The Bristol 175 Britannia
at Liverpool Airport,
The First Five Years, 1964-1968.
1963
A Royal Air Force Transport Command Britannia C.2 XN392 appeared at the Liverpool Air Show on 26th May 1963 making three passes over the airfield before returning to base. As the aircraft did not land, this is not counted as a visitor, but is well worth recording here.
1964
1964:
G-ANCF,
G-AOVA, G-AOVB, G-AOVC, G-AOVE, G-AOVF, G-AOVG, G-AOVM, G-AOVN, G-AOVO, G-AOVT,
G-ARKA, G-ARKB,
G-ASTF = 14 different aircraft
British Eagle Britannia Operations:Unusually in these type-by-type reviews, in the first year of type, there were 14 different aircraft, although all were operated by the same airline. The records I have, compiled at the time by Phil Butler, for aircraft on scheduled services only list the first occasion an aircraft visits in the year, subsequent visits are ignored, unless for a one-off reason. While nearly all the 14 British Eagle Britannias first called at Liverpool on the London Heathrow schedule, it is known that
G-AOVA first called on weather diversion from London Heathrow on 14th January, and operated in from & out to Belfast. Oddly a week later, on 21st January the same aircraft was back from Belfast, again on diversion due to weather at Heathrow. I can find no other one-off charters or diversions recorded in the logs during 1964. Best way of showing the first visits by each British Eagle Britannia is in tabular format:
G-ANCF fv 4th August '64 Delivered January '64, and into service post freighter modification July ‘64
G-ANCG no visit Delivered February '64, and into service post freighter modification November ‘64
G-AOVA fv 14th January '64 Delivered 1st January '64, returned. 31.1.64, then re-delivered 25.4.64
G-AOVB fv 2nd January '64 Delivered 15th October '63
G-AOVC fv 20th May '64 Delivered 15th May '64
G-AOVE fv 15th June '64 Delivered 6th June '64
G-AOVF fv 09th March '64 Delivered 4th March '64
G-AOVG fv 09th April '64 Delivered 3rd April '64
G-AOVH did not visit Leased from BOAC 6th November '64 until February '65
G-AOVM fv 06th April '64 Delivered 28th March '64
G-AOVN fv 09th June '64 Delivered 2nd June '64
G-AOVO fv 26th January '64 Delivered 17th January '64 & crashed into mountainside above Innsbruck 29.02.64 with 83 fatalities
G-AOVT fv 1st January '64 Delivered 13th September '63
G-ARKA fv 3rd February '64 Delivered 8th March '61
G-ARKB fv 6th March '64 Delivered 1st May '61
G-ASTF fv 8th June '64 Leased in 20th May '64 from Canadian Pacific (CPA), returned 15th October '64
The term 'delivery' can mean delivered already painted and straight into service, or delivered ready to enter conversion and major overhaul (as with G-ANCF and G-ANCG). Dates can vary slightly with source, indeed G-AOVG is often quoted in print as delivered 3rd April 196
5!! It is interesting that so many Britannias appeared at Liverpool so very soon after entering service. G-AOVO was only with British Eagle for two months before being destroyed in a fatal crash in Austria, but did appear at Liverpool while in service. As G-AOVH was only operated 11.64 to 3.65 on lease from BOAC, at that time Britannias were not being operated into Liverpool, so never appeared here.
For a discussion on the names carried by British Eagle Britannia fleet refer to
www.derbosoft.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=history&action=display&thread=82311965
1965:
G-ANBJ, G-ANBO, G-ANCF,
G-ANCG, G-AOVA, G-AOVB, G-AOVC, G-AOVE, G-AOVF, G-AOVG,
G-AOVK, G-AOVL, G-AOVM, G-AOVN,
G-AOVR, G-AOVS, G-AOVT, G-ARKA, G-ARKB = 19 different aircraft
British Eagle Britannia Operations:Another problem with the sources available is that regular timetables have not been recorded. It appears though that for the winter 64/65 season, Viscounts were used on all the London Heathrow flights, as well as those to other destinations. First Britannia visits to Liverpool in 1965 were not until March. However from early April on some days of the week there would be two different Britannias using Liverpool, with the type used not only on the Heathrow schedule, but also inclusive tour flights. Same format, for a table listing all 17 British Eagle Britannias, fv = first visit, yr = first landing at Liverpool during the year.
