for a new, still unnamed airline to be based at London Gatwick with a strong presence at Manchester. In a very short time, several Dan-Air staff at various levels, left the company, including the training captain and a training stewardess. Just how much information Dan-Air knew, is speculative.
The formation of the new airline had quickly gone from an airline on paper, to a real airline. The first new airline in the UK for more than a decade. By October, the firm orders for three aircraft were revised with two additional aircraft ordered for deliver in late 1979. Intasun had enjoyed a boom in 1978 which saw an increase of 17% in their bookings. They now claimed to be the second largest Tour Operator in the UK.
Four 130 seat jet aircraft can fly half a million passengers in a year. Intasun was Dan-Air's biggest client. They would not wish to work with Dan-Air if they had a vested interest in their own airline succeeding. Throughout the year Air Europe actively targeted Dan-Air crews for recruitment in their new company.

The media interest in the new airline couldn't be ignored. At the start of the next season these aircraft would be flying UK holiday-makers to their destinations. Parked next to them would be Dan-Air Comets. Captain Alan Selby notes;

'From my point of view it didn't matter one bit. I was in the flight deck. The Comet, again from my point of view, performed as well as the Boeing 737, and in many respects better. It handled beautifully and was known to be hugely over-powered. I was salaried, and the economics of an airline isn't on your mind when you are doing what you love to do. The thrill of flying is what keeps most pilots doing the job. You aren't a fool, you know that your airline had to be profitable or you won't have a job. I might have been a thrill to fly the new 737, but I was perfectly happy. In reality though - we had twelve or thirteen Comets in '78 and there was no way that we could replace them in time for the start up of Air Europe. I'm not even sure that Newman had the desire to do so. I couldn't see the benefit of keeping the Comet when this elephant in the room appeared. We lost three of the most exceptional directors - and for why? Because a man refused to upgrade an aircraft type. It was tragic that he stubbornly refused. Fred Newman was a delightful man, he was known to be frugal even when the company and himself was very wealthy. When all this happened he had almost a year to replace the Comets en masse. That is what he should have done. Begged stolen or borrowed the money to finance replacements. It would have been wise to have made sure that at least some of them were brand new. I knew he wouldn't though - he didn't even own a new car....'


More scorn was poured on the Comet in the press, when a Coventry journalist was delayed 32 hours after his pilot ran out of flying time.'Delays followed delays due to snow and fog. Eventually the crew ran out of flying hours and no replacement aircraft or crew could be found. The journalist said he never wished to see the inside of Milan airport again. He called the Dan-Air Comet 'Ancient but elegant'.
The Flagship Boeing 727 flew exclusively the charter flight programme and the eighth model joined the fleet this year. The 727s were based in Manchester and Gatwick, they would also reposition in other UK airports with smaller programmes before returning to their base. Their utilisation rates were among the highest of any airline. Each of the aircraft flew for over twelve hours a day. Boeing 727s were also based in West Berlin. One Dan-Air 727 flight witnessed high drama when a passenger went into labour, two months early. The flight had departed from Tenerife, when one of the passengers, Mrs. Carole Walker, who was seven months into her pregnancy, went into labour.  Walker, who hadn't informed Dan-Air she was expecting, had seemingly gone into labour before she boarded the aircraft and stayed silent. The expectant mother had no holiday medical insurance and couldn't afford to stay in Tenerife and pay for hospital and hotel costs. When it was revealed the baby would not wait until touchdown, the Captain asked if there was anyone medically trained on board.  Jessie Morley, a trained midwife, stepped forward. The baby turned out to be a complicated breach birth. Despite this, Jessie calmly went about her business, her only surgical equipment being a pair of scissors, borrowed from the crew, towels and bandages from the aircraft's first aid kit. The aircraft's emergency oxygen was delivered to help Carole with pain. Cabin crew moved Mrs. Walker to the front of the aircraft and female passengers formed a circle and used coats and blankets to form a screen to avoid the 'theatre' The scissors were sterilised using a cigarette lighter provided by a male passenger. When the baby was born she wouldn't breathe. Without any surgical equipment Jessie used her little finger to clear the baby's airways before administering mouth to mouth resuscitation. The baby's cries were heard over the whine of the jet engine. This brought the passengers to their feet.
Her baby was delivered as the aircraft passed over Daventry, twenty minutes before the aircraft was scheduled to land at Birmingham. Captain delayed landing which enabled the baby 5lb daughter to be born in the air - The Mother called her daughter DANielle!!
August 10th saw drama at Maidstone when a leased Vickers Viscount's nose wheel failed to lower. The aircraft circled Maidstone in an attempt to burn fuel and to enable crew to manually lower the undercarriage. Upon landing the nose-wheel collapsed. Fire crews were on scene within seconds and no-one was injured. Several passengers were treated for shock.
Dan-Air were invited along with other carriers to evaluate the brand new Dash 7 turbo prop aircraft which promised excellent efficiency and performance including short take off and landings. De Havilland Canada who manufactured the type were confident UK airlines would purchase the aircraft.  Dan-Air did indeed expand their fleet, but not with Dash 7s. Instead they purchased another HS-748, this time from Mexicana. The aircraft was based at Aberdeen for oil supply charters, bringing the total based at Aberdeen to thirteen. Applications were submitted in August for a scheduled service to operate nine flights a week from Stansted to Jersey.
Female Captain on the HS-748 fleet, Elizabeth Overbury was awarded woman of the year at a ceremony in Shropshire. Elizabeth was one of three female Captains with the airline. Others served with the rank of First Officer.

