Scehduled Services - DAN AIR REMEMBERED

It's fair to say that Dan-Air is best remembered as a charter carrier. For many years the vast number of passengers were, indeed, flown on charter services. The regulations that were in force in the UK, and for that matter, Europe, placed heavy emphasis on Scheduled Services being carried out by state run national carriers. Regular charter flights in the 1950s could only be operated if the whole of the holiday package price was the same as a standard scheduled return fare. No UK airlines other that BEA and BOAC could operate scheduled services out of London Heathrow and even then, a scheduled service licence would only be granted to an independent airline if the two state airlines had no objections to another airline operating it! Licences in the early days were granted by the Air Traffic Licencing Board (ATLB) and later on, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It is inconceivable today, that those two organisations would not only be responsible for granting licences, but that they would decide what days the services could operate, what frequency it would fly and even the fares!  Each time an airline wanted to increase or decrease a fare, it would have to be approved. Approved services would be licensed for a specific period of time. At the end of the period, the licence would be reviewed.

Dan-Air's initial scheduled service would operate from their base at Blackbushe to Jersey. That service would transfer to London Gatwick when Blackbushe was scheduled for closure. Dan-Air and other carriers then moved their main operation to the recently upgraded Gatwick.

By 1971 several different  'Link-City' services were being operated.  Birmingham, Tees Side, Prestwick, Leeds/Bradford and Bournemouth were added to the network. Several aircraft flew the services in different directions, giving passengers greater flexibility. The seventies saw Dan-Air operate a huge programme of scheduled services into the Isle of Man, at one time, the island was served from Manchester, Carlisle, Prestwick, Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Tees-side, Jersey  and Glasgow, among others. The Channel Islands were well served from many UK airports. With Jersey and Guernsey having services from Gatwick, Bournemouth, Leeds, Manchester and others.

Only a few International services were operated in the early 1970s - Seventeen years after the airline commenced operations. These being:

In 1972  licences were granted for

The start of the 1980s saw

Following the collapse of  Air Europe in 1991, Dan-Air was in a position to take over many of the bankrupt carrier's routes. These included

Other services were added or withdrawn at various times during the airline's 39 year history. Some routes were remarkably successful, such as Heathrow-Inverness. Others were less successful, such as Heathrow-Manchester, where the airline faced a price war and stiff competition from British Airways. Several regional services were operated from Manchester, Newcastle and Tees Side where Dan-Air had substantial bases. The in-flight standard of service aboard Dan-Air was high, even in the early days. The CAA, incredibly, even had rules about that! Airlines were not permitted to offer two classes on domestic flights. Nevertheless Dan-Air offered business travellers small incentives, such as radioing ahead if a passenger needed car hire upon arrival and offering wives half price tickets when accompanying husbands.

By the 1980s as competition became more stiff and rules less so, Dan-Air was able to offer services timed to meet business travellers' needs. Some aircraft did not have hot ovens to provide cooked breakfasts and Dan-Air pioneered the use of vacuum packed catering boxes where meals could be brought on board and stay hot for several hours. The Inverness-Heathrow early morning service was heralded as a new standard in domestic service. Dan-Air served haggis on the glorious 12th, served local whiskey on Burn's Night and even sourced local preserves for breakfasts.  The introduction of lounges for business travellers was introduced in the late 1980s. These sanctuaries provided quiet time for business passengers to work, eat and relax at airports. A dedicated business cabin 'Class Elite' was launched in 1987. This featured dedicated check in, lounge access, priority boarding and disembarking, increased luggage, limousine transfers, superior in flight catering on board a separate cabin, where passengers were given much improved leg room. If the cabin layout had three seats, the middle seat was not sold, but instead turned into a table. As the literature presented here shows, Dan-Air Scheduled Services had come a long way in thirty nine years.