G-ANCF yr 30th April '65
G-ANCG fv 13th May '65
G-AOVA yr 05th April '65
G-AOVB yr 20th May '65
G-AOVC yr 18th May '65
G-AOVE yr 05th May '65
G-AOVF yr 20th May '65
G-AOVG yr 18th May '65
G-AOVK fv 15th June '65 Delivered 31st May '65
G-AOVL fv 29th June '65 Delivered 30th April '65
G-AOVM yr 1st April '65
G-AOVN yr 1st April '65
G-AOVR fv 14th May '65 Delivered 22nd February '65
G-AOVS fv 19th August'65 Delivered 17th August '65, returned 16.11.65, on lease from Lloyd
G-AOVT yr 06th April '65
G-ARKA yr 27th March '65
G-ARKB yr 12th March '65
It would appear that again for winter 65/66 all Liverpool British Eagle flights were operated by Viscounts. However during that winter a few further diversions from Heathrow. On the evening of 19th November
G-AOVE arrived from Belfast and later continued onto Heathrow. On 14th December,
G-AOVM arrived from Instanbul, and later continued onto London, while
G-AOVE arrived from Glasgow and continued onto Heathrow the following day, 15th.
Other British Britannia Operators:Another operator expanding into Britannia operations in 1965, by purchasing aircraft from BOAC was Britannia Airways, however they obtained the smaller 102 series aircraft (British Eagle used the larger 310 Britannias). To operate an outbound football charter on 12th May
G-ANBJ and
G-ANBO both arrived from Luton and departed for Milan Linate, along with two Canadair C-4 and a Douglas C-54 with fans. They all returned on 13th May, with G-ANBO leaving for Alicante and G-ANBJ for Glasgow the following morning. G-ANBJ had only joined Britannia days before.
1966
1966:
G-ANBB, G-ANBF, G-ANBL, G-ANBO,
G-ANCC, G-ANCF, G-ANCG, G-AOVA, G-AOVB, G-AOVC, G-AOVE, G-AOVF, G-AOVG, G-AOVK, G-AOVL, G-AOVM, G-AOVN, G-AOVR, G-AOVS, G-AOVT, G-APNB, G-ARKA, G-ARKB,
G-ARXA, G-ATGD, G-ATMA = 26 different aircraft
IntroductionBritish Eagle again dominate Britannia aircraft movements, but by 1966 there were other operators appearing with the type at Liverpool too. Joining Britannia Airways in ’66 were Transglobe, BUA, Caledonian and Lloyd International. Early May 1966 saw a big development at Liverpool Airport, with the opening of the new longer 28/10 runway (now 09/27) on the south airfield, so permitting transatlantic operations.
British Eagle Britannia Operations It would appear that British Eagle winter 65/66 flights were again operated by Viscount aircraft until 1st April. However after that for a while, two different Britannias would be seen at Liverpool some days on scheduled and holiday flights. The jet age arrived for British Eagle, with the acquisition of BAC.1-11 aircraft, and they commenced operations on the London to Liverpool route from 18th July ’66 replacing some Britannia rotations. The list below shows the first visit of year to Liverpool by the Britannia fleet:
G-ANCF yr 27th May '66
G-ANCG yr 12th May '66
G-AOVA yr 22nd January '66 Noted again on diversion & 22nd April
G-AOVB yr 13th April '66
G-AOVC yr 12th April '66
G-AOVE yr 1st April '66 Was withdrawn, June ’66 and departed 30th November '66 as EC-BFK
G-AOVF yr 7th April '66
G-AOVG yr 27th January '66 See notes below, noted again on 14th April
G-AOVK yr 24th May '66
G-AOVL yr 22nd January '66 Noted again on diversion & 21st April
G-AOVM yr 15th April '66
G-AOVN yr 4th April '66
G-AOVR yr 21st June '66 Was withdrawn, and departed 17th October '66 to Air Spain as EC-BFJ
G-AOVT yr 4th April '66
G-ARKA yr 14th April '66
G-ARKB yr 25th April '66
G-ARXA fv 12th May '66 Delivered 22nd April '66
On 22nd January, first Britannia movements of the year were due to two Heathrow weather diversions, with
G-AOVA from Prestwick and
G-AOVL from Glasgow; both departing later for their intended destination. On 27th January
G-AOVG operated from & to Heathrow the logs though don’t state if on a passenger flight or training. The summer season, with Britannias on the London schedule and holiday flights commenced 1st April. Summer fog at Heathrow brought in another pair of diverted Britannias on 14th June, with
G-ARKB arriving direct from New York John F Kennedy and
G-ARXA from Gibraltar. Both left later in the day for Heathrow.
