IAS Cargo Airlines

Last updated

IAS Cargo Airlines
IATA ICAO Callsign
FF——
Founded1967
Ceased operations1979
Hubs London Gatwick

International Aviation Services Limited, trading as IAS Cargo Airlines from 1975, [1] is a defunct wholly privately owned, independent [nb 1] British airline that was based at London Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom. It commenced operations in 1967 and went bankrupt in 1980, following a merger with London Stansted based Trans Meridian Air Cargo (TMAC) to form the short-lived British Cargo Airlines. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

IAS Cargo Bristol Britannia, Gatwick 1973 Bristol 175 Britannia 312F, IAS Cargo Airlines AN1851081.jpg
IAS Cargo Bristol Britannia, Gatwick 1973
IAS Cargo Douglas DC-8-55, Paris - Charles de Gaulle 1978 Douglas DC-8-55(F), IAS Cargo Airlines AN0573983.jpg
IAS Cargo Douglas DC-8-55, Paris - Charles de Gaulle 1978

History

Beginning

International Aviation Services Ltd was an air transport consultancy formed in 1966. It commenced worldwide cargo charters from London Gatwick in 1967 with leased, second-hand Bristol Britannia 300F turboprop equipment. [nb 2] [5] [6] It began replacing leased equipment with its own aircraft in 1971, acquired its own air operator's certificate in June 1972 in the name of International Aviation Services (UK) Ltd [6] and adopted the IAS Cargo Airlines trading name four years later. [1]

Commercial development

IAS Cargo Airlines acquired additional, second-hand Britannia turboprop freighters as well as a Canadair CL-44 "swing tail" freighter during the early 1970s to expand its fleet in response to growing worldwide demand for its pure freight services.

Becoming a jet operator

When the world's major scheduled airlines began re-equipping their fleets with new generation widebodied jet aircraft from the early 1970s, a growing number of older generation, narrow-bodied jet planes, such as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, became available on the second-hand market at prices smaller airlines that were lacking the resources to invest in new equipment could afford.

IAS Cargo Airlines became one of these smaller airlines that took advantage of this situation by purchasing its first DC-8-50F jet freighter in 1974. [1] Jet operations commenced the following year. [7] As business continued to expand, it introduced further DC-8-50Fs into its fleet during the second half of the 1970s.

By the end of the 1970s the company's fleet mainly consisted of DC-8-50Fs. By that time it was receiving a growing number of air freight consignments that were shipped to its Gatwick base from the "other side" of the Channel. In October 1978 the firm introduced its first larger capacity, "stretched" DC-8 "Super Sixty" series freighter, a -62CF wet-leased from Finnair. [8]

Merging with a rival

Stansted-based Trans Meridian Air Cargo (TMAC), another small independent UK all-cargo operator wholly owned by Trafalgar House subsidiary Cunard Steamship Co, [9] had come into being in 1962. [10] TMAC also operated a similar aircraft fleet consisting of the same aircraft types, including a pair of DC-8Fs. [11] [12] Therefore, combining both companies' businesses to achieve greater operational synergies as well as to attain greater economies of scale seemed to be the next "logical" step to ensure survival in a competitive market place dominated by bigger, more powerful rivals.

IAS Cargo Airlines merged with TMAC on 15 August 1979 to create British Cargo Airlines, which began trading under its new name five days later. [13] The merged entity's fleet comprised 15 aircraft, including eight DC-8 jet freighters, six CL-44-D and one CL-44-0 turboprop freighters. The jets were based at Gatwick while the turboprops were stationed at Stansted. [2] [3] [4] [9] [12] [14] [15]

Closing chapter

The newly created British Cargo Airlines only had a brief life. It folded in March 1980. [3] [4] [13] [16]

Causes of collapse

The main reasons for the combined entity's collapse included:

Incidents and accidents

In 1977 IAS Cargo Airlines became indirectly involved in a fatal accident causing the loss of an aircraft bearing its name as part of a hybrid colour scheme. This hybrid colour scheme combined parts of IAS Cargo Airlines' livery with that of Dan-Air Services Ltd, one of the leading wholly privately owned, independent British airlines at the time that was the owner and operator of the crashed aircraft. [17]

The accident itself involved one of Dan-Air's Boeing 707-321C freighters (registration G-BEBP), which IAS Cargo Airlines had operated under a so-called "wet lease" arrangement with Dan-Air, whereby the latter was providing the aircraft as well as flight deck crews and maintenance support under contract to the former. The aforesaid aircraft crashed on 14 May 1977 during the final approach to Lusaka Airport at the end of a non-scheduled all-cargo flight from London Heathrow via Athens and Nairobi when its right-hand horizontal stabiliser separated as a result of metal fatigue, causing a loss of pitch control and killing all six occupants. [18] [19]

Some air accident databases wrongly cite IAS Cargo Airlines as the operator of the aircraft involved in this accident despite Dan-Air being that aircraft's actual operator.

A major industry debate on the maintenance requirements as well as service life limitations of high-time "geriatric" jets ensued as a result of this accident. [20] [21] [22]

(For further details see 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash.)

