Category: HS Trident

The BA Shuttle: Bringing the Regions to Heathrow

18/3/2019

The Eastern Air Lines shuttle was a pioneering idea in the busy US North-east market offering no-reservation guaranteed seat service between the super busy business destinations of New York, Washington and Boston. There are few markets that can support such a concept but travel from the UK regions to the London Heathrow was always a good contender. In 1975 the new British Airways decided to see if it could replicate the massive success of Eastern’s shuttle in the UK.

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Middle East Tridents Pt2: Iraqi Airways

25/3/2016

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Despite Kuwait Airways being first to order the Trident 1E it was their neighbouring country Iraq's national airline, Iraqi Airways, which was the first to put it into service, on October 1, 1965. They also received three aircraft and due to the secretive and repressive regime of the Ba'ath party they seem to have led quite leisurely lives. Their final fates seem shrouded in mystery but their hulks may have made it into the early 90s.

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Middle East Tridents Pt1: Kuwait Airways

23/3/2016

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It's well known that de Havilland's slavish adherence to BEA's requirements for the Trident led to the creation of an aircraft which was so tailored to BEA's narrow set of requirements as to be almost unsaleable. Even though the Trident was more technologically advanced than the Boeing 727 it was simply no competition for the larger longer ranged Boeing. Still thanks largely to the UK's friendly ties with former colonial possessions a few sales were made and in fact both neighbours Iraq and Kuwait would become Trident operators during the early 1960s.

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BKS Pt2: Northeast Towards BA

16/10/2015

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Initially following BEA's purchase of 30% of BKS operations continued much as before though no doubt without the annoyance of BEA complaining about new services going BKS' way. This wasn't to last however and gradually despite growing successfully BKS was subsumed to BEA's needs. Eventually it became one of the four major components that would constitute the new unified British national carrier.

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Channel Airways Pt2: Boom & Bust

3/6/2015

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By the mid 1960s Channel Airways was unusually flush and was for the first time able to begin to acquire new rather than second-hand aircraft. It first did this with the purchase of four HS748s but following hot on their heels would be pure jets. Unfortunately its jet operations combined with a major economic downturn would lead Channel towards its own bankruptcy just months after it celebrated its 25th anniversary.

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CAAC: Chinese Airlines Always Cancel

11/1/2015

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Chinese aviation has certainly come a long way in the past 30 years or so - see my history of Chinese airline development. I have a vague fondness for the original Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) airline as their 747SPs (hello Gemini wakey wakey) were regular visitors to London Gatwick when I was a kid.

Still the creation of some competition and the 6 initial separate regional airlines (China Eastern, Southern, Southwest, Northern, Northwest and Air China) in 1987 was a major step forward for Chinese aviation which hasn't looked back since. CAAC itself didn't have the best reputation hence the spurious acronym in the blog title - one of several that existed at the time!

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Air Ceylon: Sri-Lankan Shapeshifter

9/1/2015

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Air Ceylon came into being even before independence in 1948 when the airline was setup the year before with a trio of war surplus DC-3s. The aircraft were used for route proving trials, pilot training and flood relief operations prior to the December 10th start of scheduled operations.

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The BA Shuttle: Bringing the Regions to Heathrow

Middle East Tridents Pt2: Iraqi Airways

Middle East Tridents Pt1: Kuwait Airways

BKS Pt2: Northeast Towards BA

Channel Airways Pt2: Boom & Bust

CAAC: Chinese Airlines Always Cancel

Air Ceylon: Sri-Lankan Shapeshifter

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