The new 7,500ft runway at Liverpool permitted aircraft to depart ‘heavy’ with full fuel tanks. Days before the first Aer Lingus Boeing 707 transatlantic jet charter, two British Eagle Britannia 312s departed transatlantic. On 26th July
G-AOVG as EG191 positioned in from Heathrow, then departed to Gander en route to Toronto. Two days later
G-AOVK as EG181 positioned in from Heathrow, then departed to Gander en route to New York John F Kennedy. Two weeks later,
G-AOVN as EG192 returned from Toronto via Stephenville on 10th August, positioning on to Heathrow. It was again
G-AOVN that operated the return leg of the New York charter, arriving via Gander on 12th August, and positioning out to Heathrow. A final, somewhat shorter charter, was operated by
G-AOVM on 7th October routing in from Manchester and outbound to Shannon, returning the following day, 8th, by the reverse routing, with flight numbers EG1397/1398.
Other Britannia Operators: As mentioned in the introduction to 1966, new Britannia operators appeared during the year. However the first of the year had called before. Britannia Airways, for what was presumably a football fans charter on 5th May brought in Britannia 102s
G-ANBB and
G-ANBO both from Luton and onwards to Gatwick, returning the following day, 6th, with the same aircraft and return routing. Although
G-AOVS had been to Liverpool before while on lease to British Eagle, its first appearance in Lloyd International’s own colours was on 14th June. Although Liverpool handled two BEIA Britannias the same day on weather diversion from Heathrow, G-AOVS arrived from Stansted and departed for Belfast Aldergrove, the reason for the visit was not recorded.
Further Britannia Airways Britannia 102 visits brought in
G-ANBL on 19th August from Palma, on weather diversion from Manchester to where the aircraft later departed. The very same day
G-ANBB arrived from Lorient on an inbound charter, later positioning to Luton. This aircraft was, on 1st September destroyed in a major fatal crash at Ljubljana. It was on
G-ANBF that the return leg to Lorient was operated on 9th September, the aircraft having earlier arrived from Luton. Right at the end of the year, on 14th December, Britannia’s
G-ANBF was at Liverpool again, this time with Anderlect supporters, from & to Amsterdam for a European game at Anfield – this was the day of the first visit by a DC-8 to Liverpool, along with DC-7s, Electra etc.
On 2nd September Transglobe, a new independent airline, brought their Britannia 307
G-ANCC up from Gatwick to operate two outbound passenger charters to Tarbes for a Lourdes pilgrimage. The passengers arrived back at Liverpool on Britannia 314
G-ATGD, with two inbounds from Tarbes, positioning out later for Gatwick. On 25th September a Caledonian Airways Britannia nearly diverted in due to fog at Manchester. Britannia 317
G-APNB of British United Airways arrived from Stuttgart on 27th October and departed to Heathrow, reason not recorded. Britannia 314
G-ATMA of Caledonian Airlines positioned in from Stansted on the morning of 13th December, was loaded and departed on 14th for Benina in Lybia – formerly a routine, but infrequent destination for freight charters by Douglas DC-7s from Liverpool.
