| |||||||
Founded | 25 April 1935 (as Cambrian Air Services) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ceased operations | 1 April 1974 (merged with BOAC, BEA and Northeast Airlines to form British Airways) | ||||||
Operating bases | |||||||
Headquarters | Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom |
Cambrian Airways was an airline based in the United Kingdom which ran operations from Cardiff Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport between 1935 and 1974. It was incorporated into British Airways when BOAC, BEA, Cambrian and Northeast merged on 1 April 1974.
Cambrian was set up on 25 April 1935 as Cambrian Air Services. The airline's base was at Pengam Moors airfield located to the east of Cardiff. The first aircraft to be operated was a single de Havilland DH.60 Moth, with the main activity of training pilots, and flights for tourists. With the outbreak of World War II, Cambrian stopped its activities. [1]
Commencing on 1 January 1946 it was the first British airline to restart operations after the war, with a charter flight with an Auster Autocrat with a cargo of wire rope and an aircraft seat between Cardiff airport and Bristol. [1] In 1948 Cambrian was flying in cooperation with BEA and used the de Havilland Dragon Rapide, the Autocrat and the Percival Proctor. During 1949 flights between Birmingham and Jersey were begun. During 1953, Cambrian took over Olley Air Service and Murray Chown Aviation and began services between Southampton to Dinard and Paris. This route was served with the de Havilland Dove and later with the Douglas DC-3. In 1956 the name was changed to Cambrian Airways.
By 1961, Cambrian was operating eight ex BEA Douglas Dakota (DC-3) airliners. The first service operated by the Vickers Viscount turboprop commenced on 20 February 1963 on the route from Cardiff via Bristol to Dublin. [2] From 1964 the type was used on charter flights to Rimini, Palma, Nice, Valencia and Barcelona. In 1967 BEA took over Cambrian, although it continued to operate as a separate airline. The following year the last flight with the DC-3 was flown . Cambrian also operated jet aircraft in the form of the BAC One-Eleven, which were used for charter flights in addition to operation on the scheduled network.
In 1972 Cambrian was incorporated into the new British Air Services group and gradually lost more and more of its independence. On 1 April 1974, Cambrian was one of the four component companies merged to form British Airways and the Cambrian colour scheme was gradually replaced by an interim scheme with British Airways as the name and Cambrian in much smaller text then the full BA colour scheme, [3]
According to its 1 November 1971 system timetable, Cambrian was serving the following destinations with scheduled passenger flights: [4]
United Kingdom
Ireland
France
The above referenced timetable also states the Cambrian fleet consisted of four (4) BAC One-Eleven jet aircraft and eight (8) Vickers Viscount turboprop aircraft at this time.
Cyprus Airways (Public) Ltd. was the flag carrier airline of Cyprus. It was established in September 1947 and ceased operations on 9 January 2015. Cyprus Airways had its operating base at Larnaca International Airport.
The Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador is a British twin piston-engined airliner that was designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Airspeed Ltd. It was one of the first postwar airliners to be produced.
British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974.
The Vickers Vanguard was a short/medium-range turboprop airliner designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Vickers-Armstrongs.
New Zealand National Airways Corporation, popularly known as NAC, established by the New Zealand National Airways Act, 1945, was the national domestic airline of New Zealand until 1978 when it amalgamated with New Zealand's international airline, Air New Zealand. The airline was headquartered in Wellington.
British United Airways (BUA) was a private, independent British airline formed as a result of the merger of Airwork Services and Hunting-Clan Air Transport in July 1960, making it the largest wholly private airline based in the United Kingdom at the time. British and Commonwealth Shipping (B&C) was the new airline's main shareholder.
Railway Air Services (RAS) was a British airline formed in March 1934 by the Big Four railway companies and Imperial Airways. The airline was a domestic airline operating routes within the United Kingdom linking up with Imperial's services.
Transair was an airline based in Canada. It was purchased by Pacific Western Airlines in 1979. Transair's operational headquarters was located at the Winnipeg International Airport in Manitoba.
