THE DOUGLAS DC-7 AT LIVERPOOL AIRPORT
An undated photo of an Arco Douglas DC-7 at Speke, ARCO is the operator mentioned in a number of the discussion posts above.
All Douglas DC-7 visits to Liverpool Airport
The Douglas DC-7 was most active through Liverpool during the 1960s. Only an 11 year span of visits contrasts with the 47 years or so of the DC-6 at Liverpool.
This article first appeared during the xsorbit incarnation of nwan forum. It was copied by Dave Graham and used on his nwan co uk site (as mentioned in the OP of this thread), until he pulled the plug in mid July '14. Rescued from the cached pages, I am able to repeat it here without having to re-research the details. I have no problems with copyright as it is my article, but I have not copied the photos that Dave Graham found to illustrate. Others are welcome to post their photos of DC-7s at Speke on this thread. Since March 2011 and more especially since January 2015 when the DC-7 type visits report was added, by late May 2023 when a great number of images were added, there has been 3,690 visits to the thread.
1964 First visit of type occurred on 28th June when
OY-KNC of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) arrived on a Scanair charter on behalf of Max Wilson, routing Copenhagen to Amsterdam. A few weeks later and
SE-GCA of SAS/Scanair routed f&t Copenhagen on 16th July. Later in the year
PH-DSO a DC-7C of Martins Air Charter operated f&t Amsterdam on 24th September.
1965 Sudflug's DC-7C
D-ABAS on 3rd March routed f&t Cologne, night stopping at Liverpool.
EI-AOC a DC-7CF of Shannon Air called on 4th September routing Amsterdam to Dublin, collecting newspapers as an outbound load.
1966 The record year for different DC-7s with no fewer than 7 different aircraft calling.
PH-DSC of MAC operated the Aer Lingus Dublin service on 2/6, 3/6 and 25/6, with
PH-MAK doing the same 22/7, 23/7, 24/7, 5/8,7/8, 13/8 & 14/8 and
PH-DSO on 30/7, 31/7, and 27/8 when two rotations were required.
G-ATAB of Dan Air arrived 13th June from Gatwick, leaving the following day for Brindisi via Rome with freight.
SE-CNG of Internord on 23th July operated Helsinki to Malmo.
Taking part in a major airlift of Anderlect supporters into Liverpool on 14th December were no less than 4 DC-7s were involved, Martin's Air Charter with
PH-DSC and
PH-DSO, along with Schreiner Air Services using
PH-SAE and
PH-SAO. All operated f&t Amsterdam. I recall this as being a grey, foggy day at Liverpool, the two MAC aircraft parked down towards Hangar 39 loomed in and out of view, while the two Schreiner aircraft could just be seen from Speke Boulevard parked beyond the former Starways hangars.
1967Just two different aircraft during the year, both repeats from the previous year, with
G-ATAB a DC-7B of Dan Air f&t Gatwick on 19th August and
PH-DSL of MAC from Luton 27th September, departing for Amsterdam the next day.
1968Much greater variety again in 1968, with 6 different aircraft being seen at Liverpool during the year. Dan Air's
G-ATAB arrived on 28th April from Gatwick, departing the next day to Brussels. It followed the same route Gatwick-Brussels on 6th June and again 3rd July, each time night stopping in the process. Trans Meridian used one of their DC-7s
G-AWBI 11th June, although operated Stansted-Brussels, with a night stop at Liverpool. On 1st October KLM freighter
PH-DSF arrived from Amsterdam for two flights to Brussels, while the next day
PH-DSE operated Amsterdam-Brussels. These flights were all on behalf of Fords taking components to their Genk plant in Belgium.
On 29th June Spantax diverted
EC-BDM into Liverpool due to the weather at Manchester. It routed from Palma and out to Gerona. Later in the year, another Spanish charter operator, TAE, brought
EC-BEN in on 2nd October with Bilbao football supporters, and routed Bilbao-Gatwick.