1967
1967
EC-BFJ, G-ANBE, G-ANBI, G-ANBL,
G-ANBM, G-ANBN, G-ANCC, G-ANCF, G-ANCG, G-AOVA, G-AOVB, G-AOVC, G-AOVF, G-AOVG,
G-AOVH, G-AOVJ, G-AOVK, G-AOVL, G-AOVM G-AOVN,
G-AOVP, G-AOVT, G-ARKA, G-ARKB, G-ARXA, G-ASTF, G-ATGD, G-ATMA = 28 different aircraft
British Eagle Britannia Operations:The big news regarding Britannia operations at Liverpool in 1967 was the opening at Liverpool of British Eagle’s maintenance centre for the type in an extended No.1 hangar at the Airport in mid-January. Here they conducted maintenance tasks and later converted two of the British Eagle Britannias into freighters with a large cargo fitted forward of the wing. An effect of the maintenance activity is that it is much more difficult to decipher from the logs we have kept, what the aircraft were doing at Liverpool – passenger service or maintenance visit. A table of first visit of the year, for the BEIA Britannia fleet, then comments on some of the reasons for visiting.
G-ANCF 21st February '67 on diversion, and again on 17th, 18th & 19th March
G-ANCG 1st February '67 for maintenance. Aircraft written-off in wheels-up landing at Manston 20.4.67
G-AOVA 27th March '67
G-AOVB 1st March '67 & noted again 1st September
G-AOVC 14th March '67 & from Brussels 12th October
G-AOVF 16th January '67 for maintenance & noted again 1st August
G-AOVG 11th October '67 on an outbound charter
G-AOVK 8th April '67
G-AOVL 17th August '67
G-AOVM 16th May '67 for major repair, conversion and maintenance, completed February ‘68
G-AOVN 3rd June '67 on diversion
G-AOVT 12th January '67 on diversion
G-ARKA 15th February '67
G-ARKB 27th July '67
G-ARXA 14th April '67
First Britannia arrival of the year was on 12th January with
G-AOVT arriving from Istanbul as EG3605 on diversion from Heathrow, to where it departed later in the day. Oddly the same aircraft was back on 6th February, again arriving from Istanbul on weather diversion from Heathrow, to where it continued later. On 21st February it was the turn of
G-ANCF to arrive from Istanbul on weather diversion from Edinburgh on EG1651, later departing for Heathrow. Summer fog at Heathrow caused two Britannias to divert to Liverpool on 3rd June with
G-AOVN on EG1920 from Madrid and
G-AOVB from Istanbul as EG190. Both aircraft later departed for Heathrow once conditions were clear. Further summer fog brought in another pair of Britannias on 25th August, with
G-AOVB on EG535 from Istanbul and
G-AOVN from Palma as EG929. While in the autumn, on 21st September
G-AOVB on EG311 from Perpignan diverted in due fog at Heathrow, along with a BEIA BAC.1-11 G-ATPJ. On 12th October
G-AOVC arrived from Brussels, reason not noted.
From the start of October the logs record a flow of Britannia flights from or to interesting destinations. The logs don’t record any matching domestic legs. Outbound to Istanbul (as presumably the first fuel stop on trooping flights to the Middle or Far East) were:
G-AOVL on 9th October;
G-AOVK on 10th October;
G-AOVG departing on 11th having night stopped;
G-AOVL on 12th October;
G-AOVK on 13th October;
G-AOVG on 14th October;
G-AOVL on 15th October and
G-AOVN on 16th October. Outbound trooping flights to West Germany (airfield code EDUG, (Gutersloh is EDUO though)) involved:
G-ARKB and
G-ARKA on 16th October;
G-AOVG and
G-ARKB on 17th; with
G-ARKB on 18th and 19th October. Presumably as a fuel stop on the way north from East Africa,
G-AOVK on 3rd November and
G-AOVC arrived from Benina/Benghazi, Lybia. {b]G-AOVB[/b] departed on a trroping flight to Akrotiri, Cyprus on 10th December. A few days later and
G-AOVB was back on weather diversion away from Heathrow, arriving Liverpool inbound from Istanbul and later continuing on to its intended destination. On 15th December
G-ARXA arrived from code HLLE translated as El Adem (but is not in my codes book), or, from another source an inbound trooping flight from Akrotiri (LCRA). Final British Eagle Britannia movement noted in the logs is
G-AOVL inbound from Istanbul, due to a weather diversion from Heathrow, to where it later continued.