Manx Airlines was an English-owned, Isle of Man-based airline that existed between 1982 and 2002. Its head office was located on the grounds of Ronaldsway Airport in Ballasalla, Malew. An airline of the same name existed between 1947 and 1958.
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.
Starways was a British airline which operated from 1948 until 1963. The company offered freight transport, passenger charter services and serviced internal and international scheduled routes.
The Hawker Siddeley HS-121 Trident is a British airliner produced by Hawker Siddeley. In 1957, de Havilland proposed its DH.121 trijet design to a British European Airways (BEA) request. By 1960, de Havilland had been acquired by Hawker Siddeley. The Trident's maiden flight happened on 9 January 1962, and it was introduced on 1 April 1964, two months after its main competitor, the Boeing 727. By the end of the programme in 1978, 117 Tridents had been produced. The Trident was withdrawn from service in 1995.
Trans European Aviation was a British charter airline which operated from 1954 until closure in 1963. With the introduction of the larger Lockheed Constellation to its services, the airline name was changed in 1961 to Trans European Airways.
Channel Airways was a private airline formed in the United Kingdom in 1946 as East Anglian Flying Services.
Northeast Airlines (NEA) – known as BKS Air Transport until 1970 – was an airline based in the United Kingdom that operated from 1952 until 1976, when NEA's operations and fleet were merged into British Airways.
Hunting-Clan Air Transport was a wholly private, British independent airline that was founded in the immediate post-World War II period. It began trading on 1 January 1946 as Hunting Air Travel Ltd. It was a subsidiary of the Hunting Group of companies, which had come from the shipping industry and could trace its history back to the 19th century. The newly formed airline's first operating base was at Bovingdon Airport in Southeast England. Its main activities were contract, scheduled and non-scheduled domestic and international air services that were initially operated with Douglas Dakota and Vickers Viking piston airliners from the company's Bovingdon base. A change of name to Hunting Air Transport occurred in 1951. By that time, the airline had emerged as one of the healthiest and most securely financed independent airlines in Britain. In October 1953, the firm's name changed to Hunting-Clan Air Transport, as a result of an agreement between the Hunting Group and the Clan Line group of companies to invest £500,000 each in a new company named Hunting-Clan Air Holdings Ltd, the holding company for the combined group's air transport interests. Apart from Hunting-Clan Air Transport itself, this included Field Aircraft Services Ltd, the Hunting group's aircraft maintenance arm. In 1960, Hunting-Clan Air Transport merged with the Airwork group to form British United Airways (BUA).
Jersey Airlines was an early post-World War II private, independent British airline formed in 1948. In 1952, the airline operated its first scheduled service. Four years later, British European Airways (BEA) took a 25% minority stake in Jersey Airlines and made it an "associate". In June 1958, a Jersey Airlines de Havilland Heron became the first commercial airliner to arrive at the newly reconstructed Gatwick Airport. In 1960, Jersey Airlines ordered four state-of-the-art Handley Page Dart Herald 200 series turboprops. By 1962, BEA had sold its 25% minority holding in Jersey Airlines. The same year, Jersey Airlines became part of the British United Airways (BUA) group of companies. In August 1963, Jersey Airlines changed its trading name to British United (C.I.) Airways. Following the BUA group's 1967/8 reorganisation, BUA (C.I.) was absorbed into British United Island Airways (BUIA) in November 1968.
Intrastate airlines in the U.S. are defined as air carriers operating inside of one individual state and thus not flying across state lines. Larger intrastate airlines in the U.S. that operated mainline turboprop and/or jet aircraft were created as a result of former federal airline regulations, as passenger air carriers that only flew intrastate service were not regulated by the federal government but were instead primarily regulated by the respective state governments in their home states. For example, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) and Air California were both regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) prior to the federal Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Although intrastate airlines in some states used only turboprop aircraft, scheduled passenger service on jet aircraft was operated by intrastate air carriers in California, Florida, Hawaii and Texas.
Western Airways was an airline based in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England between 1932 and 1978. Before World War II, for a short period, it was the world's busiest airline. It survived WWII by using its aircraft engineering expertise.