Code data

See also

Notes and citations

Notes
  1. ↑ independent from government-owned corporations
  2. ↑ these aircraft comprised two former Caledonian Britannia 314s acquired from British Caledonian Airways in 1971 (one of which entered service while the other was used for spares)
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 IAS Cargo Airlines - Airline Profile: Number fifty-five, Flight International, 22 May 1976, p. 1357
  2. 1 2 www.airlinehistory.co.uk The World’s Airlines, past, present & future by David Lyall - IAS Cargo Airlines
  3. 1 2 3 www.airlinehistory.co.uk The World’s Airlines, past, present & future by David Lyall - British Cargo Airlines
  4. 1 2 3 British Cargo Airlines goes into receivership but continues flying, Air Transport, Flight International, 15 March 1980, p. 827
  5. ↑ World Airline directory, Flight International, 28 April 1979, p. 1380
  6. 1 2 New British airline, Air Transport, Flight International, 5 October 1972, p. 454
  7. ↑ Air Transport, Flight International, 7 August 1975, p. 174
  8. ↑ Airliner market, Air Transport, Flight International, 28 October 1978, p. 1546
  9. 1 2 Cargo airlines to merge, Air Transport, Flight International, 4 August 1979, p. 309
  10. ↑ World airline directory, Flight International, 28 April 1979, p. 1409
  11. ↑ Air Transport, Flight International, 23 July 1977, p. 255
  12. 1 2 Green light for British Cargo, Air Transport, Flight International, 1 September 1979, p. 636
  13. 1 2 World airline directory, Flight International, 26 July 1980, p. 295
  14. ↑ IAS and Transmeridian merge sales organisations, Air Transport, Flight International, 14 July 1979, p. 76
  15. ↑ Air Transport, Flight International, 13 October 1979, p. 1174
  16. ↑ Aircraft (Gone but not forgotten ... HEAVYLIFT CARGO AIRLINES: Enter the Belfast), p. 50, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, May 2011
  17. ↑ The Spirit of Dan-Air, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, pp. 89, 90
  18. ↑ The Spirit of Dan-Air, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, p. 89
  19. ↑ Inspection shortcomings contributed to Lusaka 707 fatigue accident, Air Transport, Flight International, 23 June 1979, p. 2247
  20. ↑ The Spirit of Dan-Air, Simons, G.M., GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1993, pp. 90/1
  21. ↑ The Geriatric Jet Problem, Flight International, 22 October 1977, p. 1201
  22. ↑ The Geriatric Jet Problem - Summary, Flight International, 22 October 1977, p. 1207

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freddie Laker</span> English businessman

Sir Frederick Alfred Laker was an English airline entrepreneur, best known for founding Laker Airways in 1966, which went bankrupt in 1982. Known as Freddie Laker, he was one of the first airline owners to adopt the "low cost / no-frills" airline business model that has since proven to be successful worldwide when employed by companies such as Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, easyJet, Norwegian Air, and AirAsia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlin Tegel Airport</span> Former airport of Berlin, Germany (1948–2020)

Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport was the former primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal and was the fourth busiest airport in Germany, with over 24 million passengers in 2019. In 2016, Tegel handled over 60% of all airline passenger traffic in Berlin. The airport served as a base for Eurowings, Ryanair as well as easyJet. It featured flights to several European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as some intercontinental routes. It was situated in Tegel, a section of the northern borough of Reinickendorf, eight kilometres northwest of the city centre of Berlin. Tegel Airport was notable for its hexagonal main terminal building around an open square, which made walking distances as short as 30 m (100 ft) from the aircraft to the terminal exit.

British Caledonian (BCal) was a British private independent airline which operated out of London Gatwick Airport in south-east England during the 1970s and 1980s. It was created as an alternative to the British government-controlled corporation airlines and was described as the "Second Force" in the 1969 Edwards report. It was formed by the UK's second-largest, independent charter airline Caledonian Airways taking over British United Airways (BUA), then the largest British independent airline and the United Kingdom's leading independent scheduled carrier. The carrier slogan was Let's go British Caledonian in the 1970s and We never forget you have a choice in the 1980s. The BUA takeover enabled Caledonian to realise its long-held ambition to transform itself into a scheduled airline. The merged entity eventually became the UK's foremost independent, international scheduled airline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caledonian Airways</span> Scottish private charter airline from 1961 to 1970

Caledonian Airways was a wholly private, independent British charter airline formed in April 1961. It began with a single 104-seat Douglas DC-7C leased from the Belgian flag carrier Sabena. Caledonian grew rapidly over the coming years to become the leading transatlantic "affinity group" charter operator by the end of the decade. During that period, passenger numbers grew from just 8,000 in 1961 to 800,000 in 1970. The latter represented 22.7% of all British non-scheduled passengers. It also became Britain's most consistently profitable and financially most secure independent airline of its era, never failing to make a profit in all its ten years of existence. By the end of 1970, Caledonian operated an all-jet fleet consisting of eleven aircraft and provided employment for over 1,000 workers. At that time, its principal activities included group charters between North America, Europe and the Far East using Boeing 707s, and general charter and inclusive tour (IT) activities in Europe utilising One-Elevens.