First Britannia to arrive for a check on the British Eagle engineering facility was
G-AOVF arriving from Heathrow on 16th January, returning there on 2nd February. In its place
G-ANCG arrived on 1st February. Unfortunately the logs don’t carry on regularly recording the Britannias arriving for maintenance. However one does stand out, so is recorded. On 16th May
G-AOVM, which had suffered an excursion into mud, with damage to nose, wings and engines at Istanbul on 8.12.66 arrived following temporary on-site repairs, for a full strip-down and repair, during which time the opportunity was taken to install a large forward freight door. G-AOVM would be at Liverpool until February 1968 before work was completed. Following the landing accident to G-ANCG in April ’67, the entire wing section was brought to Liverpool and No.1 hangar by road, presumably as a spares source for G-AOVM’s rebuild.
Other Britannia Operators:Near half of the Britannia aircraft calling at Liverpool in 1967 were not flown by British Eagle. A fair variety of operators with Caledonian, Britannia, Treffield, Laker, Transglobe, Lloyd International and Air Spain all represented. First in, only a week into the new year on 8th January, was Caledonian with
G-AOVJ in from Gatwick and out to Benghazi Benina, Lybia on a freight charter, A week later
G-AOVJ was back again from Las Palmas to Southend, arriving on 15th, departing 20th January. The logs and ‘Flypast’ magazine in ’67 are not very good at explaining the reasons behind many of the ’67 Britannia visits. Britannia Airways on 11th April brought in
G-ANBL operating from and to Luton, possibly training? New British airline for ’68 was Treffield International with Viscounts and a Britannia, along with a garish colour scheme! On 13th May their Britannia 102
G-ANBM arrived from Barcelona, night stopped and left on 14th on the first Palma I/T outbound of the year. On 28th Laker’s
G-ANBN substituted for the Treffield aircraft, operating Gatwick to Palma, then later Palma to Gatwick. Apart from the first rotation, Treffield’s activity on I/T flights from Liverpool is ignored in the log books I’m using. The airline suspending operations on 23rd June. On 15th June Britannia’s Britannia 102
G-ANBI had operated Luton-Munich and Munich-Liverpool as a substitute for a Treffield Viscount on what appears to have been a fortnightly I/T flight to the Tyrol.
On 31st August, summer fog at Manchester brought in Transglobe’s
G-ATGD direct from Boston Logan on weather diversion from Manchester. It continued to Gatwick the following morning. A Lourdes Pilgrimage was operated by Caledonian, with
G-AOVH on 4th September routing from Manchester and out to Tarbes, with the return leg on 10th September operated by
G-AOVJ from Tarbes and out to Gatwick. It would appear that with Treffield’s demise the Palma I/T was taken over by British Eagle, although this does not show in the sources I’m using. However, on 16th September, BEIA sub-chartered a Laker Britannia
G-ANBM to operate in from Gatwick out to Palma, the following morning the inbound leg from Palma returned. Possibly football connected, Caledonian used
G-ASTF for a charter on 19th September positioning from Gatwick and out to Copenhagen/Kastrup, returning the next day by the reverse routing. There then follows a busy 5 weeks or so of flights by Caledonian. The inbound flights from Alicante are Tomato freight flights. On 11th October
G-AOVJ from Alicante to Gatwick. On 22nd October
G-ATMA arrived with the Sunday newspapers from Gatwick (rail dispute?) and outbound to Alicante. On 25th
G-AOVJ from Alicante and out to Dinard, the aircraft appearing again two days later on 27th inbound from Benghazi Benina and onwards to Waddington the next day, 28th. Also on 28th their
G-ATMA arrived from Alicante, departing for Tel Aviv on 29th, however the aircraft was back on 31st October, this time from and to Alicante; and again 16th November from Alicante to Gatwick. The exotic destinations continued, providing more work for HM Customs, as on 8th November Lloyd International brought
G-AOVP from Stansted to operate a charter out to Cairo the following day. For reason unrecorded (newspapers?) Transglobe used their
G-ANCC from Gatwick late on 9th November, out to Stansted early hours of 10th. Former British Eagle Britannia
EC-BFJ operated a Tomato charter on 10th November from & to Alicante and again on 18th, from Alicante and outbound to Heathrow. Which leaves just mention of Britannia Airways’
G-ANBE on 20th November which arrived from Palma on weather diversion from Blackpool. It positioned to Luton the following day.
