Aviation Nostalgia Forum | Your most missed airline?

As the other thread has wandered all over the place, here's a new question.

Which airline do you miss nowadays? Any airline, could be one that merged last year or went bust in the 1960s.

Mine is Dan-Air. Great firm to work for, and an interesting fleet created by the DA policy of never buying new. It's a shame their A300 fleet never really got going as well.

I know they changed to "thomsonfly" But I miss Brittania a lot.

I used to love flying on board a flight of theres, it seemed more relaxing than on any other airline.

I flew on BECG when it was brand new!

They were a more comfy, better staffed airline than most, you have to admit it..These guys used to give you £10 headphones for free!!

Lol. Thats all that mattered when you wanted to watch the in-flight film!

(I recall the meals being nice too)



Matt.

The old charter firms were way better. Britannia, Dan-Air and Laker Airways were all great to fly with and had good crews.

Only Monarch Charter is anything close to that now with all the lowcost stuff seeping into the others, and horrible seat pitch.

Gill Airways. The sound of those ATR's when I was a wee ben lol Sadly missed now

Good topic.

LOCAL:
Air Ecosse
Peregrine
Lakeside
Bon-Accord
Especially the first one

NATIONAL:
Agree, Britannia & Danair without a doubt
B-Caledonian (& them Girls ;-) )
Air UK (my old employer from eons ago, thanks to KLM to killing 'em off)

I think the one most people would agree is badly missed, is British Caledonian.

They provided an alternative to BA in a way that Virgin and BMI don't quite manage. Maybe if VS hadn't got the Bermuda 2 designation then BMI would have grown faster into longhaul, but BCal was a full network operation with both long and shorthaul service.

Britannia yup
eeerrrmmm - air 2000 and the british charter airlines.... jmcair stuff like that!

err..lets see,

BCal

Brymon

Orion

BIA

Manx

British Airtours ...If I think of a 707 its always in Airtours livery, probably because I got the chance to fly to Australia in one (it was a VC10 coming back). Seems like a long time ago....err hang on, it was!! :-(

For me, i miss

CP Air

Orion

Dan-Air

and here's one for you all....Spacegrand, based at Blackpool.

Britannia! I miss them sooo much! I used to love their cabin crew uniforms and about 10 years ago I actually considered applying to be cabin crew for BY simply coz I wanted to wear that particular uniform:
http://www.uniformfreak.com/1britannia.html
I'm so glad I didn't apply - I would have failed big time!

Also my last pre-9/11 flight was with Britannia, MAN to Palma in July 2001.

my most missed airlines are Eastern,Allegheny,and Northeast{Yellowbird} Eastern was a great airline,and just the nicest,kindest people who deserved a lot better than what happened to them!{being shot is an honorable soldier,s death,too good for Frank Lorenzo! he should hang for what he did.} Allegheny didn,t really go out of business,just changed it,s name to USAir{now US Airways}but it just ain,t the same. and Northeast had a lovely color scheme and interiors on those wonderful Yellowbirds of theirs! and i kinda miss BOAC and PanAm too. very sad the way PanAm went under,due to lots of mismanagement and "bilking" on the part of a few greedy suits in high places in the company.{where have we seen this before?}ah,for the Good Old Days before Deregulation......!

my most missed airlines are Eastern,...

Why did I just KNOW you were going to say that! I don't think there is a US carrier that is as missed as Eastern is, although Braniff and Pan Am are also up there on the list.

One thing I liked about Eastern was innovation. They tried new planes, new services and new ideas seemingly before anyone else.

I used to like the Western Pacific 737 coulours, all the logo jets, including the Simpsons themed 737-300.

I miss Ambassador, Air Europe, Air UK Leisure, Airtours, Airworld,TransAer
TransAer Inter European TEA UK Deutsche BA DLT Air Inter Air Lib

I also miss Flying Colours and Air 2000.

My grandad says he misses BEA, B.O.A.C and Court Line..eh? anyone heard of Court Line???

and Birmingham European Airways

Court Line were brilliant. A fleet of pastel coloured 1-11s and they were also one of the launch customers for the TriStar

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1167852/M/

and a sad one
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0683963/L/

you've got to love them!! its britannia! i totally agree with JF! their uniforms were the wildest out also the food was the best i had on an aircraft!!!!

It depends really on which airport BY was operating from. We (oops) They were known for good catering but it was always in the hands of whoever, such as Alpha or the foreign facilities.

Britannia did order in food that was worth eating. The late night chicken pie always seemed to go down well, and the overnight breakfasts for late departures arriving in the UK early morning.

The biggest factor is the service. BY crew were (and still are at TOM) some of the best.

yeah i agree i havent had a chance yet to fly with thompson

I flew on Thompson in 2004, just made me more nostalgic for Britannia1

BTW someone's uploaded an old episode of Airline on Youtube and it's one of the Britannia episodes!

JF,you never even mentioned those pics i sent you of that Brittania 757! y,know,i went to a lot of trouble to build that little beauty.....

Could you re-send those, TCD? I don't seem to have received them.

sure will!

TWA - i just thought of that last night!

