First Air Rhodesia is formed in 1964 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Central African Airways Corporation (CAA) to provide scheduled service with a pair of provided Douglas DC-3s to points in the country and throughout southern Africa. The principal route is flown roundtrip from Salisbury to Ft. Victoria 10 times a week.
Late in 1966, frequencies on the Ft. Victoria route are advanced to 12 times a week. A third DC-3 is provided and, early in 1967, a thrice-weekly roundtrip begins between Salisbury and Gwelo.
On September 1, in anticipation of the disbandment of CAA, a second Air Rhodesia is legally chartered. The multistate CAA shuts its doors on December 31.
AIR RHODESIA, LTD. (2): Southern Rhodesia (1967-1980). In anticipation of the disbandment of Central African Airways Corporation, a second Air Rhodesia is chartered at Salisbury on September 1, 1967. Mervyn E. Eyett is named general manager and he expands the workforce to 1,000. Pending the end of CAA, flights with four Douglas DC-3s continue as before over the next four months, linking the capital with Gwelo and Victoria Falls.
When CAA shuts its doors on December 31, the national airline assumes its responsibilities for its own operation with the 4 DC-3s and 5 Vickers Viscount 782s (Lundi, Shangani, Mazoe, Sabie, and an unnamed unit) on foreign and domestic routes.
In 1968, the fleet comprises 8 aircraft. These are now given aircraft livery consisting of a white top with dark blue and light blue cheatlines along the side of the fuselage. Sloping light and dark blue lines appear on the tail fin, meeting at an angle at the top. Superimposed over the tail lines is a stylized Zimbabwe bird, nicked named a “twiggi bird.”
Scheduled service is inaugurated to Beira, Blantyre, Durban, Johannesburg, Lourenco Marques, and Vilanculos.
A total of 173,000 passengers are carried and revenues earned are $6.6 million. A small profit is reported.
The workforce in 1969 is 975 and enplanements total 192,962. In 1970, the employee population is increased by 4% to 1,016. Now operating
6 Viscount 782s and 3 DC-3s, the carrier flies 229,717 passengers, an increase of 16% over 1969; freight traffic, however, dips 3%.
International sanctions are put in place against Rhodesia during 1971-1972, even as the carrier faces ever-stiffening competition from South African Airways (Pty.), Ltd. Secret plans are put in place to break the embargo and gain new aircraft. Enplanements during the latter year total 202,146.
Without warning, 3 former Eastern Air Lines Boeing 720Bs, obtained by covert means, arrive at Salisbury on the evening of April 14, 1973 and are quickly taxied away from public view to the company’s hangars. Without fanfare, the trio is christened (Manicaland, Matabe-land, and Mashonaland) and prepared for service. The first Rhodesian B-720B commercial flight occurs on June 6, a charter from Salisbury to Bulawayo and Durban.
Scheduled service—begun just as the Yom Kippur Mideast war breaks out—is stillborn, as fuel prices jump a huge 35% to an annual total of Rh$820,000. The last scheduled DC-3 service is flown in October, although the venerable aircraft will remain available for use. The tightening trade ban causes service to Gwelo to be suspended.
Passenger traffic this year grows by 9.2% to 394,000 while freight skyrockets 53.2%.
At this point, new General Manager Pat Travers’s workforce totals 1,113 employees. Cargo soars a massive 117% in 1974 while passenger boardings jump 14% to 448,847. The revolution in Portugal will have a dramatic impact on company activities several years hence.
Passenger bookings increase 1.7% in 1975 to 456,000, but freight falls 25%. Late in the year, the B-720Bs are placed on the company’s Victoria Falls routes.
In 1976-1977 the growing political isolation of the minority-white-ruled nation forces the carrier to begin constricting its international route network. In March of the former year, newly independent Mozambique bans company flights not only from Blantyre and Beira, but also from overflying its territory. Traffic is static.
Foreign service in 1978 is flown only to the South African cities of Durban and Johannesburg. Chairman F. E. Buch’s carrier employs 1,235 workers and possesses a current fleet of 3 Boeing 720Bs and
7 Viscount 700s.
On September 3, in the first successful ground-to-air missile attack on a civilian airliner in scheduled service, Flight 825, a Viscount 782D, piloted by Capt. John Hood with 3 other crew and 52 passengers and en route from Kariba to Salisbury, is shot down some 55 km. S of its point of origin by Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU guerrillas using a Soviet-made 9M32 Strela or SAM-7 heat-seeking missile (38 dead); of the 18 survivors, 10 are murdered by guerrillas at the bush crash site.