The Summer season was blighted by yet another round of industrial action by French and Spanish Air Traffic Controllers. Tour Operators informed passengers to 'expect the worst'. Birmingham airport reported delays of up to eighteen hours. Manchester Airport had similar delays. Dispute went on to affect 100,000 people.  On top of this, Manchester was undergoing runway improvements that would be undertaken at night. For many nights Dan-Air and other carriers had to divert their aircraft to Liverpool, ferrying passengers to and from Manchester to Liverpool for  flights.
The Unfair Contract Terms act came into force this year. The law was resisted by the operators who had always included exemption clauses in their terms and conditions. This covered all external suppliers, such as airlines, hotels and transfer coaches. For example, If a person died as a result of fire or a coach crash the liability was passed onto the Tour Operator. The CAA also announced new measures designed to please consumers, they would however displease Tour Operators. Firstly, Travel Agents were no longer to be under legal restrictions to offer travel incentives. From now on, they were allowed to offer inducements such as beach towels, bags, and even sun cream as an incentive to entice holiday makers from one firm or another. The Tour Operators would provide these goodies. Another rule change was to be far more wide reaching; In July 1978 the CAA gave approval for a Danish Tour Operator; Tjaereborg, to start selling directly to UK customers. For the first time people could book an international holiday without visiting a travel agent.  A huge TV campaign followed, providing a telephone number to call for a brochure. Once the customer had chosen their holiday they could then phone the call centre at Tjaereborg, who would advise, in real time, prices and availability. Travel agents had traditionally sold holidays on behalf of Tour Operators with a commission of between 10 and 15%. Tjaereborg's owner, Elif Krogagor, also owned his own airline; Sterling, who sold 600,000 holidays a year to Scandinavians and Germans. Krogagor was now attempting to take a share in the UK travel market. Quick to follow, with a similar product  was a Swedish company - 'Vingresor' who had cornered about 40% of the Swedish market. This new concept was quickly accepted by UK consumers, but the industry itself was not so keen. Some of the flights were flown by Dan-Air who were only too happy to have a new client. The Tour Operators in the UK, on the other hand, were furious and a dispute broke out. Appeals to the CAA fell on deaf ears. Tour Operators, naturally, were worried that these direct sales companies would almost certainly take some of the business from the established UK Tour Operators. When Tour Operators realised that their attempts to stop the direct selling of holidays had failed, several, established companies went on to start up similar operations of their own. Portland Holidays is one such example, they were a subsidiary of Thomson Holidays. Portland ran alongside their parent company, and unlike Thomson, chartered plenty of Dan-Air aircraft. Thomson decided that Portland would become a direct sell Tour Operator, leaving Dan-Air unsure if it would remain a client. In this new, very competitive market, Portland had to work very hard to earn any market share at all.
It wasn't long before Tour Operators realised that there was a substantial market for direct selling holidays. In fact the Tour Operators would not have to pay any commission to Travel Agents. Office space and equipment were all that was required. Michael Croft from Hogg Robinson, one of the UK's largest Travel Agency chains recalls;

'I was based in Leeds and loved my job. I had qualified in my industry with recognised certificates. Legally people were not supposed to sell airline tickets without such qualifications. Our industry newspapers advertised for supervisors to give training on these direct sales companies. The actual agents didn't need to be qualified. Well they wouldn't would they if they were just inputting data in a computer and taking payments for late availability. People still payed for holidays by cheque in the post back then. I was worried that I would lose my job. But I was safe for a few years. Back then the industry was magical.'

Travel Agents bitterly resisted all attempts to interfere with their industry. As often happened in the travel industry; there was a fight for ownership of Tour Operators. Vingresor was quickly swallowed up by Thomson and Tjereborg was taken over by Owners Abroad in 1987, which was seen as a bold, high risk strategy. Harry Goodman's ILG and Intasun continued to carve a sizeable share of the market. Never shy of publicity, Goodman was unapologetic in boasting that his holidays were 'cheap and cheerful'.

In November the unnamed airline was declared to be Air Europe. the company would be part of the ILG group and would operate five aircraft by the end of 1979. Where Intasun had a downmarket brand image, Air Europe would most certainly not be. Most of the cabin crew had been recruited from Dan-Air and Air Europe promised to provide impeccable service and a polished product. Catering would be as good, if not better than that on a European scheduled carrier. Their aircraft would have more cabin luggage space than any other UK carrier.

