One for Toby...G-BNND

[Garry Russell]

Pics of this are rare..served about three months and only did Guernsey Heathrow

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-UK/B ... 4dbd52bb57

[TobyV]

Hi Garry,

Thanks for that. I dont remember that one from the time but I doubt I would. I have always suspected the one I flew on was G-CNMF. Shame KLM totalled Air UK, flybe (then Air UK's minor competitor, Jersey European) have become what Air UK could have been. Hey ho!

Toby

[Garry Russell]

Hi Toby

You may have forgotten by this one came up in a PM conversation a long while back now and you said you had never seen a pic of it

I did find one for you but not a very good one...this is much better

'ND only did the LHR GUR and never anything else with UK......it had no galley IT was from just after CHristmas to the beginning of March so being a winter sibject was not so well recorded.

It's unlikely you flew on G-CNMF...the Srs. -100 were bought for the Sou sevices and it was probably one of those you flew on.

They may have operated but I personally only know of 100's on Southampton GUR and then not that often

Air UK would never have come to much as they did not believe in cutting fares and they lost business to the others long before KLM started swallowing them up.

[TobyV]

I flew SOU-GCI in December 1988 and again in July (?) 1989 and I dont think they had any -100 series at that point although I could be wrong. According to G-INFO, Air UK registered G-UKPC in April '89 and G-UKJF in October of that year. Some photos I have from SOU in 1988 show 'MF and also their other -200 G-CSJH. But I was far too young at the time to know exactly which one it was. I got my mother to take a photo of one at GCI in '89 with her dreadful old Kodak camera that took 110 film! It only shows the nose up to the engine intakes but counting the number of windows, its a 200. I think that after 1990 though, Air UK definitely used -100s and the 200s were all gone from the airline by '92 or '93.

[Garry Russell]

AH right

Maybe they used them at first and found them too big.hence the smaller.

It would be nice to know which one you did fy in

[TobyV]

I think that Air UK didnt specifically order the 146 for those routes but in the late 80s, the Channel Islands were a very popular destination, especially from Southampton and a number of airlines were competing to operate the routes hence sticking the 146-200 gave Air UK a shorter flight time (25 mins from memory) and nearly double the capacity of Jersey European's F27 or Air Atlantique's budgie (or the Viscounts that were perdiocally used by BAF, Guernsey airlines etc).

By 1990/91, Air UK had all three variants of 146 in the fleet and the -100 would seem the more natural choice for those operations. Sadly I didn't fly from Soton from about 1990 until 1996, by which time Air UK had only F27-500s flying to the CI's. I was a teenager by then and was rather disappointed it wasn't something newer like the F50 or even I think they had ATR's laterly. I'd be really keen to go in a Fokker 27 now though! I miss the smell of the leaking AvTur, the whine of the Darts and the view from the big picture windows!

[Garry Russell]

Guersney wanted a jet on the Sou but UK couldn't justify the ones they had, not did they have enough so bought those specifically for the Guernsey Sou or so they said at the time.......Jersey was much more in demand and often had 300 on the route otherwise 200.

This was mainly weekends so the rest of the time they were elsewhere.

In the event the 146 were taken off the Guernsey runs even eventually Heathrow as soon as Air UK could get away with it.

The demise of Air UK was one of the best things in recent years as they held and strangled vital routes to Guernsey in particular.

The selling of the LHR slots losing the link for the Island was disgusting.