The disaster also has political cost to the government of Prime Minister Smith, which had recently held secret discussions with Nkomo in Lusaka. White public opinion against the freedom movement hardens.
Freight traffic this year grows by 5%, but enplanements are down to 423,000.
On February 16, 1979, a guerrilla SAM-7 missile destroys Flight 827, a Viscount 782D piloted by Capt. Jan Andre de Plessis with 4 other crew and 54 passengers, shortly after its takeoff from Kariba for the continuation of a flight to Salisbury that had originated at Victoria Falls; there are no survivors. Nkomo will announce that the downing had been a “mistake,” caused by bad intelligence that the commander-in-chief of the Rhodesian armed forces would be aboard.
Immediately after this attack, seven of the company’s 50 flight attendants quit. South African Airways (Pty.), Ltd. cancels its twice-weekly Salisbury to London service, as well as its twice-weekly roundtrips between Johannesburg and Victoria Falls.
To protect the remaining Viscounts, all of their shiny metal surfaces, including propeller blades and hubs, are painted in a special yellow-green matte paint. Special engine guards, designed to fend off heat seeking missiles, are attached to nacelles.
On March 1, Air Rhodesia terminates all flights to Wankie and all services between Kariba and Victoria Falls.
Hoping to win permission to obtain larger aircraft, the company begins construction of a large new Salisbury hangar on the grounds of the Airways Club playing fields.
As the nation approaches a change from minority to majority rule, the carrier is briefly labeled Air Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, Ltd., but in June 1980, is rechristened Air Zimbabwe Corporation.
AIR ROSE, A. S.: Turkey (1997-2000) . This Turkish charter operator is established by Alaeddin Szdemir and Mesut Sever at Antalaya in October 1997. One each Boeing 737-33A and Next Generation B-737-7L9 are leased, the latter, from Maersk Air, A. S., is christened Berkcan. They are employed on May 21, 1999, to launch flights to coastal holiday destinations from Paris, Brussels, Rome, and Amsterdam. The workforce grows to 91 and plans are made to initiate services to the U. K. and northern Europe.
Unfortunately, heavy losses and rising costs force the company to suspend operations in late March 2000. It will be reborn as EuroSun, S. A. in time for the winter tourist season in late October.
AIR ROUERGUE, S. A.: France (1970-1980). Organized at Aerodrome de Rodez-Marcillac in December 1970, this charter carrier is initially known as Uni-Air Rouergue, S. A. Employing a Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, the company undertakes passenger and cargo charters to destinations in France and the Mediterranean.
The Beech 99 operator changes its name to Air Rouergue, S. A. in January 1974 and begins scheduled operations linking Rodez with Paris and Albi, Aurillac with Paris, and Le Puy and Lyons with Marseilles. Within four years, Managing Director M. Grimas’s fleet grows to comprise 5 Fokker F.27s, 3 Beech 99s, 1 de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, and the original Navajo.
Unable to maintain economic viability in the face of rising expenses (led by fuel price increases in 1979), the company is forced to cease operations in 1980.
AIR RUIDOSO: United States (1987-1989). Air Ruidoso is established at Sierra Blanca Regional Airport, the new facility at Ruidoso, New Mexico, during the fall of 1987. Outfitted with a single Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, it begins scheduled services to El Paso in December. Flights to Albuquerque begin in January 1988 and continue apace until October, at which point the Navajo is seized as security for unpaid fuel bills.
In early 1989, the FAA revokes the small regional’s operating certificate, claiming Air Ruidoso had employed unqualified pilots and falsified its training records. Company officials fight the charges and at the same time, make arrangements with Yute Air to lease two aircraft and begin operations in Alaska.
The FAA allows New Mexico operations to resume during the summer. The carrier’s administrators do not, however, file for a required fitness redetermination from the DOT, which cites this failure when it revokes the company’s certificate for a second and final time in December.
AIR RWANDA (SOCIETE NATIONALE DES TRANSPORTS AERIENS DU RWANDA, S. A.): Rwanda (1975-1994). Formed at Kigali on July 17, 1975 as the national airline, Air Rwanda undertakes domestic passenger and freight charters as well as local scheduled flights. Destinations served within Rwanda come to include Gisenyi, Kamebe, and Butare, much of it in the mountainous tropical highland.
During the early 1980s, the fleet of 2 de Havilland DHC-6-300 Twin Otters is upgraded by the addition of a Boeing 707-328C first flown by its previous owner, Air France. The freighter, christened Impala, is employed to begin international freight flights to Mombasa, Bujumbura, Ostend, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire.
