BKS Pt1: Pioneering UK Independent

BKS was begun by James Barnaby, Thomas Keegan and Cyril Stevens, initially as Aerocharter but soon it took up the initials of its founders as BKS Aerocharter Ltd. Unlike a host of British independents BKS was able to navigate the treacherous waters of the time. It became one of the most successful and pioneering British airlines of the initial postwar era, operating both charters and an impressive scheduled network from its northeastern bases at Leeds and Newcastle.

Services began on February 7, 1952 when three former Crewsair employees acquired a DC-3 in lieu of shares from the failing company and began flying it themselves. Initial charters involved ferrying livestock to Italy. Other charters took them as far as Singapore but the single Dak, G-AIWE, only lasted until April when they managed to sell it acquire to ex-RAF C-47s in its place. By the end of the 1953 the fleet had been increased to 5 C-47s with the airline employing 50 people.

BKS began to operate holiday charters for Horizon Holidays from Southend to Corsica. As 1954 arrived further holiday package deals were signed with Robert Tours this time operating from Woolsington Airport (Newcastle). The name was changed to BKS Air Transport Ltd and during the slower winter months the airline concentrated on military contracts - the bread and butter of many of the independents and a lucrative source of business whilst Britain still had an Empire to support.

Vickers Vikings were added to the fleet in the mid-50s and in May 1955 the first scheduled service was begun from Southend-Yeadon (Leeds)-Belfast using a C-47. International services were also acquired that year linking Leeds to Paris from August 12th. Later services begun also to Dusseldorf and Ostend. Passenger growth was impressive marking BKS out as one of the more successful independents. In 1952 only 3,750 passengers were carried, however by 1955 that had grown to 20,142 and it more than doubled in 1957 to 45,007.

This growth, which included scheduled services to London and Edinburgh from Leeds, made it obvious newer equipment was required and in 1957 a single ex-BEA Airspeed Ambassador, G-AMAD, arrived. Her first service was on August 9, connecting Newcastle and Dublin. That same year the withdrawal of Hunting Clan from Newcastle allowed BKS to takeover their facilities and increase services to destinations such as Basel and Biarritz. On April 1 the airline had been able to become the first British airline to operate scheduled services to the Republic of Ireland with a Newcastle-Dublin route.

In 1958 a further two ex-BEA Ambassadors were acquired and BKS increased their seating capacity from 47 to 55 whilst at the same time reducing the aircraft's weight via a slew of modifications to the airframe and seats. In 1959 scheduled routes were begun connecting Heathrow to Newcastle and the airline consolidated its position at Leeds with the opening of its own terminal. In 1960 the airline carried 141,175 passengers and felt confident enough to order its first new aircraft - the Hawker Siddeley HS-748.

The airline's confidence was almost misplaced as the winter of 1961-62 was very harsh causing losses at the carrier which briefly looked like it might fold. A pair of Viscounts that had been leased in from Maitland Drewery had to be returned and credit was hard to come by. Fortunately the airline's underpinning financials were sound and though receivers were called in at the end of the year it was able to recover. The Hs-748s were only deferred and not cancelled. On October 1, 1962 BKS became the first airline to operate the HS-748 domestically in the UK when a leased example flew Leeds-London. The type cut the time by 25 minutes and more than doubed the load factor of the route (from 31-80%). By April 1963 all four of the airline's ordered HS-748s were in service.

In 1964 the airline's biggest equipment to date entered service in the form of a pair of Bristol Britannia 102s. Both aircraft had actually been bought from BOAC by Airways Holidays however they didn't have a license to operate the whispering giants and so BKS took them on to fly Airways IT Charters at the weekends and operate between Newcastle and London during the week.

1964 saw record passenger numbers of 339,840 however the airline's days as a fully independent operator were coming to a close. On June 10, 1964 an agreement was signed with BEA involving the national carrier buying a 30% share. This agreement would enable growth and the coming of jets but in the end it would also lead inevitably to the airline's disappearance. This is what we'll look at in part 2.

Incidentally you'll notice that both of the JC Wings releases above wear the post 1965 more colourful blue tail BKS livery.

References

BKS Air Transport Ltd History site
Halford-MacLeod, Guy. Britain's Airlines Volume 2: 1951-1964
Timetable images from http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/ns.htm