DAN-AIR London

Photos © R.Leeuw

Danair's Viscount 724 G-BDRC (c/n 52) is seen here taxiing out, sometime in 1978. Must be one of the first photos I took of a civil aircraft, at that time I was more fascinated by military aircraft but I'd started a job at Amsterdam's Schiphol the year before.

DAN-AIR Services was founded in 1953 by a British shipping agency: Davies and Newman Ltd. Like so many they started with a Douglas DC-3 and their homeplate was Southend. In 1955 the headquarters was moved to Blackbushe and Avro Yorks were introduced. DAN-AIR Engineering, a maintenance subsidairy was set up at Lasham.
Routes were flown as far as Africa and even to Singapore. In 1956 scheduled services to Jersey were started. That same year also aid and evacuation flights were in flown in response to the Russans invading Hungary. Bristol 170 freighters were added to the fleet.The market for holiday travel (IT-charters) had emerged and passengers were flown to destinations in Italy, Spain, Belgium and Germany.
During the early 1960s the scheduled services had expanded from Bristol and Cardiff; De Havilland Doves and Airspeed Ambassadors had been added to the expanding fleet.
DAN-AIR stepped into the jet-age with the introduction of 3 Comet 4Bs in 1967. Later, more Comets were added, but also BAC One-Elevens. Scheduled services expanded to destinations abroad: Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
Two Boeing 707s were bought for services across the Atlantic.
DAN-AIR took over Skyways Int'l in 1972 and operations continued under the new name: Dan-Air Skyways using HS.748s. Dan-air was the first UK operator to use the Boeing 727. They were used to replace the fuel guzzling Comets.
Meanwhile Dan-air had developed interests in aircraft handling, catering, leasing, tour operating and sales organisations. Dan-air survived the 1970s recession and the oil crisis and by mid-1980s was carrying over 3.000.000 passengers ! Other types were introduced on th eroute network, such as: Boeing 737-200s, 737-300s, Airbus A300B4s and BAe 146s.
During the 1980s many touroperators started their own airline and Dan-Air began to loose contracts. The aging fleet did not help to return to profitability, though newer Boeing 737-400s replaced the older 737s. Unprofitable routes were axed and jobs too. Shareholdings were sold off. In 1991 4.7 million passengers were carried but Dan-Air was still in the red: a loss of UKL 35 million...
British Airways stepped in at the end of 1992 and took over for a symbolic price of UKL 1,-. An illustrious British airline had faded into history.

Fleetlist in 1991:

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