Operations continue apace for the remainder of the decade. In 1987, a grant from the UN Development Fund’s civil aviation program permits the carrier to begin a three-year training program for pilots and technicians.
By 1989, airline employment is 215 and the fleet has been increased by the addition of a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander and a Piper PA-31310 Navajo.
During this year, passenger boardings total 10,782 and 7.21 million FTKs are flown.
The B-707-328C spends the first six months of 1990 in maintenance. In October, the country is invaded by rebel Tutsi forces from Uganda. The nation disintegrates in civil war, severely impacting domestic air services.
In October 1991, joint weekly all-cargo service to Frankfurt is begun in cooperation with German Cargo Airlines, GmbH. (GCA), a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. The airlines fly the service in alternate weeks, with GCA employing a DC-8-73F and Air Rwanda its B-707-328C.
By 1992, Chairman Juvenal Uwilingiyimana’s fleet employs 250 workers, but is otherwise unchanged. Domestic operations have all but ceased because of the civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, despite the peace agreement signed in August 1993.
The joint operation with GCA ends in early 1994. Following the establishment of a coalition government in July, the company is reformed into Rwandair Cargo (Societe Nationale des Transports Aeriens du Rwanda, S. A.).
AIR SAFARIS, LTD.: United Kingdom (1952-1962). Three ex-Royal South African Air Force pilots form Tropic Airways (Pty.), Ltd. on September 21, 1950 to offer charter flights from South Africa to Europe. Equipped with a single ex-military Douglas C-47 converted to civil DC-3 standard, the company initiates service on March 18, 1951, flying multistop Johannesburg-London. During the remainder of the year, Dutch and German immigrants are flown to South Africa from Amsterdam and Hamburg.
Early in 1952, Tropic purchases an ex-RAF Dakota; however, British regulations require that, for the purchase to be consummated, a U. K. subsidiary be formed. As a result, Meredith Air Transport, Ltd. is formed and registered on August 12. In December, radio parts are hauled to Khartoum.
In 1953, inclusive-tours are undertaken to the Mediterranean from London while the South African Dakota continues to fly immigrants southward. In June, the Meredith DC-3 is sold to raise capital that will allow Tropic’s founders to reform their South African company into Trek Airways (Pty.), Ltd. The Meredith subsidiary continues in Britain.
Left without aircraft, Meredith Air Transport, Ltd. is reformed into African Air Safaris, Ltd. on November 29, 1954. In October 1956, the British entity purchases an ex-British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Handley Page Hermes 4, the Hero, for Trek Airways (Pty.), Ltd.; however, the aircraft proves unsuitable and is thereafter leased to Britavia. When Trek Airways (Pty.), Ltd. introduces DC-4s in 1958, its English subsidiary receives two Trek Vikings, which are used to initiate low-cost tourist flights to Johannesburg from Southend.
In 1959, Trek Airways (Pty.), Ltd.’s English agent initiates a final season of Viking flights to South Africa as well as inclusive tours to such European destinations as Basel, Dusseldorf, Jersey, Bergen, Geneva, Palma, Nice, Rotterdam, Munich, Lyon, Zagreb, and Toulouse. The base of operation is moved to London (LGW) late in the year and on November 26, the company, now independent of Trek Airways (Pty.), Ltd., is renamed Air Safaris, Ltd.
Two more Vikings are acquired, together with the Hermes 4 Hero returned from Britavia, and a significant number of inclusive tours to Europe are undertaken during the summer of 1960. Meanwhile, on May 29, the Viking Alouette II with 3 crew and 27 passengers makes a hard landing at Tarbes, France, on May 29; although the aircraft must be written off, there are no fatalities.
The flying division of Don Everall (Aviation), Ltd., together with its Viking and scheduled route network, is purchased in November, along with the last two Hermes 4s, once BOAC’s Horsa and Hecuba, of Falcon Airways, Ltd.
The company’s first scheduled service is launched twice weekly in April 1961 with Vikings from Bournemouth-Ostend and Amsterdam; later in the month, Bournemouth-Dublin and Belfast operations commence. In April, the ex-BOAC HP-81 Hector is purchased from Skyways, Ltd. The Birmingham-Jersey route begins on May 27 and on June 3, Vikings begin Newcastle-Birmingham-Bournemouth scheduled flights and simultaneously, employing leased de Havilland DH 114 Herons, initiates Birmingham-Sandown service. The ex-BOAC HP-81 Hestia is acquired in June and using aircraft of her type, the company also begins a full summer of inclusive tours to southern Europe as well as Don Everall’s old but frequent Birmingham to Dublin and Paris (LBG) charters.
