JIM HANKINS AIR SERVICE: 1600 Airport Road, Jackson, Mississippi 39209, United States; Phone (601) 354-2789; Fax (681) 3528984; Year Founded 1990. The Hankins family airline is established at Jackson in 1990 to provide all-cargo services under FAA Part 135 certification. James A. Hankins is president/treasurer, with his wife Marian
B. as vice president/secretary and their son Mike as director of operations. Tom Dugger is chief pilot.
Business proves fruitful and by 2000 the company is flying 11 Beech 18s, 3 Beech Barons, and 1 Douglas DC-3.
JIVAIR, A. B.: Goteborg Saeve Airport, Saeve, S-423, Sweden; Phone 46 (31) 877800; Fax 46 (31) 274512; Year Founded 1981. This tiny air taxi is established in 1981. By 2000, Jivair operates both domestic and worldwide executive flights. Four full-time and 2 part-time pilots fly 1 each Cessna Citation I bizjet and Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain.
JMC AIRLINES, LTD.: 2nd Floor, Commonwealth House, Chicago Ave., Manchester Airport, Manchester, England, M90 3FL, United Kingdom; Phone 44 (161) 489-5757; Fax 44 (161) 489-5758; Http://www. jmc-airlines. co. uk; Code MT; Year Founded 1999. In
Late October 1998, the Thomas Cook Group, which has recently purchased and begun to merge both the Sunworld travel concern and its house carrier Airworld Aviation, Ltd. as well as its own Flying Colours Airlines, Ltd., acquires Carlson Leisure Group and its airlines Caledonian Airways, Ltd. (2) and Peach Air, Ltd.
By November 1, the U. K. charter airline business is rapidly approaching consolidation. Through its October move, Thomas Cook gains Caledonian’s slots at London (LGW) and Manchester and with 32 aircraft, now owns the second largest fleet among the nation’s charter carriers. Plans are announced for an increase of service from London (STN), Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, and Glasgow. The fleet will be rationalized, with only the TriStars seen as certain for retention.
As the year ends, Thomas Cook Group, which has assigned its own name to the enlarged travel group, is conducting marketing surveys to determine which airline brand name has the best public image and should be retained for the larger carrier. Early betting is that the names Caledonian (with its memory of delays and incidents) and Peach Air will disappear in addition to that of Airworld, with the romantic Flying Colours winning the label. A final decision is promised before the start of the 1999 summer holiday season.
The merger between Thomas Cook and the Carlson companies is completed on February 2. 1999. Shareholders Carlson Companies, Westdeutsche Landsbank, Thomas Cook, and Preussag, A. G. combine their shares with those of Carlson Leisure Group U. K. to create Thomas Cook Holdings. The Preussag arrangement to acquire 51.1% majority control is transferred to this new entity. With over 20,000 employees, Thomas Cook Holdings is now the third largest of the “big four” British travel and tour operators after Thomson and Airtours.
Although Flying Colours Airlines, Ltd. is, indeed, the surviving airline, the Caledonian Airways, Ltd. (2) brand does not immediately disappear. The two companies, with their enlarged fleet of 34 aircraft, begin the new summer holiday season at the end of March. The amalgamation of travel concerns comes as the European Commission grants permission for Thomas Cook to merge with the Carlson Leisure Group’s U. K. travel interests.
Plans for amalgamation with Caledonian Airways, Ltd. (2) at the conclusion of the summer holiday season in November proceed; it is anticipated that the two carriers will officially become one by the end of March 2000. Caledonian Operations Director David Newall and Operations Manager Barry Fitzgerald resign in July, as Robert Willis becomes operations general manager for the combined operation.
The engineering facilities of the two companies are also combined at Manchester, with some job loss, while fleet rationalization and repainting continues. Arrangements are also made under a new fleet rationalization plan to replace four L-1011s with three B-757-200s and to return three wet-leased TriStars to Air Atlanta Icelandic, H. F.
On September 1, Thomas Cook Group establishes a new holiday travel concern to replace its Sunworld, Sunset, and Inspiration holiday subsidiaries, as well as both Caledonian Airways, Ltd. (2) and Flying Colours Airlines, Ltd. Under the direction of Managing Director Simon Vincent, the new travel brand, to be known as JMC after John Mason Cook, grandson of Thomas Cook, will complete this changeover within five years, assisted in the process by a ?200-million ($320-million) investment program.
