Britannia Airways Flies To The Sun

By April 1989 Britannia had lodged an application with the UK Civil Aviation Authority to operate flights to Australia. Approval was forthcoming from them in July. Discussions were also underway with the Federal Government and in August Britannia were given the final go ahead.

Britannia the Beginning

Britannia Airways can trace their origins back to December 1961, when a new British charter operator, Euravia (London) Ltd, was formed. During the Northern summer of 1961 travel company Universal Sky Tours had used a number of operators to fly their Inclusive Tour passengers to destinations around the Mediterranean. The failure during the year of two of these airlines resulted in Universal Sky Tours taking the decision to form an airline of its own. Three Lockheed L-049 Constellations were purchased from the Israeli airline El Al and Luton Airport was chosen as their base because of the proximity to the newly opened M1 Motorway.

In May 1962 Euravia operated their first revenue flight which was between Manchester and Palma. In September of that year Euravia took over the assets and fleet of Skyways of London, thus adding a further five Constellations to their fleet. By 1964 Euravia was looking for a replacement for their Constellation’s. A decision was made to purchase the recently retired fleet of Britannia 102s previously operated by BOAC. With the entry into service of these aircraft Euravia changed their name to Britannia Airways in August 1964. Universal Sky Tours were taken over the following year by the Thomson Organisation, who themselves were involved in the selling of packaged holidays. This takeover put Britannia on a sound financial footing for the future.

In 1968 Britannia became the first European charter operator and the second airline in Europe to introduce the Boeing 737 into service. Britannia were at the forefront again in 1984, when they became the first European operator of the Boeing 767. In August 1988 parent company Thomson Travel took over the Horizon Travel Group who owned Orion Airways. This takeover added a further nine aircraft to the Britannia fleet.

Britannia-the Present

Britannia found themselves in astrong position when approval was granted in August 1988 for them to operate charter flights to Australia. Though some scheduled services are operated within Europe, Britannia is the largest charter airline in the World. In 1989 Britannia carried more than 7 million passengers, which is second only to British Airways in the UK. Their current fleet is headed by the Boeing 767 of which they presently have seven in service. In November 1988 Britannia placed an order with Boeing fora further eight Boeing 767-200s, with options on a further eight. If all options are taken up Britannia will have an operating fleet of 24 Boeing 767-200s by 1995. The mainstay of the fleet is the Boeing 737-200, which was first introduced into service by Britannia in 1968. The present fleet consists of 27 aircraft. With the takeover of Orion Airways in 1988 Britannia added 7 Boeing 737-300s to the fleet.

Utilisation of aircraft in the Britannia fleet is high as shown by the 1988 figures which 3,967 hours for the Boeing 737-200 and 4,105 for the Boeing 767.

Britannia are part of the Thomson Travel Group, who themselves are part of the International Thomson Organisation. As well as Britannia Airways under the wing of Thomson Travel comes Thomson Holidays, Horizon Holidays, Portland Holidays and Lunn Poly. The Thomson Travel Group now controls 40% of the packaged holiday market in the UK.

Britannia, like any of the UK based charter operators, have a problem in fully utilising their fleet in the Northern winter. The introduction into service of the Boeing 767 and the advent of charters to Australia is helping to alleviate this problem. Britannia are finding aircraft like the Boeing 767 to be very versatile, whether operating flights within Europe or to Australia. In 1988 the Boeing 767 opened up new routes to Orlando, Florida and Acapulco, Mexico, while in 1989 Puerto Rico was added to the charter network. For the 1989/90 Northern winter months Britannia have the following aircraft chartered to overseas airlinesLAB, Bolivia – 1 Boeing 767-200; Australian Airlines -2 Boeing 737-300s; Aloha Airlines -1 Boeing 737-200; COPA, Panama-1 Boeing 737-200; Euralair, France – 1 Boeing 737-200; Air Sul, Portugal -1 Boeing 737-200 and North African, Egypt – 2 Boeing 737-200s.

Britannia-Australian Operations

For their flights to Australia and New Zealand Britannia Airways have Boeing 767-204ER G-BOPB ‘Captain Sir Ross Smith’ dedicated to the route. The Boeing was delivered to Luton in early November 1988 and on the 30th of that month departed on what was to be the first of 20 weekly charters to Australia. For the 1988/89 season Britannia operated to Perth and Cairns with the weekly flights alternating between each destination. Normal seating on a Britannia Boeing 767 is 273 all economy in a 2-4-2 layout, but on G-BOPB seating has been reduced to 258. This gives additional leg room, while comfort levels are further enhanced with the fitment of a new seat spec;(allY developed for Britannia.

For the 1989/90 season a number of new destinations were offered in Australia, while New Zealand was added to the network. Australian destinations are presently Adelaide, Canberra, Cairns, Coolangatta, Darwin and Perth, while Auckland and Christchurch are served. in New Zealand. Over the twenty-five weeks of the 1989/90 season 50 return flights will be operated from Luton to the South Pacific. Each fortnight there are 4 departures with three destined for Australia and one for New Zealand. Just how reliable the modern airliner has become can be dem onstrated by showing below a typical two weeks in the life of G-BOPB while on the Australia/New Zealand route: As BY764 the aircraft departs Luton at 2325 local on December 28th for Bahrain/Singapore/Cairns/Canberra and return arriving back in Luton at 1215 December 31st. Departs 2345 January 1st for Bahrain/Singapore/Perth and return, arriving at home base at 2355/03. As BY762 departs 2325/04 for Bahrain/Singapore/Darwin/Adelaide and return at 0900/07. Final departure for the fortnight is BY766 at 2235/08 to Bahrain/Singapore/Townsville and Auckland. This returns G-BOPB to Luton at 1350 on January 11th.