Manchester had by now  become the second busiest airport for Dan-Air, and was the second largest employer at Manchester. Runway repairs had to be carried out this year - at night! This would affect most charter carriers, who for several weeks would have to divert flights into Liverpool and transport passengers by coach to Manchester. With several late night departures and arrivals Dan-Air was very much inconvenienced, not to mention their passengers.
Dan-Air also had to deal with rejection from the Civil Aviation Authority  over their plans for a licence to link Newcastle with Edinburgh and Sumburgh. At the hearing in Aberdeen, only Loganair was granted a licence to operate a service from Edinburgh to Sumburgh. There followed a heavy promotion for the Newcastle-London Gatwick service that saw ten flights in each direction. The fare was to be cheaper than those offered to Heathrow.
Dan-Air's administration offices, crew training, uniform stores and operations departments were scattered in several parts of Horley, including above a supermarket and above a bank -  as well at at Gatwick Airport. A new, purpose built office block was to be built in Horley, housing the many departments under the same roof. This new building would be a two storey development and carry the name; Newman House.

 
New Routes

  • Gatwick - Bergen-  Commenced - April 1st
  • Gatwick - Jersey Commenced - April 15th
  • Bournemouth - Isle of Man Commenced. May 27th
  • Jersey - Cork - Commenced May 27th

NETWORK & PRESS 1978
1979


Dan-Air started the year by announcing that they  had applied for licences to operate several new routes;
  • Tees-Side - Belfast
  • Gloucester Staverton - Isle Of Man
  • Gloucester Staverton - Jersey  
  • Manchester and/or Birmingham - Cork
After a very successful silver jubilee year Dan-Air knew that their fleet renewal was the number one priority. The departure of Martin O'Regan and Errol Cossey from the board of directors had been a major blow. Dan-Air were dealt a second blow when they had discovered that the two had joined forced with Harry Goodman of Intasun and launched a new airline. The new company, Air Europe would commence operations in May of this year using Boeing 737 200 ADV twin-jets. The very aircraft that they had recommended that Fred Newman invest in for Dan-Air. Their orders for two aircraft had been increased to five and by April of this year a sixth firm order was announced. In March of this year  Horizon Midlands announced that they would be launching a new airline. Orion Airways had ordered three brand new Boeing 737 ADV aircraft. Laker Airways had ordered ten brand new Airbus A300 aircraft with a the intention of launching a new 'Skytrain Europe' scheduled services. These would operate low-cost scheduled services to capital cities Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels as well as serving Scandinavian destinations and southern European sunspots. This alarmed both Dan-Air and Britannia who were fearful that if Laker's applications were turned down, which was highly likely, that Laker would then use the aircraft on charter flights, effectively flooding the market and forcing down the charter rates.
In March 'Fly Drive' services were introduced to Ireland. Dan-Air would serve Cork from Bristol with fares as little as £83 for the flight and car hire. Whilst the scheduled services that Dan-Air were operating smoothly, the charter division was having to move quickly to solve the Comet problem. Air Europe and Orion were the first new airlines in Britain in thirteen years. Air Europe had ambitions to be operating ten Boeing 737 200 ADV by 1983 and Orion Airways would have six of the type by 1980. Dan-Air needed to replace thirteen inefficient ageing Comets. The Boeing 727 200 was evaluated and would join the fleet in 1980. These aircraft could carry 189 passengers. The Comet aircraft had no cash value and some of those retired from the fleet ended up as Museum features, however, one Comet was obtained from Dan-Air and towed just two miles away, to the Fur and Feathers pub in the picturesque village of Herriard. The aim was to convert the Comet into a restaurant. Villagers were incensed that a 113 foot long airliner would be parked outside the pub. Its tail was taller than the pub! Eventually, irate locals made an official complaint to the local authority. Basingtoke council decided the aircraft should be returned to Lasham where it would be broken up.
In April Dan-Air joined forces with Dutch national carrier KLM to link Bristol with all corners of the world. Dan-Air flights were timed to arrive at Amsterdam in time for connecting flight worldwide. The reciprocal arrangement would see KLM feed their passengers onto Dan-Air flights from Amsterdam to Bristol. The Newcastle-Birmingham service was performing better than expected, so frequency was increased to twice daily. There was increased frequency too on the Newcastle - Isle Of Man service

In April Dan-Air was able to report that turnover had risen by £16,850,000 to £117,500,000. . Whilst pre tax profits soared by from £802,000 to £2,010,000. The first time that profits had ever surpassed the two million mark. The charter fleet was fully booked for the upcoming season as were the 14 HS-748s based in Aberdeen on oil charters. For the first time in the airline's history, the charter fleet was also fully employed for the Winter season. Share prices rose to 150p at the news. Despite the overall gloomy economic picture in the UK, Dan-Air appeared to be bucking the trend. For the first time in the company's history 4,000,000 sector passengers were carried.