19691969 again brought 6 different aircraft through Liverpool, including a number of Bermudan registered aircraft. On 19th July
VR-BCT of ARCO routed Gatwick-Brussels for Fords. Aer Turas purchased four DC-7s from KLM, although not all entered service.
EI-ATU routed Shannon-Dublin on a newspaper flight 9th November, while
EI-ATT on 16th November routed Alicante to Shannon. Trans Meridian used
G-ATMF on 6th December Stansted-Brussels for Fords.
It may sound exotic today, but throughout the Sixties Liverpool was the terminus of series of charters carrying fresh tomatoes from the Canary Islands to the UK market. While Britannias were often used, this trade was picked by ARCO, with three DC-7 flights in 1969,
VR-BCW f&t Las Palmas on 20th December and again 22nd December Las Palmas-Alicante and
VR-BCX on 21st December Las Palmas-Tenerife.
1970 1970 continued where 1969 left off, with tomato charters on 9th January using
EI-ATU of Aer Turas Las Palmas-Shannon and on the 13th January
VR-BCX of ARCO f&t Las Palmas. Another Aer Turas aircraft
EI-ATT called on 10th April Brussels-Dublin, night stopping.
Fords created most of the DC-7 flights for the rest of the year, using Aer Turas, ARCO and Air Fret.
VR-BCT of ARCO on 2nd June Basle-Saarbrucken, 6th July Bremen-Saarbrucken the next day, 7th July f&t Saarbrucken, 8th July Brussels-Saarbrucken and from Saarbrucken, night stopped, t&f Saarbrucken on 9th, leaving for Saarbrucken again on 10th. The parts airlift also employed Aer Turas's
EI-ATT On 3rd June Dublin-Saarbrucken, back to Liverpool to night stop before departing for Milan on the 4th. On 1st July routed Visby-Saarbrucken, then back to Liverpool to night stop before a further two flights to Saarbrucken on 2nd. In late August it was the turn of a different ARCO DC-7
VR-BDQ which arrived from Bromma on 28th to operate out to Saarbrucken twice on 29th.
A further exotic DC-7 was the French Overseas register
F-OCOQ of Air Fret on 2nd December routing Dusseldorf-Nimes. A final flurry of Ford flights brought Aer Turas with
EI-ATT again, from Dusseldorf on 18th December, t&f Dusseldorf and out to Dublin on 19th. On 26th December the same aircraft arrived from Dublin, leaving on the 27th.
1971Aer Turas used
EI-ATT on a tomato charter, Las Palmas-Shannon on 15th February.
There were no visits by DC-7s during
1972.
1973 By now Aer Turas had sold their former KLM DC-7s and had acquired other aircraft.
EI-AWG arrived on 29th March from Dublin, returningto Dublin on 31st.
EI-AWD arrived from Malpensa on 7th October on diversion due to the weather at Dublin, it later continued its journey to Dublin.
1974Aer Turas brought
EI-AWG into Liverpool f&t Dublin on 18th January and again on 20th January taking newspapers outbound. Almost certainly the last visits by the Douglas DC-7 to Liverpool Airport.
In summary aircraft that called at Liverpool were:D-ABAS
EC-BDM, EC-BEN
EI-AOC, EI-ATT, EI-ATU, EI-AWG, EI-AWO
F-OCOQ
G-ATAB, G-ATMF, G-AWBI
OY-KNC
PH-DSC, PH-DSE, PH-DSF, PH-DSL, PH-DSO, PH-MAK, PH-SAE, PH-SAO
SE-CNA, SE-GCA
VR-BCT, VR-BCW, VR-BCX, VR-BDQ
Note that three of the airframes visited using two different registrations: F-OCOQ later became EI-AWO; PH-DSE became EI-ATT; while PH-DSF became EI-ATU.
Airlines involved: Aer Turas, Air Fret, ARCO, Dan Air, Internord, KLM, Martins Air Charter/Martinair, SAS, Schreiner, Sudflug, Spantax, TAE & Trans Meridian.
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