Dan-Air's Comet Collection

Dan-Air London was one of the rising stars of the British independent airline scene in the 1960s, adeptly building a strong charter and scheduled network. However it was the Comet 4 that really put the airline on the map. The carrier would be a happy home for well over half of all the Comets built and keep the type going into the 1980s.

Dan-Air Services Limited had come into being almost by accident in mid-1953, when shipbroker Davies and Newman acquired a DC-3, G-AMSU, as part of a debt payment by the failed Meredith Air Transport, to which it had been renting office space and acting as an agent. From initial operations with this single DC-3 Dan-Air London, as it came to call itself, grew an inclusive tour (IT) charter operation as well as a scheduled network. Success allowed the acquisition of Avro Yorks and in the early 1960s 49 seat Airspeed Ambassadors.

The airline moved to the new facility at Gatwick, and acquired Scottish Airlines in 1961. With a firm IT base and an impressive scheduled network, connecting the southwest with the north via a multitiude of Midlands cities, the carrier was unusually well placed for one of the independent airlines. This position of relative strength allowed it to dream and in May 1966 Dan-Air became only the second independent UK airline to put a pure jet into service (following British United).

The aircraft acquired were a pair of ex-BOAC Comet 4s (G-APDK and APDO) on hire purchase from the flag carrier. Delivered to Lasham they were converted into a high density 99 seat configuration suitable for the airline's IT charter operations. These two initial Comets would be the first of 45 of the type the airline would acquire. Many of the frames were purchased for spares use and never actually flew with the airline. It seems at least 31 aircraft were operated, however the operational fleet was always a lot lower than this number.

Dan-Air's first Comets were shorter series 4s acquired from BOAC. A third aircraft arrived in April 1967 but the fleet growth really got underway from the end of 1968 at about the same time the Airspeed Ambassador fleet was being withdrawn. In 1968 the Comets allowed Dan-Air to open its first overseas base at Berlin Tegel and they also saw service on charters across the Atlantic to Trinidad.

Unlike other UK charter airlines Dan-Air didn't see the need to acquire new BAC One-Eleven 500s or Boeing 737s and instead continued to add Comet 4s into the 1970s. The first of the longer (but shorter winged) 4Bs arrived in July 1970 with the first 4C (using the longer 4B fuselage with the larger 4 wing) joined in April 1971. The arrival of the larger and younger airframes allowed the smaller Comet 4s to be withdrawn with the last serving into 1974. The larger Comet 4B/4Cs allowed up to 119 passengers to be crammed in, though the Comets were taken off the 'affinity' charters across the Atlantic to be replaced by Boeing 707s.

Dan-Air's Operational Comet Fleet

Gradually age began to catch up with the Comets, though the airline continued to add 'new' aircraft into late 1975. The last 5 were ex-RAF aircraft which probably had low hours on them. BAC One-Elevens had supplemented the Comets since 1969 and 727-100s did join from 1973. It wasn't until 1980 that the final Comet 4Cs were withdrawn. G-BDIW operated the last service, an enthusiast charter flight around southern Britain, on November 9, 1980. The type was replaced by 737-200s and 727-200s however Dan-Air's thrifty approach to airline operations, along with its non-alignment with the travel agencies, would find it ill-equipped in the super competitive 1980s.

G-BDIF a 4C in the latest Comet colours

Comets Dan-Air bought for Spares

References

Dan-Air: Where the Secret Was the Service. Airliners issue 35
Dan Air's Comet Graveyard. Airliner World Feb 2012
West, C. Dan-Air Remembered. Airliner World May 2013
Dan-Air fleet. RZjets.net