British Airways were challenged by Dan-Air in April to take over BA's existing Aberdeen-Gatwick service. Dan-Air said they would operate the service cheaper than British Airways with a standard single fare of £35 which was £4:90 cheaper than BA. There would be off peak reductions as well. The Aberdeen-Gatwick service was the only trunk route that was operated without any competition Dan-Air said 'We expect British Airways to oppose the application. The city's Chamber of Commerce were supporting Dan-Air's application. A few days later, the Chairman of British Airways, Sir Frank McFadzean travelled to Aberdeen after being invited by the Chamber of Commerce, with a view to improve BA's service. The next day Grampian Roads and Transport committee through their weight behind Dan-Air's application. British Airways had no desire to relinquish the route which was estimated to one of the routes that had seen the biggest increase in passenger numbers. Dan-Air had worked hard to win the license, giving 12 positive reasons why they should operate it instead of British Airways. At the hearing, the CAA said that British Airways should concentrate on their Aberdeen - Heathrow service, and Dan-Air would help improve Gatwick as an airport. Dan-Air planned to offer more flights, and fares would be £10 cheaper than BA. Dan-Air would operate two flights each way on Mondays and Friday and three on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There would be a south bound service on Saturdays and a north bound one on Sundays. Dan-Air went on to say that they were willing to improve the service on board. If Dan-Air were successful with their bid, flights would commence using BAC 1-11 jets, but were willing to use larger aircraft, such as the Boeing 727, should the need arise.
On May 2nd,  British Airways objected to the application claiming that they could lose £1,000,000 if Dan-Air were granted a licence. However, a formidable array of oil and oil service companies, national and local authorities were backing Dan-Air.  British Airways said; 'We recognise the importance of Aberdeen and want to bring it the best service possible. This involves linking Aberdeen with other vital business centres though a fully co-ordinated service. For example Gatwick and its important inter-line connections to the US. Not everyone was happy with British Airways with companies including BP Petroleum Development, Mobil North Sea, Oceaneering, Wharton Williams and Seaforth Maritime. Support for Dan-Air was also given from Aberdeen Air Services Action Group, Grampian Regional Transportation and Roads Committee, and perhaps most significantly, The Scottish Consumer Council, Airline Transport Users Committee and Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce, who in their letter to the CAA said they wanted the hearing to be held in Aberdeen. The CAA said that British Airways had objected and because of a heavy backlog of applications would not be able to convene a hearing until July.
Dan-Air were selected along with Air Ecosse and Donnington Airways to fly Royal Mail. Dan-Air would be operating the Liverpool-Newcastle flights. Liverpool was to benefit from a brand new sorting plant.
In May,a company BAC1-11 departed Manchester for a flight to Alicante. The aircraft had been airborne for just ten minutes when smoke came into the cabin from the flight deck. The Captain announced that DA2620 would be returning to Manchester. The aircraft landed safely and passengers were taken to a lounge and given refreshments. The aircraft was thoroughly examined before being given the all-clear. The 76 passengers re-boarded the same jet and flew to Alicante.

The official report into the 1977 Lusaka crash was published in May. the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) largely exonerated Dan-Air from any blame. The metal fatigue on the tail's main spar could not have been found with the maintainence guidelines laid down by the CAA. Dan-Air had followed the guides to the letter. The report also pointed out that of the 521 Boeing 707s flying, 7% had been found to have similar fatigue on the main spar. New rules would be laid down for UK operators of the type. Dan-Air did not have to concern itself about that, as the company had decided to withdraw the type from the fleet., just one remained for disposal. The aircraft was eventually broken up at Lasham on return from its lease.
In May the Gatwick-Dijon route started, with the airline optimistic about its success. Saga Holidays, the UK's leading Tour Operator for the over 60s, announced in June that they had signed a major contract with Dan-Air. Saga would use the airline for the majority of its flights. The 1979 programme would feature 40 destinations. Saga said they had an excellent relationship with Dan-Air and were keen to offer an ever expanding network for both companies.