1968
1968: EC-BFJ,
EC-BFK, EC-BFL, G-ANBA, G-ANBE, G-ANBF, G-ANBI, G-ANBJ, G-ANBL, G-ANBM, G-ANBN,
G-ANCH, G-AOVA, G-AOVB, G-AOVC, G-AOVF, G-AOVG, G-AOVJ, G-AOVK, G-AOVL, G-AOVM, G-AOVN, G-AOVP, G-AOVS, G-AOVT,
G-APNA, G-ARKA, G-ARKB, G-ARXA, G-ASTF, G-ATGD,
G-ATLE, G-ATMA,
5X-UVH = 34 different aircraft registrations, the all-time annual record .
British Eagle Britannia Operations:In 1968, the pattern of notations in the logs seem to change. It would appear that no regular British Eagle schedules were operated by Britannia during the year, however aircraft are noted arriving more than just for the first time in the year. It would therefore appear that aircraft are noted as they arrived for maintenance at British Eagle’s facility in No.1 hangar. So to cover British Eagle’s Britannia operations in 1968, I’ll first of all list the fleet’s first visit of year and subsequently noted dates (unknown if inbound or outbound though), then record all other charter, trooping and diversion visits with details.
G-ANCF did not visit Liverpool in 1968
G-AOVA 2nd May '68 & on 26.10 arrived from Alicante and entered into winter storage
G-AOVB 24th March '68 on a charter, converted to Freighter at Heathrow, summer '66.
G-AOVC 9th March '68 on diversion, noted again 18.4
G-AOVF 28th February '68 arrived for conversion, air test 12.8, then departed to Heathrow 15.8.68
G-AOVG 24th January '68 noted at Liverpool again on: 19.4, 16.5 and 19.7
G-AOVK 11th April '68 noted at Liverpool again on: 4.6; 26.7
G-AOVL 26th January '68
G-AOVM had arrived 16.5.67 for maintenance, repair & conversion, air test 14.2.68. On 24.4 op a Ford's charter to Brussels
G-AOVN 20th April '68 noted at Liverpool 1.8 and on 7.10 arrived for winter storage
G-AOVT 25th April '68 noted at Liverpool again 26.7
G-ARKA 19th April '68 noted at Liverpool again 16.5, and on 22.10 arrived from Heathrow for winter storage
G-ARKB 5th April '68 noted at Liverpool again 26.5
G-ARXA 2nd April '68 noted at Liverpool again 18.4; 27.6, and on 23.10 arrived from Heathrow for winter storage
It was not only British Eagle’s own aircraft that were overhauled at their Liverpool maintenance facility. Work undertaken for other Britannia users saw the arrival of
G-ANCH on 14th February in full Transglobe colours from Wymeswold at the end of lease. Following overhaul, a C of A flight was flown on 4th June and a local on 17th July. On arrival at Liverpool it was strongly rumoured have been purchased by British Eagle, however when re-sprayed it appeared in the exotic scheme of owners Ghana Airways. After sitting around at Liverpool, rather getting in the way, it was ferried out to Luton on 25th September for operation with Monarch Airlines. Air Spain’s aircraft too came to Liverpool for maintenance.
EC-BFK arrived on 23rd January from Gatwick for a Check 3, departing for Palma on 3rd April, meanwhile on 29th February
EC-BFJ arrived from Gatwick for an engine change leaving for Las Palmas on 2nd March. The maintenance division at Liverpool undertook other third party work too, looking after Prince G-AMLZ (now preserved at Liverpool) on a major Check, 11th April to 1st August 1967 and a day visit on 24th May 1968 along with Vernair’s first Queen Air G-AVNG (it was only after British Eagle ceased operating that Vernair set up their own maintenance organisation).