As aircraft are repainted with blue bottom and white top fuselages and green tails and other vestiges of corporate image are altered, the names of the tour operating division (JCM Holidays, Ltd.) and in-house airline (JCM Airlines, Ltd.) will be gradually introduced during the next six months. Terry Soult is named managing director of the new JMC Airlines, Ltd. The first two aircraft given the new color schemes are a B-757-28A, previously operated by Flying Colours Airlines, Ltd. and an Airbus A320-231. The latter, plus two others, is leased to Ryan International Airlines in October for the winter tourist season in the U. S.
It is reported, in late November, that the company is working on a new business class to be introduced in the summer of 2001 that will replace the current Caledonian Highland First product.
Caledonian Airways, Ltd. and Flying Colours Airlines, Ltd. disappear completely on March 26, 2000, when JMC Airlines, Ltd. becomes operational under a single air operator certificate. The B-757 fleet now includes 9 Dash-28As, 3 Dash-25Fs, 2 Dash-2Y0s, and 1 Dash-2G5.
A B-757-2G5 is leased from LTU International Airways (Luft-transport Unternehmen, K. G) on April 16; it arrives in England on May 1 wearing full JMC colors. On May 11, JMC becomes only the fifth airline to order the stretched B-757 when it places a $148-million request for two Dash-3CQs to be delivered in the spring of 2001. Two B-757-25Fs leased from GATX join the fleet at the beginning of June. An A300B4 is chartered from Transaer International Airlines, Ltd. for six months from July 14.
In September, orders are placed for two leased A330-243s that will replace the DC-10-30s beginning in January and be ready for the opening of the new summer holiday season at the end of March.
With the beginning of the winter schedule on October 29, one B-757-28A, three A320-214s, and one A320-231 are leased to Apple Vacations in the U. S.; they will be operated by Ryan International Airlines for the tour operator until March. Another B-757-28A is chartered to North American Airlines, which also operates Caribbean holiday charters.
C&N Condor Neckermann Touristic, A. G., parent of Condor Flugdi-enst, GmbH., purchases Thomas Cook Group at the beginning of December for ?550 million. Subject to EU Commission approval, the arrangement will create the world’s third largest holiday group. The UK concern had been put up for sale by C&N rival Preussag, A. G., which had recently acquired Thomson Travel Group, parent of Britannia Airways, Ltd.
The result of the C&N and Thomas Cook merger will be a close new relationship between Condor Flugdienst, GmbH., which is part-owned by Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G., and JMC Airlines, the aircraft of which complement one another very closely. The combined 70-plane fleet includes A320s, B-757s, and Condor’s B-767s.
Also in December, Thomas Cook Group reaches an arrangement with British Airways, Ltd. (2), again subject to EU Commission approval, under which the two will merge their UK-originating scheduled tour operations. Each partner will own 50% shareholding in the new concern when it is officially formed in the new year.
Confirmation of the charter of two A330-200s from CIT Aerospace is provided on December 29. The aircraft will be delivered in late 2001 or early 2002.
JOE BRIGHAM, INC.: 720 Clough Mill Road, Pembroke, New Hampshire 03275, United States; Phone (603) 225-3134; Fax (603) 224-9050; Year Founded 1983. Joe Brigham establishes this carrier named for himself at Pembroke in 1983 to offer air taxi and charter flights, as well as executive and VIP transport, construction support, external load, agricultural, forestry patrol, and sight-seeing services. The company also operates a flight school, as well as FAA Repair Station #FTYR033E.
By 2000, Raymond G. Newcomb is president and oversees five fulltime employees. The company generates $1.6 million in annual revenues and operates a Bell 204B and 4 Bell 206B JetRangers.
JOHNSON, L. McK. (PTY.), LTD.: Australia (1932). Lawrence McKenzie-Johnson of Launceston, Tasmania, wins an Australian government contract in early 1932 to fly the mail between that town and Whitemark on Flinders Island, 120 miles offshore. Employing a Des-outter Mk. II, formerly owned by Ireland’s Iona National Airways, Ltd., biweekly service is inaugurated on June 7. In October, McKenzie-Johnson purchases shareholding and merges his operation in a small, unnamed airline owned by the two Holyman brothers, Ivan and Victor; the amalgamated carrier is registered as Tasmanian Aerial Services (Pty.), Ltd.
World History