The Belfast-Tees-Side application was considered at a hearing in Belfast. British Midland Airways withdrew their objection. The Tees Side and Belfast flights would have a one way fare of £27:50.
The Aberdeen-Gatwick hearing came to a close with Dan-Air making their closing statement to the CAA.
'The position now is that the eyes of Aberdeen and the oil industry are on the CAA. You should ask yourselves whether you are going to do something about this scandal or risk becomming a part of it. The prosperity of this country and even its balance of payments depended on the kind of people who had come forward in support of  Dan-Air being able to go about their business without unnecessary impediment. The CAA has always been particularly concerned about the oil industry. Services to a destination like Aberdeen should be equal to the best in the country. I have been taken aback at the level of criticism that have been made about the present air service.'
British Airways said 'We have answered many of the criticisms and we would be offering the lowest fare on the Gatwick-Aberdeen route.' The hearing was told that British Airways believed they would make a profit on the route in 1982 and that they had incurred losses of £453,000 in 1977/78 and £520,000 in 1978/79 they estimated that they would be in the red to the tune of £403,000 at the end of the present year. British Airways promised that there would be improvements to the service if they were allowed to continue it, saying they would permanently use jet aircraft instead of the Vickers Viscount and that as soon as traffic increased they would increase the number of flights operated. It was highly likely, they said, that the flights would be operated by the Boeing 737 that was being introduced next year, initially on the Heathrow-Aberdeen service and later on, on the Gatwick-Aberdeen service. British Airways said a poll taken by BP employees that was highly critical of BA had been taken solely because of Dan-Air's application and that employees were aware that BP were supporting Dan-Air.
British Airways had been stripped of its licence to operate Aberdeen-Wick-Sumburgh with the rights being passed to Air Ecosse. British Airways continued to fly the service as an appeal had been lodged. On 30th July Dan-Air were awarded the Aberdeen-Gatwick licence with British Airways being stripped of their licence. A British Airways spokesman said they had not decided on whether to loge an appeal and would reserve their comments until they had fully reviewed the text of the CAA's decision. the CAA said that they had given Dan-Air the licence as it would benefit the development of Gatwick. The spokesman went on to say 'The evidence is that Dan-Air propose to offer a greater frequency and a lower normal fare than British Airway will expect to serve Aberdeen profitably from Gatwick within a reasonable development period.'
The normal return fare would be priced £74 which is £10 cheaper than British Airways. Off peak fares for weekends and mid-day flights would be £63. Dan-Air's spokesman said 'Promises of improvements on this service from British Airways were nothing more than a 'Deathbed Repentance' and that there had been complaints about BA's standard of service, aircraft used, punctuality and fares.


The Newcastle station manager John Clementson had been effective in his post for four years. He had been a popular figure with staff, who were shocked when he was sentenced to a fifteen month jail term for stealing cash. Clementson was responsible for banking cash from bar and duty free sales. Stewardesses had handed over sealed envelopes and receipts that Clementson took money from. Clementson, was jailed for fifteen months for admitting to 'borrowing' £3655 from Dan-Air, that he never paid back. Clementson had taken the cash from 1976-1978. He told the court that he had 'borrowed' money to pay off gambling debts. He had also began drinking heavily. He co operated with the police and said he was sorry. The crime was discovered following a break in at his office, where £2,000 was stolen from a safe. This led to a full investigation that discovered the discrepancy. Claiming that he was too embarrassed to tell his family, the father of four had co-operated with the airline and the police. His wife did clear the debts ultimately.

The upgrade of the runway Manchester Airport continued to cause a great deal of disruption and expense to many airlines. As repairs could only be carried out at night, charter flights were the only flights affected. Fuel cost $20 (30c a gallon) a barrel more at Liverpool than Manchester. The additional cost of then ferrying passengers to and from Liverpool was time consuming and expensive. On top of that, only one supplier of fuel was available, panic ensued when supplies started to run out. British Airtours diverted five Boeing 707 flights to Gatwick rather than risk the extra charge or not being able to refuel. Dan-Air had to divert more than sixty flights a week during this fraught time.


On July 31st, just one day after the Aberdeen-London Gatwick service had been awarded to Dan-Air a Dan-Air HS-748 was involved in a fatal accident in Sumburgh. The aircraft had failed to become airborne and plunged into icy sea at the end of the runway. The pilot attempted to abort take off and braked heavily. Sadly there was not enough runway. As the aircraft hit the water one wing broke off. The weather had been described as 'filthy'. Seventeen people died and 30 were injured. . The aircraft was one of the type recently purchased from Aerolineas Argentinas. Gust locks are used on smaller aircraft to stop ailerons, rudders and moving parts from being moved about by wind. The gust lock control was on the Captain's side and required lifting before being moved to lock or unlocked position. A small part underneath the visible control had been poorly fitted by Argentine engineers. Thus, when engaged by the Captain, the control appeared to be in the correct position. Sadly the gust lock was still engaged as the aircraft sped along the runway. As the crew adjusted flaps and other devices, they had, in fact, remained locked. the aircraft could not take off. Once V1 speed was made, the aircraft appeared sound. V1 is the time a pilot is committed to taking off. By the time he realised the aircraft was not responding, the best he could do was to brake heavily and try to stop the aircraft. This is the most simple explanation, without any technical language. For an in-depth look at the accident, please check out the Full Details.

