Dan-Air

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Dan-Air Services Limited is a defunct airline based in the United Kingdom. It commenced operations in 1953 and was absorbed into British Airways in 1992.

Contents

[edit] History

Dan-Air commenced operations in the United Kingdom in May 1953 with a single Douglas DC-3 "Dakota". It was a subsidiary of Davies and Newman, a ship broking company originally established in the City of London in 1922, from whose initials the airline had derived its name.

[edit] Main areas of commercial activity

It operated a mix of inclusive tour (IT) holiday charter flights, regional short-haul scheduled services, transatlantic and other world-wide Advanced Booking Charters (ABC flights), oil industry related support flights and various ad-hoc operations (including all-cargo services) from London Gatwick and a number of other British airports as well as Tegel Airport in what used to be West Berlin in the days prior to Germany's [re-]unification.

[edit] Aircraft types

It operated the world's largest fleet of De Havilland Comet aircraft and became the last airline in the world to operate this type when it was finally retired from commercial airline service in 1981. (Dan-Air gradually built up the world's largest De Havilland Comet fleet over a time span of ten years [1966-1976]. This included all remaining 49 airworthy examples of this particular aircraft type although not all of them saw commercial airline service with Dan-Air. [Some of them had specifically been acquired to be cannibalised for spares to support the in-service fleet.] These aircraft commanded a lower purchase price than other comparable second-hand jets. They were also relatively new at that time as many of their previous operators had replaced them with the larger and more economical Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 after only a few years' service with these operators. These airframes therefore had many more years of useful service life left and only cost a fraction of the similarly sized BAC 1-11-500 or Boeing 737-200, which were still scarce on the second-hand aircraft market in those days. It also enabled the airline to replace most of its obsolete piston-engined airliners such as the Avro York, the Bristol 170 Freighter and the Airspeed AS 57 Ambassador, which had already reached or were nearing the end of their service lives, relatively cheaply.)

Dan-Air also operated the Hawker Siddeley 748, the BAC 1-11 and the Boeing 727.

Dan-Air became the first British operator of the Boeing 727 trijet - at the time the world's best-selling commercial jetliner - when it introduced the first of three former Japan Airlines series 100 aircraft into service on April 1, 1973.

In March 1983 Dan-Air became the launch customer for the four-engined BAe 146 regional jetliner.

[edit] Attaining commercial success

Following the introduction of its first pair of ex-BOAC De Havilland Comet Series 4 aircraft in 1967, which made Dan-Air only the second Independent British airline to commence uninterrupted pure jet aircraft operations (after British United Airways), it had embarked on a period of sustained, steady and mostly profitable expansion lasting for over two decades. During that period it introduced a number of new aircraft types into its fleet, including the BAC 1-11, Boeing 707, Hawker Siddeley 748, Boeing 727, Boeing 737, BAe 146 and, eventually, the Airbus A300. However, most of these "new" aircraft types were actually acquired second-hand.

In 1954 Dan-Air established Dan-Air Engineering as a separate sister company at Lasham Airfield, a disused war-time airfield in Hampshire, to service its growing and varied fleet as well as aircraft belonging to other operators.

In the early 1970s Dan-Air co-founded Gatwick Handling, a major Gatwick-based handling agent that has since become part of the Aviance group, with Laker Airways. (Each airline owned 50% of Gatwick Handling at the time of its inception.)

During the 1970s and '80s Dan-Air also established itself as one of Britain's foremost wholly privately owned, Independent airlines. It eventually attained the number two spot among all British airlines (including then wholly state-owned British Airways) during the second half of the 1980s. By the end of that decade it had become Britain's number one charter airline (ahead of Britannia Airways) with a fleet numbering more than 40 aircraft (including the first widebodies in its history) and a staff of well over 3,000 carrying in excess of 6m passengers annually, more than one-third of which were scheduled passengers. From that time onwards it carried more scheduled passengers than British Caledonian, Britain's leading Independent international scheduled airline and the country's so-called "Second Force" from its inception in late-November 1970 until its takeover by British Airways in December 1987, had ever carried in any one year throughout its entire existence. This made Dan-Air second only to British Airways in terms of the total number of passengers carried.

