J. Baumnardt forms this on-demand service at Southend Airport, Essex, in 1992 to offer charter passenger and cargo flights to cities in the U. K. and Western Europe. A workforce of 10 is assembled and revenue services commence with a fleet that includes 1 Cessna 404 Titan, 1 Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, and 1 PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain. Flights cease in 1995.
SKYLINE: United States (1975-1976). Skyline is set up at Winchester, Virginia, in 1975 as the scheduled airline division of the FBO Skyline Aviation. Outfitted with a pair of Beech 99 s, the company inaugurates daily roundtrips linking its base with Baltimore, Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, Washington, D. C. (DCA), and Ocean City. Flights can only be offered into 1976.
SKYLINE, LTD. 28 Creek Road, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria; Phone 234 (1) 587 4658; Fax 234 (1) 774 6136; Year Founded 1999. Under the leadership of Amatzia Snir, Skyline is established at Lagos in March 1999 to offer domestic passenger services, both scheduled and charter. Revenue flights to the main Nigerian cities, as well as numerous bush communities, begins in June employing a pair of de Hailland Canada DHC-7-102s. Plans are announced for the acquisition of Boeing 737 equipment.
A total of 80 workers are employed at the beginning of 2000.
SKYLINE AIR SERVICE: United States (1967). Tom Wilson founds SAS at Anacortes, Washington, on February 16, 1967 to provide scheduled commuter service to Seattle and Everett. The company also joins with Island Sky Ferries in the contract supporting Island Mail, Inc. Employing Cessna lightplanes, Wilson inaugurates revenue flights at month’s end and continues them until June 28, when he joins with the owners of four other carriers in signing the agreement that will create Puget Sound Airlines on August 28.
SKYLINE AIRLINES: United States (1979-1981). Skyline is established in 1979 as the air transport division of the FBO Skyline Motors Aviation Services, which is located at Beaver Valley Airport in Pennsylvania. Employing 4 Cessna 404 Titans and 2 Cessna 402s, George Hall’s carrier undertakes scheduled passenger and cargo flights to Youngstown, Cleveland, and Detroit.
Operations continue until traffic restrictions imposed as the result of the PATCO air traffic controllers’ strike force the carrier out of business in 1981.
SKYLINE MOTORS AVIATION SERVICES: United States (19791981). SMAS is established at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, in the early fall of 1979 to provided scheduled passenger and cargo services to regional destinations. Employing a pair of Cessna 402s, the company inaugurates daily roundtrips in October, linking its base with Detroit City Airport via Youngstown and Cleveland.
Operations continue apace in 1980 and in June 1981 the airline is sold to Dale Rabassi, who changes its name to B. A.S. Airlines.
SKYLINE NEPC, LTD.: Lyka Labs Building, 77 Nehru Road, Ville Parle, 400099, India; Phone 91 (22) 610-7356; Fax 91 (22) 610-7599; Http://www. rediff. com/travel/nepc; Code D2; Year Founded 1995.
Bombay-based Damania Airways, Ltd. is purchased by NEPC Airlines, Ltd. in May 1995, but is allowed to maintain operations as a subsidiary with this name. Both carriers fly as divisions of NEPC India.
The new corporate arrangement, which includes both a 4.5% equity investment in Damania and an assumption of liabilities, will be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, as the stake taken is less than the mandatory 5% acquisition required. Chairman Parvez Damania steps down and is replaced as Skyline CEO by NEPC Group executive Ravi Kumar Khenka. Triputi Kutman Khenka is named managing director. The company continues to operate to 11 domestic destinations, including Madras, Calcutta, and Delhi, with a fleet of 2 leased Boeing 737-2K9As and 2 B-737-282As.
On September 1, NEPC Group enters into an interline agreement with Swissair, A. G. Under terms of the arrangement, the Swiss flag carrier will maintain the NEPC fleet and train its personnel, while the Indian company becomes Swissair agent in India.
A third B-737-282A is added in 1996. With its sister NEPC Airlines, Ltd., Skyline NEPC is the second largest domestic airline in India after Indian Airlines, Ltd.
In 1997, Chairman Khenka begins to negotiate with Airbus Industrie for a fleet of fuel-efficient European-made narrow-bodies with which to replace his Boeings. At the same time, and in tandem with NEPC Airlines, Ltd., the carrier begins consideration of the takeover of fellow-independent Archana Airways, Ltd., as well as the struggling Modiluft. The carrier also begins to expand facilities at its Coimbatore maintenance base.
The Director General of Civil Aviation now orders that NEPC reduce its operations over its trunk routes. The government claims that NEPC has failed to provide sufficient services on required subsistence routes in the nation’s northeast.
Still, the carrier and its sister make various expansion plans. In March, permission is received from the government of India for the importation of eight more B-737-200s, four of which will be passed to Skyline NEPC, Ltd.
During the second quarter, it is claimed that the company, together with its NEPC Airlines, Ltd. parent, owe some $4 million to the government in internal passenger taxes collected but not turned over. To press the issue, customs officials seize a B-737-282A.