After the accident, one of the passengers, Joseph McKinnon said:
'We were ready to take off from the runway and the plane seemed to lift, then go down, then try again to lift, and finally went down. The pilot braked and then veered to the left, but the plane ploughed through a fence and went straight into the sea. It was less than a minute before the cabin was full of water. I could not get my life jacket on to inflate, so I threw it away, when I got into the sea. I managed to swim ashore, where two men helped me get out of the water. I was swept by the queue to get out of the rear door into the sea. I think most of those who died were sitting at the front section of the aircraft I think it might have been that the starboard engine had failed.'

A British Airways helicopter and members of a scuba diving club assisted the rescue. Captain Bain of British Airways said
'When we got there we could see a few survivors and bodies in the sea and we picked up those that we could see. The plane was in the sea, about 50 yards from the end of the runway, and was nose down at an angle of about 45 degrees. Only the tail was sticking out of the water and the rear door was about six foot under water. There was nobody left clinging to the fuselage, so we started looking at bodies that had the most signs of life. We winched one man up out of the water and another from the deck of a small trawler. We tried to pick up more, but our winch man was swamped by a large wave. Some of the survivors had managed to swim ashore with the help of wind and tide.'

Another passenger, Keith Dwyer said;
'The young stewardess tried her upmost to keep everybody calm. The water was up to our waists in seconds, but still she was calling to people not to panic.'

The stewardess on the flight Liz Cowe who was 22 at the time of the accident was hailed a hero said;
'I was embarrassed by all the fuss.I just did everything I could. Afterwards I went home and rested in bed. I then had to file my reports. Dan-Air offered to send me and a friend away on holiday if I would like to go on one, before I went back to work. I had no intentions of stopping flying. I had started with Dan-Air in March, I had no intention of being an air stewardess, it just happened. I worked as a civil servant for two years after leaving school. i had applied for other jobs at the time, and the job at Dan-Air was one of those that I had applied for.  I spent a month at Gatwick, training, then in April I went onto the normal routes that the girls from Aberdeen did. I flew to the Shetlands many times, and from Glasgow and Aberdeen to the Isle of Man. I didn't want to even think about the crash itself. I was a very strong swimmer, but it was very difficult to swim to shore because the sea was so choppy. My training stood me in good stead, but I was just doing my job. That is what we were there for. Any of the girls would have done the same. I was determined to fly again, I liked being an air stewardess. I wanted to fly on the jets!'

Liz was later awarded an MBE for her bravery.

Passenger Harry Kennedy who was just 21 at the time said;
'She was telling us to put their life jackets on, she was so calm and courageous. Suddenly she was hurled into the sea by a wave. She bobbed about in the sea and still she kept shouting 'Don't panic, we'll make it'


Dan-Air had a heavy heart at the loss of life in Sumburgh. It must be incredibly difficult to carry on operating in such difficult circumstances. That however, is exactly what the airline did. In August there was a hearing; the third such hearing for the Aberdeen - Inverness - Stornaway service.

August was always a trying time for UK airlines, in no small part because of what was becomming an annual event, when either the French or the Spanish Air Traffic Controllers would go on strike. This always resulted in many delays. 1979's dispute was because of the French. Airlines had requested to fly out into the Atlantic and head toward Spain. The CAA claimed to do so was dangerous and thus refused. Manchester Airport's fire department went on strike in September, which saw the airport close for two weeks. Dan-Air diverted their flights to Liverpool and complained that Liverpool charged 30 cents a gallon more than other UK airports. British Airtours decided to re-route some of their Manchester flights to Gatwick in protest at the fuel price. Dan-Air did the same at Birmingham.

The year has gone down in history as the 'Winter of Discontent' as millions of days were lost due to strike action in almost every sector of British industry. Dan-Air had a period of hostile negotiations with BALPA, the trade union for airline pilots. Trades Unions had, what is now generally agreed, too much power. Many businesses had closed shops, where union  membership was compulsory and strike action could be called without any ballot of members. Several companies were brought to their knees by such practices. Most of the largest businesses in the UK were state owned, including many airports, British Airways, British Rail, Sealink, British Gas, Coal, Electricity, Water, National Car Parks, BP, British Telecom, The Post Office, as well as all the usual infrastructure in the country such as schools and hospitals. British Airways, for their part, were over manned, poor performing and inefficient. They were fortunate in as far that the Government would have to prop them up financially, not matter how badly they operated. The Government had warned them that improvements would have to be made. The idea that BA would make redundancies would not be contemplated by the Trades Union, and, it would seem, the Government itself.
British Airways announced it was dropping 26 of its most unprofitable routes. The routes included several services from all services from  Cardiff, and Bristol as well as most flights from Jersey and Guernsey, The Isle Of Man and Belfast. International services earmarked for dropping were Cardiff, Bristol to Paris and Dublin - Bristol, Cardiff and Paris. Many of the destinations were served by several regional airports. Heathrow, BA's main base would lose services to Leeds/Bradford the Isle of Man and Birmingham. The flag carrier had lost £6.5 million on the services in the last year, saying that high fuel prices were partly responsible.
Dan-Air, Air Anglia, British Island Airways and British Midlands were quick to announce proposals to take them all over. The independents claimed they had far lower operating costs and that they would be able to operate the flights profitably. Dan-Air were keen to expand their Newcastle network and had flights to Dublin, Belfast, Cardiff and Bristol in their sights in October. A new Gatwick - Newcastle service would commence on November 1st. The airline also joined up with British Caledonian to interlink with B Cal's Gatwick-Atlanta service, also in November.  In addition to that, Dan-Air were keen to start a new Gatwick - Toulouse service which, it hoped, would begin in Oc The CAA increased fares across the board in November making the £37 fare on the Aberdeen-Gatwick rise to £41.50. Airlines registered their disapproval, without any success.