The table above shows a number of movements for maintenance and Checks during the year. However in October the Britannia maintenance division at Liverpool was considerably downsized with many skilled technicians being given redundancy notice. This was followed by a major blow, with the announcement that the company ceased trading on 6th November 1968
Operational visits by British Eagle’s own Britannias kicked-off with the arrival of
G-AOVB on 13th February on a tomato charter from Las Palmas, leaving for Tenerife the following day. On 9th March,
G-AOVC arrived direct from New York JFK on weather diversion from Heathrow, the aircraft later departing for Frankfurt.
G-AOVB on 24th March arrived from Heathrow departing on a freight charter to Dakar Yoff, Senegal .
G-AOVM fitted with a freight door at Liverpool earlier in the year, appeared on 24th April, positioning from Heathrow to operate a Fords motor components flight out to Brussels. Fog at Heathrow brought in 3 diverting Britannias on 15th June, with
G-AOVA from Gerona,
G-AOVK from Tunis and
G-ARKA from Gerona. All later departed for Heathrow. With G-ANCH and G-AOVF at least also here with the maintenance division, that makes a record five Britannias on the ground at Liverpool together.
A couple of trooping flights next, with
G-AOVL from & to Gutersloh on 8th July and
G-AOVG inbound from Gutersloh on 19th July and likely staying at Liverpool for maintenance. Fog hit Heathrow again, this time only Britannia
G-ARKA arrived at Liverpool, inbound from Rimini, later leaving for Heathrow.
G-AOVN positioned in from Heathrow on 16th September to operate a ship’s crew charter outbound to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17th.
G-ARXA is noted outbound for Bilbao on 18th September. On 12th October the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra left Liverpool on a European Tour.
G-AOVK positioned in from Heathrow on 12th October to take them out to Stuttgart, and returned them from Amsterdam on 25th October. A series of tomato charters operated during October, bringing in
G-AOVA on 17th, 19th and back again from Alicante 22nd, night stopping to return there 23rd and back to Liverpool on 26th where she entered into winter storage.
G-AOVG visited possibly from & to Heathrow on 24th October. Further tomato flights employed
G-AOVL on 26th, 27th with
G-AOVM twice on 31st October then once 1st and 2nd November.
At the time that British Eagle ceased trading on 6th November 1968, there were four Britannias at Liverpool: G-AOVA, G-AOVN, G-ARKA and G-ARXA (along with a BAC.1-11 and two Viscounts. There is much more about British Eagle’s activity and fleet at Liverpool on another thread. While on another thread there is much about attempts to restart British Eagle Liverpool and start-up Phoenix Airways – both outside the scope of this type review.
Other Britannia Operators:A very varied year, with a greater number of visiting airlines and individual aircraft than any other year. Both Britannia and Laker operated I/T flights with Britannias from Liverpool, there are only clues of this in my sources information though. However I’ll deal with the I/T seasons first, then move onto ‘one-off’ charters and diversions.
On behalf of Clarkson’s, Britannia Airways operated a short, but intensive series of Britannia 102 flights to Beauvais and Rotterdam (for the bulb-fields of Holland). Between 8th May and 17th May a total of 17 return flights. Inbounds 4 from/via Manchester, 5 from Beauvais, 8 from Rotterdam, while outbounds 1 to Newcastle, 7 to Beauvais, 9 to Rotterdam – the uneven number of flight is due to positioning legs, although I cannot quite make the numbers work! On 8th May
G-ANBL was used for two round trips and outbound on 9th, all other rotations flown by
G-ANBI, which positioned in on 9th and operated until the final Beauvais to Newcastle (positioning) on 17th.
Laker’s Britannia 102
G-ANBM operated the first outbounds of their summer-long CTA season on 1st June, Gatwick-Liverpool-Palma-Gatwick-Liverpool-Barcelona- . On the 8th June and a week later 15th June G-ANBM again, indeed this aircraft operated most of the season, as it was not until 7th September
G-ANBN, Laker’s other Britannia made its first visit of the year to Liverpool, positioning from Gatwick and out to Palma as a substitute for the normal aircraft.