Over the two weeks there have been three trips to Australia and one to New Zealand. Scheduled block time was 192 hours 45 minutes or an average of 13 hours 46 minutes per day.

Over the 25 weeks of the 1989/90 season Britannia will bring 12,000 British holiday makers ‘Down Under’, of which 10,500 will be destined for Australia and 1,500 for New Zealand. Tours to Australia and New Zealand are sold through travel operators Austravel, lnghams and Travelbag. At a base price of £699 this is some 25-30% cheaper than a scheduled carrier. A holiday is sold as a package to Britons only with numerous combinations of stopovers, while the Australian holiday includes 7 nights of accommodation at a Flag Inn.

Britannia have been averaging better than a 92% load factor on their 1989/90 tour flights to Australia and New Zealand. It is expected that for the 1990/91 season they will seek an increase in both frequency and number of destinations with Alice Springs, Hamilton Island and Melbourne planned to come on line.

Flying With Britannia

To gain first hand knowledge of Britannia’s operations Australian Aviation recently had the opportunity of flying with them on a return journey to the UK. Outbound from Australia we picked up flight BY765 from Canberra to Luton via Cairns, Singapore and Bahrain. Britannia is the only International carrier operating out of Canberra, however there are no restrictions for the Boeing 767. With no aerobridges, boarding at Canberra was through the forward or aft entry doors. From Canberra we headed North on the 3 hour sector to Cairns. En route the sun had set and for the next 17 hours we were to fly in the dark. Cairns to Singapore was a 6 hours 20 minute sector, however with Britannia’s excellent inflight service the time soon passed. Singapore to Bahrain was a further 8 hours 15. As we departed Bahrain for Luton on the final leg of our flight the sun was rising over the horizon. Though this was another 8 hour plus leg it was made more interesting as most of it was flown in a cloudless sky. Below us in a splendid panorama passed Saudi Arabia, The Red Sea, The Mediterranean, Italy and the Alps. Even with headwinds we taxied into Luton right on schedule. Deboarding came as a shock to the system however as we had come from a hot 30 degrees in Canberra to a cold, grey 3 degrees in Luton.

Four days later we were back at Luton to resume flying with Britannia. On line was G-BOPB waiting to operate BY762 to Darwin and Adelaide. With a MTOW of 345,000lbs (156,630kg) our ramp weight Luton was 344,2751bs (156,300kg). On board we had 255 passengers and 10 crew. Fuel capacity of G-BOPB is 50. 8 tons but for the flight to Bahrain we were carrying 36. 6 tons of which we were to burn 29. 3. We departed the ramp 25 minutes late and were airborne off R/W 26 at Luton a few minutes later. Our track took us over Dover, Ostend, Stuttgart, Innsbruck, Venice, then down the east coast of Italy to Corfu and across Greece to Crete. We then crossed the Egyptian coast at Alexandria before tracking over Luxor and down the Red Sea. We then turned left over Saudi Arabia to Bahrain where we docked at 0942 local, after a 6 hour 52 minute flight from Luton. During the leg we had an average wind of 43kts on the tail with initial cruise being at FL370 though later was changed to FL410.

Shortly after departing Luton a very thoughtful gesture was made by Britannia. All passengers were handed a pouch containing all the requirements for the long distance traveller – blow up neck pillow, mask, slippers, ear plugs, refresher towlette, mints, paper hankies, toothbrush and toothpaste. You don’t get these perks in economy on most . of the scheduled carriers. Dinner was then served followed by the inflight entertainment. This consisted of a full length feature movie, which was different on each sector, as well as assorted features.

For the crew who had started the flight in Luton the arrival in Bahrain was the termination of their duty. Normal rostering on the Australia run takes crews away from home base for 21-25 days.

It was a fine sunny morning in Bahrain with the airport being dominated by aircraft of the local carrier, Gulf Air. Transit time was 1 hour so we pushed back only 7 minutes behind schedule. Planned block time to Singapore was 7 hours 50 minutes, however due to the lack of the forecast winds we took 8 hours 13. G-BOPB docked in Singapore at 2355 local, parking between a China Airlines A300 and an Air Pacific Boeing 747. From Singapore to Darwin planned block time was 4 hours 35. It is interesting to note that the last time your Australian Aviation correspondent flew this sector was 25 years ago in a BOAC Comet 4 and block time then was also 4 hours 35. From Darwin to Adelaide it was all downhill and we shut down at 1250 local which was by this stage only 15 minutes behind schedule.

While sitting at the domestic terminal waiting for my connecting flight to Melbourne I noticed G-BOPB departing right on schedule on its return flight to the UK. One can only marvel at the technology that allows people to take it for granted to plan their holidays on the other side of the world. Certainly no one on the flight gave any indication of being perturbed by the fact that they were going to be sitting in the one seat for 30 odd hours or that they were travelling vast distances over many countries. The technology and reliability of the modern airliner is certainly something to be marvelled.

The arrival of Britannia Airways in Australia has certainly opened up a whole new overseas market for this very professional operator. We can only hope that something similar can be offered to the Australian travelling public in the not too distant future.