British Island Airways

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British United Island Airways was founded in 1962 and renamed British Island Airways in 1970, based at Gatwick Airport London.

1 History
2 Routes
3 Code data
4 External links

[edit] History

Formed from the acquisition and merger of Silver City Airways, Morton Air Services, British United (Manx) Airways and Jersey Airlines, BUIA was renamed to British Island Airways when it was split off from parent BUA after the latter's acquisition by Caledonian. The airline continued as a subsidiary of the British and Commonwealth Shipping Group with a fleet of DC-3 Freighters, BAC One Eleven and Handley-Page Herald aircraft during the 1970s.

The cargo operation, using the DC-3 Freighters, together with the convertible Dart Heralds, was kept busy carrying mail and freight (especially fresh flowers from the Channel Islands to the Mainland UK) and on chartered overnight newspaper deliveries from Gatwick to Germany (principally to supply British Forces and their families). The DC-3s were withdrawn from service in 1974.

The Dart Heralds, in passenger configuration (50 economy seats), operated an intensive network of domestic and regional routes, particularly to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, plus they were contracted by other airlines, who lacked suitable aircraft, to operate a number of scheduled services on their behalf. In particular, BIA's Dart Heralds operated, for some time in the mid-1970s, the Gatwick - Manchester, and Gatwick - Le Touquet 'Silver Arrow' (the air portion of the London - Paris Rail/Air service) schedules for British Caledonian plus the Heathrow - Antwerp route for Sabena. On occasions the Heralds also operated the Gatwick - Berne route for Dan-Air which involved special crew training and permits due to the hazardous alpine terrain near the Swiss capital Berne.

In 1980 BIA merged with sister companies, Air Anglia, Air Wales and Air Westward to form Air UK.

Managing director Peter Villa, then became the MD of Air UK. In 1982 however, he decided to split off BIA once again as a charter airline. The newly re-formed airline used its original One Elevens in its old livery, supplemented by additional aircraft including some 500 series. Later into the 1980s, MD-80 series aircraft were also operated. The airline ceased operations in 1990.

[edit] Routes

The original airline served Glasgow, the Isle of Man, Belfast, Dublin, Blackpool, Manchester, Gatwick, Southend, Exeter, Bournemouth, Southampton, Guernsey, Jersey, Le Touquet, Amiens, Paris, Ostend, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Antwerp, Brussels and Basel.