Although 1968 was the most varied year for Britannia operations through Liverpool, it was May before the first non-British Eagle connected aircraft arrived. Fords had a busy period in early summer taking components to their European distribution centre outside Brussels. Transglobe’s
G-ATGD on 11th April arrived from Lagos, Nigeria and departed to Brussels. On 21st April it was Lloyd International’s
G-AOVP from Stansted to Brussels, with another of their aircraft
G-AOVS arriving from Benghazi Benina, Lybia in order to operate to Brussels on 5th May.
Although there had been short series and one-off transatlantic charter flight from Liverpool since 1966, the first load of inbound transatlantic passengers arrived on 31st May on Caledonian’s
G-AOVJ. Direct from Toronto, a full load of 125 members of the Road Racing Club of Canada arrived en route to watch the Manx TT racing. Quite how they returned home is not recorded! Their inbound aircraft positioned up to Prestwick after unloading at Liverpool.
There then follows a number of visits, the reason for which was not always recorded. On 15th June Caledonian’s
G-ASTF from Gatwick and onto Manchester (speculate training?); Britannia’s
G-ANBI from Barcelona to Tarbes (but no return from Tarbes/Lourdes is noted in the Logs) on 17th June; Britannia’s
G-ANBF from Manchester and out to Alicante on 30th June; and Britannia’s
G-ANBA from Parma, Italy to Palma, Spain as BY464/347 on 1st July (speculate a diversion?).
Other flights in the same period about which more is known: Lloyd’s
G-AOVP on 20th June, from & to Stansted, but left with Ford car components destined for Brussels; Transglobe’s
G-ATLE on 29th June, Basle to Genoa, Italy on weather diversion from Manchester; then the ‘star’ of a busy year, African Safari Airlines’
5X-UVH on 7th July with “The Sunday Times” due to a rail ‘work-to-rule’, routing from Gatwick and out empty to Heathrow. On 20th July Britannia’s
G-ANBE from Gerona and out to Ibiza on early morning fog diversion from Manchester; while on 11th August two Britannias on early morning fog diversion from Manchester (and a British Eagle one from Heathrow) in the form of Caledonian’s
G-ATMA from Palma and onwards to Manchester and
G-AOVJ from Palma and onwards to Gatwick.
On 22nd August Lloyd International’s
G-APNA positioned up from Stansted to collect passengers for Toronto. The aircraft left for Belfast to collect the rest of a split load before departing transatlantic. The return leg was operated by
G-AOVS routing Toronto-Belfast-Liverpool on 13th September, before positioning to Prestwick. Another of Lloyd’s aircraft
G-AOVS made another visit to Liverpool on 19th September from Stansted and onwards to Brussels the next morning on behalf of Fords. It was an early season football match that on 24th September brought Britannia’s
G-ANBJ from & to Luton, along with an Autair BAC.1-11, while it was fog at Manchester on 3rd October that brought in
G-ANBJ, routing inbound from Gerona and out to Palma. A number of early winter Tomato charters were operated by British Eagle, one that wasn’t brought in Air Spain’s
EC-BFL on 11th October, from Alicante and out empty to Palma.
An interesting new (for Liverpool) outbound destination was Tel Aviv. On 12th October Caledonian’s
G-ASTF arrived from Tarbes, departing for Tel Aviv. The return leg, also utilising
G-ASTF arrived from Tel Aviv and onward empty to Gatwick on 17th October.
More of the same followed, with Lloyd International operating a series of further charters for Fords with
G-AOVS on 21st October from Stansted and loaded outbound for Cologne, with
G-AOVP from and to Brussels on 30th October and again twice on 31st October leaving for Stansted after the second inbound run; then on 4th November
G-AOVS arrived loaded from Brussels, departing to Stansted the next day. On 9th November
G-APNA arrived from Stansted and outbound to either Madrid Getafe or Santiago (depends on reading handwritten LEGT or LEST!). Finally in the year further Air Spain tomato charters, with
EC-BFL from & to Alicante on 23rd and 24th October, while routing in from Alicante and out to Gatwick on 15th November – the final Britannia movement of the year at Liverpool.