Air Europe took delivery of another Boeing 737 which would be based at Manchester. The aircraft would operate fifteen return flights a week  and fly 40,000 passengers. The airline planned to have ten Boeing 737 aircraft by 1983. The two ex-Dan-Air board members who were behind the new airline joined the press launch at Manchester in October. Martin O'Regan said;
'Ringway was selected as our second operating airport after Gatwick because it is perfect for an airline such as Air Europe. The airport is strategically located and communications to and from the city and indeed the rest of the country are excellent. We look forward to a long association with Manchester Airport and with holiday-makers in the North who will fly our aircraft.'
Errol Cossey said;
'In just a few short months Air Europe has become a highly efficient airline run by experienced professionals. Passengers travelling on our aircraft to and from Manchester will enjoy the benefit of flying with the company. We are operating the most advanced equipment on the IT (Inclusive Tour)  market, and on our very latest wide-body over-head storage space. Our catering on Air Europe is equal to that on a scheduled airline. We have received hundreds of letters from people who took the time to write to us to congratulate us on our standards of catering. An absolute must for a new airline is a readily identifiable image to project to the thousands of passengers who will fly on our aircraft.'


Before the new Aberdeen-Gatwick service started, Dan-Air applied to the CAA to increase the fares. They wanted the £37 one way fare to increase to £41 and the £63 off peak fare to increase to £70.Dan-Air blamed fuel prices and increased landing charges at Aberdeen.

Tragedy struck in October,  when two oil support workers were denied boarding on an oil support flight because they had been drinking. The two brothers stormed out of the airport and onto the ramp, where airport staff battled to restrain the men. One of the men became agitated and was intent on getting their luggage off the aircraft. The pilot noticed the men on the tarmac and indicated that he should move away.  Instead the man waved his fist at the pilot and went towards the aircraft. He walked into the aircraft propeller and was decapitated. Dan-Air refused to accept any responsibility.
In late October, Dan-Air announced they had plans to scrap the sixteen flights a week between Lydd and Paris, the airline had applied to the CAA to transfer the services to Gatwick. Dan-Air would continue with their programme of flights to the Channel Islands should the CAA approve.

The year was rounded off with a massive boost to Dan-Air's oil charters. The job of returning workers to Aberdeen was handed to them. Operation Santa Claus saw almost 5,000 oil support workers flown home by the airline. The busiest day of all saw 904 BP workers flying with Dan-Air. This annual event had now become the largest peace-time airlift in the UK. Shetland manager Geoff Fisher, said that 'it was a tremendous achievement and that only Dan-Air had the relevant experience to do.' It was all the more impressive given that a days flying was lost due to the inevitable bad weather. Normally flights were carried out with HS-748 aircraft, but to supplement them, this year, a BAC 1-11, two Viscounts and a Comet ferried the passengers. Two small aircraft from Dan-Air subsidiary company Air Taxi were also used. Good news also came in December, when the CAA announced which of the 26 abandoned BA routes would go to which airline. Dan-Air were successful with the Bristol/Cardiff - Jersey,  Bristol/Cardiff - Belfast, Newcastle-Belfast and Leeds/Bradford - Guernsey all of which they accepted. Other routes went to British Midland and the newly formed Air UK. The remaining 13 routes would be decided in the new year.