The Indian Securities and Exchange Commission renews its investigation of the carrier’s dramatic takeover of Damania Airways, Ltd.
NEPC Group executives, faced with a severe cash crunch and unavailability of new aircraft, elect to emphasize Skyline and close the doors of NEPC Airlines, Ltd., planning to merge its assets into Skyline at the end of the year. The fiscal situation is, however, worse than originally imagined. NEPC Group does not have the funds to make its aircraft lease payments, pay its pilots salaries, or undertake maintenance checks. Both airlines stop flying during the first week of July.
At the end of July, the company is able to cobble together a significant loan from several financial institutions. In early August, the decision to close NEPC is reversed. Both companies are now downsized and restructured, with the staff reduced in strength from 2,700 to 2000. Salaries are also cut.
On September 15, NEPC Airlines, Ltd. is reborn. Flight operations, in South India, employing the five Fokkers that have not been sold, are restarted on October 1. Skyline NEPC, Ltd., meanwhile, flies the trunk routes.
Both airlines continue to operate in 1998; however, a loss of Rs 1.35 crores is suffered.
In 1999, NEPC Airlines, Ltd. is merged into Skyline NEPC, Ltd. The NEPC division will continue to operate its Fokkers, while Skyline NEPC, the dominant carrier, will fly the Boeings. This move, which has been caused by personnel problems and fiscal difficulties brought on by the high price of fuel, forces the revitalized carrier to cancel many of its services to and from Bombay, Bangalore, New Delhi, Calcutta, Indore, Coimbatore, and Madras. The year’s loss improves to Rs 1.16 crores.
At the beginning of 2000, offices continue to be maintained at Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, and Ahmedabad. On September 17, daily return service is resumed from Madras to Cochin, Coimbatore, and Madurai. Other services are offered on a sporadic basis.
SKYLINE SWEDEN, A. B.: Sweden (1971-1978). Organized at Malmo-Sturup Airport in 1971, Skyline undertakes ad hoc passenger and cargo charter flights linking Sweden with North Africa and other European destinations, many of them holiday vacation resorts. Per-Gunnar Norlin is chairman of the privately owned carrier, with Lennart Nordstrom as president and Bengt Malmberg as managing director. The fleet comprises 2 Vickers Viscount 800s and 1 Viscount 700 and airline employment grows to 52.
In 1975-1976, the carrier begins operating replacement flights for Linjeflyg, A. B.
Icing causes a Vickers Viscount 838 with 3 crew and 19 passengers to crash into a parking lot 5 km. short of the runway at Stockholm’s Bromma Airport on January 15, 1977; there are no survivors.
Unable to generate sufficient revenues to overcome expenses, recession, and rising fuel costs, the company ceases operations in March 1978.
SKYLINK (PTY.), LTD.: Australia (1990-1991). Formed to provide commuter service in South Australia, Skylink (Pty.), Ltd. is established at Adelaide in 1990. Employing an initial fleet of 2 Cessna 402s, Managing Director Arthur William’s company begins revenues services from its base to Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Kingscote. A new Beech 1900 is delivered from the U. S. in early 1991, but must be returned when the carrier ceases operations later in the year.
SKYLINK AIRLINES, LTD.: Canada (1983-1989). Skylink is established at Boundary Bay Airport at Delta, British Colombia, in 1983 to offer regularly scheduled commuter flights to Victoria. A division of Tradewinds Aviation, Ltd., a charter operator, Skylink interchangeably employs as needed units of the Tradewinds fleet of 1 Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, 2 Britten-Norman BN-2 Islanders, 1 de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, and various piston-engine Cessna equipment.
Operations continue apace during the remainder of the decade with a passenger and cargo route extended to Seattle. Several Fairchild Metro IIIs are acquired.
While on initial approach to the airport at Terrace, British Colombia, on September 26, 1989, a Metro III with two crew and five passengers initiates a go-around maneuver, but collides in fog and smoke with the tops of a line of 80-ft. high trees 300-ft. S of the runway; the plane crashes and there are no survivors.
As a result of a government audit following the tragedy, the carrier is found to be unworthy and its operating certificate is revoked in mid-October.
SKYLINK AVIATION, INC.: 1027 Yonge St., Ste. 300, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 2K9, Canada; Phone 416 924-9000; Fax 416 924-9005; Code SKK; Year Founded 1988. SkyLink is established at Toronto in 1988 to provide a host of general aviation services, including aircraft project management, air charter brokerage, various support activities, as well as charter flights.
During the 1990s, the subsidiary SkyLink Express, Inc. is established to operate courier and freight services across the country and into the U. S. At the beginning of 2000, Walter Arbib is CEO, with Surjit Babra as president. The two oversee a workforce of 140 and the flights of 7 Beech 1900Cs.
In November, the carrier takes a giant step by basing an Ilyushin Il-76 at Windsor, Ontario, for use on transatlantic and other worldwide ad hoc cargo charters.
World History