TWA-a once great airline that just went slowly downhill. what a shame! my first flight in a widebody too.{747-100,c.1972}

Years ago as a teeny spotter I saw a TWA 741 on the (now lowcost) gates off pier B at Manchester, getting ready to leave for Heathrow (it was a fog divert). A huge sheet of flame shot out of its Number 1 engine on starting.

The pilots didn't give a crap, good old volatile JP4....that memory always stuck with me. It was in the old arrow livery as well.

JP-4=40/60% mixture of kerosene and white GASOLINE!!!! no longer in use by most commercial airlines or the US Navy!{USAF only here} too dangerous! Holy Fire Hazard,Batman!

Caledonian - my first airline i flew with in 1990

JMC - well that was Caledonian then Thomas Cook lol, i just loved their bright green DC10-30's

TWA aswell i miss, also Swissair, there are many that are in my old photos from 1994 thati would love to see back and take pics but oh well, the good things only last a short time they say, that means they were really that good.

Balkan were fun to fly with, I remember their smoking policy, smokers on the right, non smokers on the left!!! NOT front and back as you would think

"Caledonian - my first airline i flew with in 1990" Grrrrrrrr the sexy tartan uniforms the stewardesses wore grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Alba Ground Handling are having an open day at Edinburgh Airport on 8th November, more details at http://www.albagroundhandling.co.uk

i know theyre not gone but i miss Qantas at Manchester so much it hurts.when ive got my hands on a scanner im gunna get my qantas pics on my flikr account and some other pics from the 90`s like a air gambia 707,air columbus 737(nice livery) some tristars maybe, if i can find them
Tango

Eagle Airlines Britannias, 111s, Vikings and a Bristol freighter plus lots lots more, dark red top bound to get hot. Sir Harold Bamberg was the chief.

CP AIR AIR 2000 BRITTANIA SABENA LAKER AIRWAYS and wait for it a real blast from the past EMERY'S AIRFREIGHT those all red DC-8-63 or 73 were fabulous

I really hoped that when TOM and FCA merged that TUI Travel would resurrect the Britannia brand.

Yes and hopefully start flying a few more flights from airports that TUI have virtually deserted, such as LBA. Take away Thomas Cook and a few others and there's next to nothing on the charter side at my favourite airport.

As for favourites of the past, I used to love some of the old Spanish and other Europen carriers and it was always interesting to see their landings at LBA in bad weather! Remember Spantax? Hispania (nice colour scheme). Or JAT, Inex Adria etc.

As for British airlines (besides Britannia), I always missed Orion and Dan Air in particular (loved their 727-200's). But going further back I was brought up in the days of BKS and then Northeast Airlines, which had a base at LBA - I would give a lot to see a Viscount flying again. Finally anyone remember Capital Airlines? Can't say I miss their numerous Shorts 360's but the new 146-300's they had (G-OSKI and G-OSUN) were nice to see. It was a pity they went under due to their parent company going bust.

Definately britannia

i thought tey were just great especially the inflight service

Inter European - not enough airlines yellow in their colour schemes nowadays!!!

oh loads of them Donaldson, Cambrian, northeast(tridents), Capital TIA, ONA, CP air, Seaboard world, Flying tigers, just wish i had the photos :-(

Braniff (all orange) see those suckers on fliv without bins a treat! Pan-Am and TWA for me. Lost a little 'elegancy and romance' when they stopped. Trans-atlantic at it's best

too many to list,but i'd go for Britannia,Orion,Air 2000 and Wardair Canada.

doesn't show up well but if you click "the pan am clippers" above it takes you to a list of them and the aircraft that used the name

Cp air(DC10s), Wardair(747s+A310s) and Qantas Are the foreign airlines i most miss at Man And B Cal(DC10s), Dan air(727S) and Laker(DC10s) are the most missed english airlines.

Steve

Wardair used to bring DC-10s in as well, and in the past their 707s operated at Manchester.

CP Air were brilliant for spotters as they would operate DC-10s, DC8s in two or three different models, as well as the big Empresses (747s). Their stretched Super Sixty DC8s were stunning. Nowadays the family ties many people had to emigrants are not as strong which is why the Canada traffic has dropped.

the fares weren't cheap either. I recall CP charging over £400 in the 1980s for Vancouver, which today would easily be the equivalent of a few grand for just an economy class seat!

Wardair were famous for their inflight meal. A Filet Mignon steak served on real china plates for everyone on the aircraft.

I flew on an AirOps L1011 and they served food on proper plates.So classy they even had a chief steward who just stood at the front watching the crew,Immaculate service.
Does any1 remember CalAir DC-10s? and Air Columbus 727 & 737s ?

GB Airways before they merged..

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5941744

And as I spent many years of my youth in Oz, Ansett & TAA

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Ansett-Airlines-of/Boeing-727-77/1117649/M/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Trans-Australia-Airlines/Douglas-DC-9-31/1262909/M/

Flyjet

One of the most unreliable airlines going, but in fairness it was due to operating older aircraft in small numbers on a hardcore charter timetable. Their reliability was atrocious towards the end of charter operations.

I also miss Pan-am and TWA plus Flying Tigers, always looked great on flyover.

UTA had a cracking scheme along with Air Afrique.

The airline I miss the most is Seaboard World because I never got to see one, thought their 747's looked pure class.