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British Eagle
British Eagle International Airlines was a major British independent airline that operated from 1948 until it went into liquidation in 1968. It operated scheduled and charter services on a domestic, international and transatlantic basis over the years.
Harold Bamberg, a former wartime pilot, formed the airline on 14 April 1948 with a nominal capital of £100 as Eagle Aviation Ltd at Aldermaston. The initial fleet comprised two wartime bombers converted for carrying fruit and vegetables. The first aircraft to enter service was a converted Halifax Mk 8 with the civil registration G-AJBL. It operated Eagle's first commercial flight, carrying a cargo of cherries from Verona to Bovingdon. It subsequently transported fruit from Italy and Spain for the Covent Garden merchants. It was joined by a second Halifax, registered G-ALEF and christened Red Eagle. Both aircraft saw extensive service along with a further two others during the Berlin Airlift .
The airline acquired Air Freight Ltd with three more Halifaxes later the same year. Eagle acquired three Avro York aircraft in late 1949, followed by eight others, and used these until early 1955 for both passenger and freight charters. Eagle aviation moved to Luton in 1950. For most of its existence, the company's head office was located at 29 Clarges Street, Central London.
By 1951, Eagle Aviation had won its first regular Government trooping contracts, including the first regular contract awarded by the War Office for trooping flights between the UK and Singapore starting in August 1951. This helped keep its fleet of six Halifaxes and nine Avro Yorks busy and provided employment for 100 people including 12 pilots. Operations moved to Blackbushe Airport in 1952, followed a year later by the launch of secondary scheduled services in association with British European Airways (BEA), from whom Eagle had purchased a large fleet of Vickers Vikings.
During 1953, Eagle Aviation's steadily growing passenger charter operations included for the first time aerial cruises around the Mediterranean. Following Eagle's decision to sell the Yorks to rival UK independent Skyways for £160,000, the airline expanded from charter work into scheduled services from its new base at Blackbushe Airport, using Vickers Vikings. The first of these were acquired from Crewsair, another rival UK independent. Eagle, which by that time had set up Eagle Airways as a new company to run the scheduled side of the business (leaving Eagle Aviation in charge of all non-scheduled operations, including trooping flights), inaugurated its first scheduled service on 6 June 1953 from London (Blackbushe) to Belgrade (via Munich), followed by London—Aalborg and London—Gothenburg. It also began operating domestic flights within the UK and additional international services to secondary western European destinations. Eagle's expansion was supported by 22 Vickers Vikings that had been retained from an earlier purchase of 37 former BEA examples.
In 1954, the Ministry of Aviation granted Eagle permission to operate a limited programme of a new type of low-fare service that combined air travel and overseas holiday accommodation at a cost substantially below the aggregate of each individual component if purchased separately. This new concept enabled the airline to circumvent regulatory restrictions that prevented private airlines from competing with their state-owned counterparts. It also helped increase fleet utilisation.
When the Thomas Cook & Son travel agency declined Eagle's offer to take on the role of the airline's tour operator, Eagle acquired the Sir Henry Lunn Ltd travel agency chain. This made the airline one of the pioneers of the British package holiday industry and probably marked the first occasion in the UK an airline became vertically integrated with its own in-house tour operator (i.e. where an airline owns or is owned by a tour operator or both are part of an integrated travel group) British Eagle also acquired the Polytechnic Touring Association in the 1950s and formed Lunn Poly from the two agencies in the mid-1960s.
Eagle's first inclusive tour (IT) flights operated to destinations in Italy and Spain (including Majorca). To make its packages more affordable and increase sales, Lunn began offering hire purchase facilities. Between 1955 and 1960, many of the airline's aircraft carried the Eagle Airways operating name.
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British Eagle
British Eagle International Airlines was a major British independent airline that operated from 1948 until it went into liquidation in 1968. It operated scheduled and charter services on a domestic, international and transatlantic basis over the years.
Harold Bamberg, a former wartime pilot, formed the airline on 14 April 1948 with a nominal capital of £100 as Eagle Aviation Ltd at Aldermaston. The initial fleet comprised two wartime bombers converted for carrying fruit and vegetables. The first aircraft to enter service was a converted Halifax Mk 8 with the civil registration G-AJBL. It operated Eagle's first commercial flight, carrying a cargo of cherries from Verona to Bovingdon. It subsequently transported fruit from Italy and Spain for the Covent Garden merchants. It was joined by a second Halifax, registered G-ALEF and christened Red Eagle. Both aircraft saw extensive service along with a further two others during the Berlin Airlift .
The airline acquired Air Freight Ltd with three more Halifaxes later the same year. Eagle acquired three Avro York aircraft in late 1949, followed by eight others, and used these until early 1955 for both passenger and freight charters. Eagle aviation moved to Luton in 1950. For most of its existence, the company's head office was located at 29 Clarges Street, Central London.
By 1951, Eagle Aviation had won its first regular Government trooping contracts, including the first regular contract awarded by the War Office for trooping flights between the UK and Singapore starting in August 1951. This helped keep its fleet of six Halifaxes and nine Avro Yorks busy and provided employment for 100 people including 12 pilots. Operations moved to Blackbushe Airport in 1952, followed a year later by the launch of secondary scheduled services in association with British European Airways (BEA), from whom Eagle had purchased a large fleet of Vickers Vikings.
During 1953, Eagle Aviation's steadily growing passenger charter operations included for the first time aerial cruises around the Mediterranean. Following Eagle's decision to sell the Yorks to rival UK independent Skyways for £160,000, the airline expanded from charter work into scheduled services from its new base at Blackbushe Airport, using Vickers Vikings. The first of these were acquired from Crewsair, another rival UK independent. Eagle, which by that time had set up Eagle Airways as a new company to run the scheduled side of the business (leaving Eagle Aviation in charge of all non-scheduled operations, including trooping flights), inaugurated its first scheduled service on 6 June 1953 from London (Blackbushe) to Belgrade (via Munich), followed by London—Aalborg and London—Gothenburg. It also began operating domestic flights within the UK and additional international services to secondary western European destinations. Eagle's expansion was supported by 22 Vickers Vikings that had been retained from an earlier purchase of 37 former BEA examples.
In 1954, the Ministry of Aviation granted Eagle permission to operate a limited programme of a new type of low-fare service that combined air travel and overseas holiday accommodation at a cost substantially below the aggregate of each individual component if purchased separately. This new concept enabled the airline to circumvent regulatory restrictions that prevented private airlines from competing with their state-owned counterparts. It also helped increase fleet utilisation.
When the Thomas Cook & Son travel agency declined Eagle's offer to take on the role of the airline's tour operator, Eagle acquired the Sir Henry Lunn Ltd travel agency chain. This made the airline one of the pioneers of the British package holiday industry and probably marked the first occasion in the UK an airline became vertically integrated with its own in-house tour operator (i.e. where an airline owns or is owned by a tour operator or both are part of an integrated travel group) British Eagle also acquired the Polytechnic Touring Association in the 1950s and formed Lunn Poly from the two agencies in the mid-1960s.
Eagle's first inclusive tour (IT) flights operated to destinations in Italy and Spain (including Majorca). To make its packages more affordable and increase sales, Lunn began offering hire purchase facilities. Between 1955 and 1960, many of the airline's aircraft carried the Eagle Airways operating name.