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A is for Aardvark...I have recently been reading up on Skyways Ltd (British airline) having just finished re-reading Henry Longhurst's account of his marketing foray on behalf of that now defunct company in 1949 in his excellent 'You never know till you get there'.

The Wikipedia list of defunct British airlines and carriers reads like a veritable historical alphabet soup of success, mediocrity and, often, outright failure...


Skyways, was initially, very successful



Did you ever work for a now defunct airline whatever your nationality or the country of origin of the airline?

Not to be confused with Santa Fe Skyway in the USA or similar sounding outfits.



Interestingly Skyways Ltd (the British airline) was hobbled by government legislation and preference for nationalized airlines and freight operators. Governments, whatever their political or ideological stripe often seem to stand in the way of rational commerce.

As I wrote previosly, some good times with Skyways people.....

CharlieOneSix wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:53 pm

Skyways at Lympne(Ashford) had a female Captain on the 748 in 1971. I cannot for the life of me remember her name. Jeez, it was 50 years ago! She shared a flat with a female Ops Officer called Jay. When I was temporarily at Lympne on detachment that year we had some good parties in that flat! The next year Dan-Air took over Skyways.

Not a defunct airline but closer to home I was sad to see that Tayside Aviation at Dundee has gone into administration after 55 years.

Was it Deli ?

No, it wasn't Deli - I think she had only recently joined Skyways when we were there.

Flew into Templehof at the sharp end with Pan Am multiple occasions. You would be hard pressed to find a nicer bunch of people.

Alison

History gets a little confused with the Dan Air takeover, Liz Overbury or Yvonne Sintes, not sure either of them were at Skyways.

As you might have guessed I joined Dan Air Engineering in August 1972 and retired in 2008 from My Travel engineering, which was essentially the same company, just a different name over the door.

C16 wrote: Not a defunct airline but closer to home I was sad to see that Tayside Aviation at Dundee has gone into administration after 55 years.

Agreed. Spent a few years doing charter work in 'TX', running instructor courses and doing the F Schol side (and trying to get Lovat to fly at night...... )

Alisoncc wrote:Flew into Templehof .......... with Pan Am multiple occasions. You would be hard pressed to find a nicer bunch of people.

and providers of apparently endless champagne.......... in biz class:))

OneHungLow wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 23, 2023 10:28 am

Not to be confused with Santa Fe Skyway in the USA or similar sounding outfits.

The Failure of Santa Fe Skyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya9Dp4jmnLo

Interestingly Skyways Ltd (the British airline) was hobbled by government legislation and preference for nationalized airlines and freight operators. Governments, whatever their political or ideological stripe often seem to stand in the way of rational commerce.

Very interesting video - thank you.

This demise was bad strategy and management. They would never have survived covid though.

CharlieOneSix wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 23, 2023 2:31 pm

Not a defunct airline but closer to home I was sad to see that Tayside Aviation at Dundee has gone into administration after 55 years.

I have seen light aviation enterprises and aviation training companies come and go over the years, indeed I even invested in an aircraft maintenance company some years ago and then got my fingers burned, and everybody knows the old joke about "the only way to make a small fortune in aviation is to start with a a large one" but it is always sad to see the carnage that ensues amongst students, instructors and general staff, particularly when a large training organization goes to the wall. Otten gross mismanagement or rampant misguided management optimism and financial overreach is the catalyst for disaster but there also some egregious examples of fraud, sharp practice, misselling and other forms of criminality that have occurred over the years as well.

I don't know anything about Tayside Aviation, but they seem to have been a reputable company with a long history and a genuine commitment to making aviation accessible to those who would want to go further in the aviation industry, I wonder what the root cause of this sad failure was?