Pacific Western Airlines Ltd (PWA) was an airline that operated scheduled flights throughout western Canada and charter services around the world from the 1950s through the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan-Air</span> Defunct airline of the United Kingdom (1953–1992)

Dan-Air was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo and passenger charter flights from Southend (1953–1955) and Blackbushe airports (1955–1960) using a variety of piston-engined aircraft before moving to a new base at Gatwick Airport in 1960, followed by expansion into inclusive tour (IT) charter flights and all-year round scheduled services. The introduction of two de Havilland Comet series 4 jet aircraft in 1966 made Dan-Air the second British independent airline after British United Airways to begin sustained jet operations.

British Airtours was a British charter airline with flight operations out of London Gatwick and Manchester Airports.

AirUK was a wholly privately owned, independent regional British airline formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving four rival UK-based regional airlines. British and Commonwealth (B&C)-owned British Island Airways (BIA) and Air Anglia were the two dominant merger partners. The merged entity's corporate headquarters were originally located at Redhill, Surrey, the location of the old BIA head office. It subsequently relocated to Crawley, West Sussex. In addition to the main maintenance base at Norwich Airport, there also used to be a second major maintenance base at Blackpool Airport. This was closed down following Air UK's major retrenchment during Britain's severe recession of the early 1980s. In 1987, Air UK established Air UK Leisure as a charter subsidiary. The following year, Air UK shifted its headquarters to London Stansted Airport. When Stansted's new Norman Foster-designed terminal opened in 1991, the airline became its first and subsequently main tenant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laker Airways</span> Defunct private British airline

Laker Airways was a private British airline founded by Sir Freddie Laker in 1966. It was originally a charter airline flying passengers and cargo worldwide. Its head office was located at Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British United Airways</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Island Airways</span>

British Island Airways (BIA) was the legal successor to British United Island Airways (BUIA). It commenced operations under that name in mid-1970. Ten years later it merged with Air Anglia, Air Wales and Air Westward to form Air UK, at the time the United Kingdom's biggest regional airline and its third-largest scheduled operator. The first British Island Airways had its head office at Congreve House (1970–1972) and Berkeley House (1973–1979), which are respectively located in Station Road and on the high street in Redhill, Surrey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash</span> 1977 cargo plane crash in Lusaka, Zambia

The 1977 Dan-Air/IAS Cargo Boeing 707 crash was a fatal accident involving a Boeing 707-321C cargo aircraft operated by Dan Air Services Limited on behalf of International Aviation Services Limited, which had been sub-contracted by Zambia Airways Corporation to operate a weekly scheduled all-cargo service between London Heathrow and the Zambian capital Lusaka via Athens and Nairobi. The aircraft crashed during approach to Lusaka Airport, Zambia, on 14 May 1977. All six crew members of the aircraft were killed.

British United Air Ferries (BUAF) was a wholly private, British independent car and passenger ferry airline based in the United Kingdom during the 1960s. It specialised in cross-Channel ferry flights carrying cars and their owners between its numerous bases in Southern England, the Channel Islands and Continental Europe. All-passenger and all-cargo flights were operated as well. Following several identity and ownership changes, it went out of business in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Eagle</span> British airline from 1948 - 1968

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.

Lloyd International Airways Ltd was a private, British independent airline formed in 1961 to operate worldwide charter flights. It commenced operations with a single Douglas DC-4 piston airliner from Cambridge Marshall Airport. Lloyd International concentrated on passenger and cargo charters with four-engined, long-range aircraft. It also had links in Hong Kong since its inception and flew to the Far East regularly. During the mid-1960s, the airline began re-equipping its fleet with Bristol Britannia and Canadair CL-44 turboprops, all of which featured large cargo doors and palletised freight systems. Long-range Boeing 707 jets joined the Lloyd International fleet during the early 1970s for use on affinity group passenger and freight charters to North America and the Far East. Lloyd International ceased operations in June 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Caledonian in the 1980s</span> Unfortunate events of British Airline British Caledonian (BCal)

British airline British Caledonian (BCal) suffered a series of major setbacks in the 1980s as a result of several geopolitical events that occurred during that decade. These events significantly weakened BCal operationally and financially. They were the main factors that contributed to the airline's demise in 1988.

British Caledonian (BCal) came into being in November 1970 when the Scottish charter airline Caledonian Airways, at the time Britain's second-largest, wholly privately owned, independent airline, took over British United Airways (BUA), then the largest British independent airline as well as the United Kingdom's leading independent scheduled carrier.

Dan Air Engineering Limited was the maintenance arm of Dan Air Services Limited, itself a subsidiary of Davies and Newman, one of Britain's foremost wholly privately owned, independent ship broking and airline companies during the 1970s and 80s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tradewinds Airways</span>

Tradewinds Airways Ltd was a British all-cargo airline. Its head office was located in Timberham House, on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England.

Skyways Limited was an early post-World War II British airline formed in 1946 that soon became well-established as the biggest operator of non-scheduled air services in Europe.

References

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.