DAVE HEAVER - DAN AIR REMEMBERED

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I joined Dan Air as a reservations agent at central reservations in the nether regions of Victoria coach station in around 1975, and eventually became a flight controller/senior res agent when we moved to Lennig House in Croydon working for Brian Dalby.


Worked with loads of people there over the years. It was nearly 40 years ago but let's see who comes to mind.


At Victoria there were some real characters, including Romaine (Tottie) Whitehead plus the French duo of Nellie and lovely Caroline Jubert on the London - Paris coach-air service as well as a host of flamboyant and wild ones in the res office. The names Enzo, Dermot and Angela ring a bell. I do remember I was working there the day Elvis died.


When we moved to Croydon, there was an Australian guy called Noel Bowie who was the assistant reservations manager to Brian Dalby, Joan Cabral, who did the computer training, an attractive blonde whose face I can still see but can’t remember exactly what she did, called Gill Hill and a lady called Janet Akehurst.


The group bookings supervisor was called Danielle (Danni) and there was a very cute Irish girl in groups for a while as well. I forget her name. The name Janice Mahoney rings a bell, in groups as well I think... she was Irish too.


Supervisors on Res were Jackie White (who looked after this innocent young country boy when he went to work in the big city!) & Dawn Dewhurst who later became Dawn Llambias and then Dawn something else on her next attempt at marriage. I hope she found a good one in the end!


Senior Res Agents & Flight Controllers at Croydon were: myself, Alan Jeffers (big lad, pipe, beige cardigans, looked like a country vicar and was only about 23 years old!), Ian Paxton, Lawrence (who I remember as being the spitting image of a young Clement Freud), Paul (Jenkins possibly?) who looked like a Welsh prop forward, Annette and Lorraine, neither of whose surnames I can remember. They both moved on from DA to work at World Airways at LGW, as did I later.


Reservations staff included: Enda the Irish lady who was never short of an opinion; Rene Kirk; dear old Frank Lefevre (what a character he was!); and two sisters, called Nikki and Denise, again no surnames come to my befuddled brain. There was a Sri Lankan guy called David Nichols who ran the cricket team, and a lady called Jeannie who did ticketing. There was also a guy called Alec who used to chain smoke about 60 a day (imagine that now), hang his tea bags up to dry and could tell you every bus timetable in London off by heart! Such characters...

I used to race motorcycles in those days and Dan Air offered me some sponsorship so the DA logo was proudly emblazoned on the side of my bike... Happy days! (see attached)


These days I work in international trade, still ride motorbikes, race cars, and generally try to grow old disgracefully... Life's too short to be serious!


I hope all this waffle is of interest to someone and may stir some memories for others.



All the best

Dave Heaver


GALLERY
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