Financial problems bring cutbacks in the fall. The Bournemouth-Newcastle service is suspended on September 4 while the last inclusive tour of out Newcastle is flown on October 8. The Dublin route is closed on October 27 and when a Hermes 4 lands at London (LGW) from Lisbon on October 31, inclusive tours cease. The HP-81 Hector is sold back to Skyways, Ltd. in December.
On January 11, 1962, the Air Transport Licensing Board cancels all of the carrier’s tickets and the company ceases, ?500,000 in debt.
AIR SAFARIS, LTD. (AIR SAFARIS AND SERVICES, LTD.): P. O. Box 71, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand; Phone 03 680-6880; Fax 03 680-6740; Http://www. airsafaris. co. nz/; Code SRI; Year Founded 1969. Formed at Lake Tekapo in early 1969, Air Safaris is equipped with 3 Cessna 207s. Regular scenic air tours are flown over Mount Cook and the Milford Sound regions, South Island. The company builds an infrastructure and base at Lake Tekapo in 1974.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the company also begins flying out of Glentanner Park/Mt. Cook. The fleet grows to include 1 GAF Nomad N-22A, and 1 Pilatus PC-6 Turbo-Porter, in addition to the Cessnas. Bookings reach 18,300 in 1983. Services change little over the remainder of the decade, although one Nomad is lost.
As the result of sawdust frozen atop the wings, the Nomad N.24A, with a single pilot, stalls during its initial climb away from Lake Tekapo Airfield, New Zealand, on July 20, 1987, and crashes; although the plane must be written off, the pilot walks away from the wreck.
Enplanements in 1990 total 19,000, including a thousand flown on charter. That figure moves to 21,600 in 1991. Over the next four years, the company offers a variety of alpine scenic flights, including its most popular service, the 50-min. “Grand Traverse,” which covers all the major attractions of both the Mount Cook and National Parks, plus 12 major glaciers.
By 1998, Managing Director Richard C. Rayward’s fleet has been upgraded by the addition of 3 GAF Nomad N.24As, 1 Cessna 207A Sta-tionaire, 1 Cessna 177 Cardinal, and 1 Piper Cherokee. Flights, largely nonscheduled, continue without incident through the summer.
While on a September 14 flight-seeing tour of the Southern Alps, the Cardinal, with one pilot and two Japanese passengers, crashes on Rudolf Glacier, about 30 km. from the peak of 12,350-ft. Mount Cook. It takes rescue teams two days to reach the wreckage where no survivors are found.
Service is maintained in 1999-2000.
AIR SAHARA, LTD.: 7th Floor, Ambadeep Building, 14 Kasturba Gandhi Mang., New Delhi, 110001, India; Phone 91 (11) 332-6851; Fax 91 (11) 332-6858; Http://www. saharaairline. com; Code S2; Year Founded 2000. Having changed the name of Sahara India Airlines,
Ltd. to Sahara Airlines, Ltd. early in 2000, President S. Roy Sahara finds that a smaller Sahara Airlines, S. A. had already been established under that name in Algeria. Consequently, the company is again renamed in October.
Although a third base is opened at Calcutta, revenue flights continue as before with a fleet that comprises 4 Boeing 737-4Q8s on charter from ILFC, along with 2 B-737-800s leased from Tombo Aviation.
By mid-October, President Sahara has sold 3 retired B-737-200s to Blue Dart Aviation, Ltd. for use as freighters.
AIR SAINT BARTHELEMY, S. A.: French West Indies (19812000). This privately owned charter operator is formed by Barth’s Aviation at St. Barthelemy on Guadeloupe on October 1, 1981. Employing 2 Cessnas and 1 Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, it undertakes ad hoc passenger and cargo flights into the eastern Caribbean from its bases at Pointe-a-Pitre and St. Barthelemy.
Flights continue apace for the next 12 years with little change. The fleet in 1994 includes 2 Australian-made Government Aircraft Factories, Ltd. N-24A Nomads, 1 Dornier 228-201, and 1 de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter.
Operations continue apace in 1995-1999; the Nomads, however, are withdrawn. In 1999, the Air France-sponsored combine transports a total of 600,000 passengers.
In order to create a larger carrier, the small airlines of the French Caribbean, including this unit, are merged into SATA (Societe Antil-laise de Transports Aeriens, S. A.-Air Guadeloupe) during July 2000. The surviving partner, controlled by 70% majority owner Groupe Dubreuil, which had previously owned the French carrier Regional Airlines, S. A., is then renamed Air Caraibes, S. A. (2).
World History