[edit] Increasing financial woes

1989 marked a watershed for the airline's financial fortunes. It was the first year since the airline's formative era prior to the decision to introduce jet planes into its fleet in the mid-'60s and the only time apart from a "blip" in 1982 when the company lost money over a whole 12-month period. Its loss at the time stood at £3m. This was in stark contrast to the healthy profit of £10m the business had achieved the year before. (Like most charter-focused operators, Dan-Air used to make a loss during the lean winter months because of the seasonal nature of its business. However, this was compensated by the profit it made during the peak summer holiday period enabling the firm to show a modest profit for the entire 12-month financial period.)

Unfortunately, the company's financial position rapidly deteriorated during the early 1990s. It was estimated that it lost £24m during the last six months of its existence until October 1992 alone.

[edit] Causes of commercial decline

Among the main reasons for the airline's sudden "financial tailspin" and its ultimate demise were a lack of "vertical integration" with a major UK tour operator. (Dan-Air was the last remaining major "independent" provider of charter airline seats to numerous large, medium-sized as well as small tour companies based in the UK and overseas, at a time when most of the UK's large tour firms had already decided to set up their very own in-house airlines, which then aggressively competed with Dan-Air for the bulk of those operators' business leading to a general decline in charter rates.)

Another important reason that was said to have contributed to Dan-Air's failure was the fact that its fleet contained too many different, incompatible aircraft types and that some of these planes were considerably older and far less efficient than the latest state-of-the-art aircraft operated by some of its competitors, such as fellow Gatwick-based Air Europe. This made the Dan-Air fleet costlier to operate and maintain. The Boeing 727s in particular, some of which Dan-Air continued to acquire from various previous operators right until the beginning of the 1990s (including some that were brought into its fleet on what turned out to be highly unfavourable leases), proved to be a major "financial millstone" around the airline's neck.

Furthermore, some industry analysts pointed to the fact that Dan-Air's decision to embark on a major expansion into scheduled services from its Gatwick base at a time when the UK economy was still mired in the early-'90s recession, exacerbated by the after-effects of the first Gulf War, as an important factor that actually made the airline's financial position worse rather than improve it.

These analysts also opined that an injection of £49m of additional working capital into Dan-Air's parent company as a result of a successful share issue in 1990 was insufficient to fund the airline's future needs. (The additional funds raised through the issue of new shares were considered to be insufficient to pay for a complete renewal of Dan-Air's fleet which was to be standardised on only two aircraft types, i.e the Boeing 737-300/400 series and the Avro RJ115 [an updated version of the BAe 146-300 that was eventually never built]. These funds were also regarded as insufficient to finance Dan-Air's ambitious transformation from a "cheap-and-cheerful" charter-oriented carrier with a motely collection of a small number of poorly performing, "low visibility" regional scheduled routes, chiefly between secondary airports across the British Isles and Europe's provinces, into a top quality, "high visibility" mainline short-haul scheduled operator, primarily plying "trunk routes" between Britain's and Europe's major airports.)

[edit] Closing chapter

Following inconclusive and ultimately abortive discussions with Virgin Atlantic regarding a deal to "save" Dan-Air in return for an investment of ca. £10m, the airline was eventually sold in an "eleventh hour" rescue arrangement to British Airways in 1992 for a nominal £1 and absorbed into that airline's Gatwick operation. Under this arrangement British Airways had agreed to take on its erstwhile competitor's total financial commitments of about £50m (including Dan-Air's debts), only 12 of its most modern Boeing 737s, a similar number of its short-haul scheduled routes from Gatwick and only about one-fifth of its entire 2,000-strong workforce. This "rump" of the former Dan-Air then formed the nucleus of what British Airways had intended to be a "low cost" short-haul feeder operation for its Gatwick-based long-haul scheduled services under the working title "British Airways European Operations at Gatwick" with the ultimate aim of helping to put British Airways' heavily loss-making Gatwick operation on a path to sustained profitability. This goal has so far proved to be elusive.

