AIR FERRIES: United States (1930-1933). With Vern Gorst as a director, Air Ferries is established at Alameda, California, by Joseph J. Tynan Jr. on February 1, 1930 to fly passengers across San Francisco Bay to Vallejo and Oakland. Equipped with three Loeing C-2 Air Yachts purchased from Gorst, Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation’s West Coast distributor, the shuttle operation begins scheduled service on February 11.
Per his amphibian sales contract, Gorst operates the company for its first 45 days and when it is operating efficiently, turns it over to Tynan. The six-minute flights (with two-minute turnarounds) reach a frequency of 38 every day each way and net a total of 60,000 bookings (at $1.50) during the next 11 months. Since July, AF has flown 9,700 passengers and 2.5 tons of air express across the Bay.
There has been only one accident. On June 1, a Loening hits a tugboat during takeoff from Oakland and crashes into the Bay; one of six passengers is seriously injured. On December 31, the company ceases operations for the winter. Flights resume in the spring of 1931 and continue.
In March 1932, another aviation entrepreneur, Walter T. Varney, owner of Varney Speed Lines Air Service, purchases the carrier, which by now has reduced its frequencies to two dozen per day. Varney replaces the Loenings with three Sikorsky S-39s and reduces fares to $1 while offering limousine service to connecting points. Services continue until the failure of Varney’s landplane operation in the summer of 1933.
AIR FERRY, LTD.: United Kingdom (1962-1968). Former Air Kruise, Ltd. owner Hugh Kennard, in association with Leroy Tours, establishes AFL as an inclusive-tour charter operation at Manston Airport in July 1962. Leroy Tours owner Lewis Leroy is named chairman while Kennard becomes managing director.
Two Vickers Viking 610s and an ex-military Douglas C-54 are delivered in February 1963 and employed to begin holiday flights beginning on March 30. Group charters are flown to some 20 European destinations during the summer, while a scheduled service is offered to Le Tou-quet/Ostend. When the first season ends on October 20, records show 120,000 enplanements in seven months.
The fleet is increased by the addition of 3 more Vikings and 2 more C-47s (converted like the first to civil DC-4 standard) and these reopen tour flying in April 1964. In October, the company is purchased by Air Holdings and Kennard departs.
During 1965, AFL begins flying vehicle ferry service to Le Touquet with leased Bristol 170 freighters. In the last three days of December, two Aviation Traders, Ltd. ATL-98 Carvairs are chartered from British United Air Ferries, Ltd. and, together with two DC-4s, are used to ferry supplies from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to Lusaka in Zambia after Rhodesia unilaterally declares its independence. Two Douglas DC-6As are purchased from BUAF at this time.
The BUAF Carvairs are returned in March and June 1966, at which time AFL’s inclusive-tour services resume along with freight flights to Germany flown on behalf of British European Airways Corporation (BEA) . BEA reclaims the German operations in 1967 and the company returns to inclusive-tour work.
The year is a physical and fiscal disaster as two DC-4s are lost; the first is destroyed at Frankfurt on January 21 while the second hits Mount Canigou in the Pyrennes near Perpignan on June 3, killing all 88 aboard. Another C-54B is leased from Lloyd International in late June.
In January 1968, two Vickers Viscount 812s are leased from Channel Airways, Ltd. and join the DC-4s in a new inclusive-tour season beginning in March. This is the final season as Air Holdings closes down the carrier on October 31, returning the Viscounts, selling off all other aircraft, and transferring all tour responsibilities to
British United Airways, Ltd.
AIR FIJI, LTD.: 185 Victoria Parade, Suva, Fiji; Phone (679) 315 055; Fax (679) 300 771; Http://www. airfiji. net; Http://www. pacificislands. com/airlines/fji. html; Code PC; Year Founded 1995.
Kelton Investment reforms Fiji Air, Ltd. in February 1995, giving it an entirely new corporate makeover. The fleet, which comprises 2 each de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otters and Embraer EMB-110 Ban-deirantes plus 1 each Beech 58 Baron, Harbin Y-12, and Pilatus-Britten-Norman PBN-2 Islander, is given an entirely new livery.
By 1998-1999, airline employment at Fiji’s largest domestic carrier stands at 150. During these years, the fleet is increased by the addition of two more Y-12s and Islanders and another Bandeirante.
Fifteen destinations are visited from bases at Suva and Nadi, including Bureta, Kandaru, Lakeba, Levuka, Malololai, Tavenuni, and Vanuabalauu.
While en route from Suba to Nadi on July 24 of the latter year, Flight 121, an EMB-110, with 2 crew and 15 passengers, crashes into a mountainside; there are no survivors.
By the spring of 2000, the lost Bandeirante has been replaced with an EMB-120 Brasilia. That aircraft launches a thrice-weekly service to Tonga on May 1.
Political problems in the islands dramatically impact tourism during the summer. Rebel gunmen seize two pilots from their aircraft on the ground at Savusavu Airport on July 27; the village chief of Naibalabale intervenes and obtains their release next day.
AIR 500, LTD.: Person International Airport, 2450Derry Road East, Hangar 7, Mississauga, Ontario L5S 1B2, Canada; Phone (905) 6730800; Fax (905) 673-1657; Http://www. innotech-execaire. com; Year Founded 1986. Air 500 is established at Toronto in January 1986 to provide executive and small group passsenger charters throughout eastern Canada and the U. S., as well as to the Caribbean. Over the next 12 years, the largely corporate operator will come to employ 20 workers and fly a mixed fleet of bizjet and turboprop aircraft. A 3,150-sq.-ft. hangar will be constructed at company headquarters at the Toronto aerodrome.
Diversified Halifax-based IMP Group International, Ltd., less than two weeks after shutting down its unprofitable Air Atlantic, Ltd.
Regional airline subsidiary, purchases Air 500 on November 6, 1998. IMP President/CEO Stephen Plummer indicates that the company might be expected to grow during the year ahead.
Although it is unknown as to exactly what that growth becomes, the IMP Group does not remain inactive for long. To take advantage of new air transport possibilities occasioned by the official bankruptcy of InterCanadian, Ltd., as well as the Air Canada, Ltd. takeover of Canadian Airlines, Ltd., it announces plans in February 2000 to begin a competing low-fare jet passenger service. Shortly thereafter CanJet Airlines, Ltd. takes to the skies.
World History
