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Crilly Airways Ltd was founded
by entrepreneur Frederick Leo Crilly. The airline operated passenger
services between several cities in England in the mid 1930's.
The airline started with a capital of 12,000 pounds. - Crilly
Airways started up running two eight seat de Havilland Dragons
from Braunstone, a suburb of Leicester. The first of these two
aircraft was christened Spirit of Doncaster. They also operated
a de Havilland Fox Moth, and two General Aircraft Monospar twin
engined monoplanes. - In 1935 Crilly Airways sought government
approval to operate an air service between Britain and Ireland
but was refused. It was the Irish government's intention to operate
a national airline between the two countries. - This airline
was the first to offer a frequent flyer program. - Crilly Airways
bought four 12 seater Fokker F.XIIs from KLM. Crilly Airways,
using these planes, was the first airline to run an airmail service
between Portugal and England, opening this service on the 1st
of February 1936. At the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, one of the
Fokker F.XIIs was christened Lisboa (Lisbon) by Menina Maria
do Carmo Carmona Costa, the young granddaughter of the nation's
president. It was Crilly's intention to extend this service to
Gibraltar and West Africa, but this plan came to a halt when
the Spanish government refused Crilly Airways permission to overfly
its territory due to the Spanish Civil War. - Unable to survive
financially following the failure of the Portuguese venture,
the company ceased trading on September 9, 1936, and entered
receivership. British Airways Ltd. bought the aircraft and started
the company British Airways Iberia Ltd. with Crilly as managing
director. But this company also soon went bankrupt. - The planes
were then sold, via shady deals, to the Spanish nationalists
in the Spanish Civil War. The company was absorbed in to
British Airways and ceased trading on September the 9th 1936. |