[edit] Facts of interest

  • Dan-Air was one of the first UK-based airlines to employ female pilots with up to four ladies among its 450-strong pilot community during the second half of the 1970s. It was also the first UK airline to have a female pilot in command of jet aircraft, a Mrs. Yvonne Sintes, who became one of Dan-Air's BAC 1-11 captains in 1976. She regularly sat in the left-hand seat of the airline's BAC 1-11s and De Havilland Comets until her retirement in 1980.
  • Dan-Air changed its long-standing policy of exclusively employing female flight attendants only in 1986.
  • Dan-Air established its first overseas base at Tegel Airport in West Berlin, Germany, in 1969. (Up to five of the company's aircraft used to be stationed there for over two decades. These initially comprised De Havilland Comets, BAC 1-11s, Boeing 707s and Boeing 727s. They were later replaced with Boeing 737s, Hawker Siddeley 748s and BAe 146s because they were better suited to the requirements of that market. The Berlin-based fleet operated both charter services under contract to German tour operators as well scheduled services to Amsterdam, London Gatwick and Saarbrücken. The Berlin operation was staffed by about 150, mainly local, employees and handled well over 300,000 passengers annually at its peak during the late 1970s and early '80s.)
  • Dan-Air incidentally operated the first commercial flight to arrive at Tegel Airport's then brand-new terminal building on November 1, 1974 at 6.00 a.m. local time with a BAC 1-11 that was in-bound from Tenerife.
  • Dan-Air operated its first seasonal scheduled service during the summer of 1956 between Blackbushe and Jersey. (It operated its first year-round scheduled service in 1960. This service linked Bristol and Cardiff with Liverpool. The airline's first two international scheduled routes commenced in the early 1960s, linking Liverpool with Rotterdam and Gatwick with Basle. The company's first year-round, same-day-return UK mainland domestic jet schedule was inaugurated in March 1974 between Gatwick and Newcastle. [This twice-daily service initially utilised a De Havilland Comet that needed to be repositioned from Newcastle to Gatwick on a daily basis anyway for the southbound rotation while one of the Gatwick-based BAC 1-11s operated the daily rotation in the opposite direction.] The first scheduled route not to touch the UK at either end was Berlin Tegel to Amsterdam Schiphol [inaugurated in 1981].)
  • Dan-Air joined IATA as a Trade Association member in 1986.
  • Dan-Air carried 500,000 passengers in one year for the first time in 1969. 1971 saw the airline carrying more than 1m passengers in a year for the first time. 1973 was the first year the company managed to carry more than 2m passengers. 1977 was the first time the firm transported more than 3.5m passengers in a single year. The 4m passengers per annum mark was reached for the first time in 1984 and the 5m mark the year after. In 1989 over 6m passengers flew with Dan-Air, the highest number ever. (From 1975 onwards Dan-Air's annual passenger numbers were greater than the total number of passengers British Caledonian managed to carry in any one year.)
  • Dan-Air transferred its main operational base from Blackbushe to Gatwick in 1960 following the former's closure to all commercial airline traffic. During the course of that decade, Dan-Air was the airport's third biggest resident operator (after both British United Airways and Caledonian Airways). By the mid-1970s Dan-Air had become the second biggest resident operator at Gatwick (after British Caledonian and ahead of both Laker Airways as well as British Airtours, the former wholly owned British Airways charter subsidiary that had its headquarters at the airport). Following Air Europe's demise at the end of the first week of March 1991, Dan-Air became Gatwick's largest resident operator controlling 18% of all slots (21% of all morning peak time slots between 8.00 a.m. and 9.00 a.m.).
  • Dan-Air was the last commercial airline operator of the Airspeed AS 57 Ambassador piston-engined airliner. (A small number of this elegantly looking, high-winged twin-engined plane had "survived" in the airline's fleet well into the jet era. The last example was retired from service in September 1971 after completing its final Jersey-Gatwick scheduled service.)
  • Dan-Air was the first airline anywhere to successfully transport a live dolphin by air.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