December 10th saw the launch of the Aberdeen-Gatwick service, which had been taken from British Airways.  This service would offer passengers hot breakfast or dinner, depending on times, free newspapers and a new style of boarding - 'Trickle Boarding'. allowing passengers to board the aircraft as soon as they wanted to, as soon as the aircraft was ready. Flight times were designed to give business travellers a full day in either city. Three flights a day would operate in each direction. In addition, cargo would also be carried on all of the flights. Beaujolais Nouveau is traditionally released on November 14th. The 1979 release, in accordance with the tradition, would be on the table and corks popped on the stroke of midnight. Dan-Air were responsible for getting the 1979 batch to Scotland on time. Passengers on the last flight from Gatwick to Aberdeen were treated to a glass of that year's vintage early with the compliments of Dan-Air. The publicity stunt helped endear passengers toward Dan-Air who were already getting the thumbs up for the service. None of these in flight options had been available to passengers when BA operated the service.
Aberdeen had proved to be a success story for Dan-Air, when the airline commenced flights from the city in 1971 with just one aircraft was based there and 28 staff. In 1979 fourteen HS 748 aircraft were based at the airport and a BAC 1-11 jet for the new services. Now more than 200 people were employed at the base. The HS 748 flew up to 25 flights a day on oil related charters alone. In addition a scheduled service operated to the Isle of Man.
The BAC 1-11 fleet grew by one, and two Vickers Viscounts were obtained, primarily for use on the Channel Islands Services. Viscounts were based at Lydd Airport following the closure of Ashford Lympne. In November Dan-Air announced that flights operating from Lydd to Paris (Beauvais) would be transferred to Gatwick following the CAA's approval. The flights had carried 42,481 in 1979 which was 5,000 fewer passengers than the previous year. Lydd Airport said that they were 'disappointed but not despondent.' Dan-Air stated that the market for the service had been 'drifting away' for some time because there were so many cheaper ways of getting across the channel from Kent.
Altogether 21 HS-748s were operating this year and the Boeing 727 fleet stood at eight.

Air Europe had a promising start with their first year. Dan-Air chairman, Fred Newman refusal to purchase new Boeing 737s was not a good position to have taken. Thomas Cook, it was reported, had made it very clear that they wanted Boeing 737 aircraft to fly their passengers for the 1980 season. They had claimed that if Dan-Air did not acquire the jets, that Thomas Cook would not charter Dan-Air aircraft. Another Tour Operator that chartered Dan-Air aircraft was Horizon, who announced that from Summer 1980 many of their flights would be operated by their new 'in house' charter carrier, Orion Airways, which would be based at East Midlands. Dan-Air would have little option other than to join the ever growing number of 737 operators, to ever be able to compete.
Towards the end of the year, Dan-Air finally agreed to purchase the new model. Talks began with other carriers with a view to leasing the new type. They would be second hand, as was the usual practice with Dan-Air. One former pilot told us;
"Honestly, when I answer your questions, it sounds like I am having a dig at Dan-Air, and I am not. They were the best airline I have ever worked for. I don't know why Fred Newman wouldn't entertain the idea of getting brand new aircraft. We had this sizeable fleet and a very larger turnover and profit. Although a £2 million profit from a turnover of £117 million would appear strange in any other industry, that is how low margins are in aviation. However, there was not a cash flow problem with us. All the charter fleets were always booked for the whole season ahead, and even the winter season was full. When aircraft were taken out for major maintainence. I don't believe Harry Goodman walked into Boeing with a cheque book and said 'I'll have five 737s please. Here's the cheque'. He had much less by way of collateral than we did. Fred Newman was older, and probably less of a risk taker. We had become experts at acquiring the same types of aircraft that other airlines had, but they had been flown by other airlines first. That was ok with the 1-11s they were young-ish. As we entered the 80s I am not so sure. We certainly were not a laughing stock within the industry. We were very highly regarded in how we operated. I'm not so sure that's the case with what we operated. My honest opinion about this period is that the Comets did a hell of a lot of the damage to our image. They were flying for two years after Air Europe had the 737 200 ADV. They were flying for twelve years alongside Britannia's 737s. In that regard, we looked like also rans. It was at this time that the 'Dan Dare' nick-name was in full swing. That was something I detested. Even though many years later I think it had become a term of endearment.  I certainly wasn't one of the people who had sentimental feelings about the Comet, yes they were marvellous to fly. Probably horrendous in 1980 to be a passenger on. My real hope was to have a whole new ethos in the eighties. I think we achieved that. I must confess to feeling envy when I went along the pier at Manchester looking at Air  Europe's 737s either side of one of our Comets. They really did look dreadful. Elegant in many ways, but not at all when you want to project yourself as a modern, progressive company. "

In total, 3,591,000 passengers were carried in 1979, a new record for a UK independent airline. A new agreement with Intra Airways was signed, allowing each airline to use each other's aircraft on the Carlisle, Staverton and Swansea to Jersey and Guernsey services. By the end of the decade, people were travelling further and more often. It was also clear that people were now opting to take self catering holidays. The role of the in resort representative was changing as well. Holiday-makers were becoming less reliant on them. Smaller Tour Operators, offering a more personalised service were complaining that the giant firms were deliberately trying to undercut them with huge, loss leading discounts on holidays. The smaller companies could never compete with them. Dan-Air aircraft were being chartered by more and more of these smaller companies. It was vital that they retain their working relationship as they entered the new decade.


New Routes:
  • Gatwick - Dijon - Commenced May 1st
  • Newcastle - Birmingham - Isle of Man - Commenced May 23rd
  • Gatwick - Aberdeen - November 1st (Taken over from British Airways)
  • Gatwick - Toulouse - December 16th


NETWORK & PRESS 1979
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