[edit] Fatal accidents

Throughout Dan-Air's 39-year history the airline suffered seven fatal accidents involving the loss of aircraft and lives, three of which resulted in the loss of lives of fare-paying passengers. These accidents are listed below:

  • A De Havilland Comet series 4 (registration G-APDN) on a charter flight from Manchester to Barcelona crashed on the 3 July 1970 into a mountain near the village of Arbucies in Catalonia in Northern Spain. The aircraft was destroyed and 105 passengers and 7 crew died. This was the airline's first fatal accident resulting in the loss of lives of fare-paying passengers.
  • A Boeing 707-321C freighter (registration G-BEBP) crashed on the 14 May 1977 towards the end of a scheduled Heathrow-Lusaka service operated on behalf of IAS Cargo Airlines, which itself had been sub-contracted by Zambia Airways to operate this service. The aircraft's horizontal stabiliser had become detached during the approach to its final destination as a result of undetected corrosion. The accident killed all four crew members on board this flight. It also sparked a major industry debate on the maintenance requirements as well as service life limitations of high-time "geriatric" jets.
  • A Hawker Siddeley 748 series 1 (registration G-BEKF) operating an oil industry support flight crashed on the 31 July 1979 in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. The aircraft failed to become airborne and crashed into the sea. The cause was the elevator gust-lock had become re-engaged preventing the aircraft rotating into a flying attitude. The aircraft was destroyed and 17 persons died of drowning.
  • A Boeing 727-46 (registration G-BDAN) crashed on the 25 April 1980 while attempting to land at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands, at the end of a charter flight from Manchester. The aircraft flew into high terrain when it turned the wrong way in a holding pattern. The aircraft was destroyed and all 146 occupants perished. This accident also marked the worst air disaster involving a British-registered aircraft in terms of loss of life.
  • Another Hawker Siddeley 748 - a series 2 aircraft - (registration G-ASPL) crashed on a regular postal flight from Gatwick to East Midlands Airport on 26 June 1981 near its final destination at Nailstone in Leicestershire when the plane's cargo door had swung open in mid-air resulting in the aircraft's loss of control and the death of both pilots as well as the postal assistant on board of this flight.

[edit] Non-fatal incidents

In addition to the fatal accidents listed above, Dan-Air suffered a number of non-fatal incidents, almost all of which occurred during the early years of the airline's existence in the piston-engined era. These usually damaged the aircraft involved beyond repair but did not cause any loss of lives.

Listed below are three incidents that helped Dan-Air make the headlines of the local and/or international media for all the wrong reasons:

  • In 1971 one of the airline's Comets operating a charter flight carrying Turkish migrant workers from Berlin Tegel to Istanbul was "escorted" by Bulgarian fighter planes into Sofia. The crew flying the aircraft was attempting to take the shortest route to Istanbul when leaving Yugoslav airspace by entering Bulgarian airspace, instead of taking the longer route through Greek airspace. Being new to West Berlin, they were still unaware of a decision taken by the then Communist government of Bulgaria not to let any aircraft enter its airspace whose flight had originated or was going to terminate at a West Berlin airport, without stopping en-route at another airport outside West Berlin. The aircraft landed safely at Sofia and was released along with its crew and passengers when the flight's commander paid the fine the Bulgarian authorities had imposed for violating their country's airspace with the company's credit card.
  • In 1972 Somalian fighter aircraft forced a Dan-Air Boeing 707 flying through Somali air space en-route from London Gatwick to Mauritius to land at Mogadishu Airport, insisting that the aircraft was flying through Somali airspace in violation of the prescribed procedure to apply for permission to do so in advance.
  • A particular "notorious" incident occurred during the mid-1970s. One of the company's Boeing 727s on a charter flight from Luton to Spain hit the localiser antenna while departing Luton Airport, thereby rendering the airport's ILS equipment inoperative. After being told by Luton ATC about the incident, the crew flying the aircraft elected to divert to London Gatwick where it landed safely.

[edit] Code data

  • IATA Code: DA
  • ICAO Code: DAN
  • Callsign: Dan-Air

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