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Hunting-Clan Air Transport was
a wholly private, British independent airline that was founded
in the immediate post-World War II period. It began trading on
the 1st of January 1946 as Hunting Air Travel Ltd. It was a subsidiary
of the Hunting Group of companies, which had come from the shipping
industry and could trace its history back to the 19th century.
The newly formed airline's first operating base was at Bovingdon
Airport in Southeast England. Its main activities were contract,
scheduled and non-scheduled domestic and international air services
that were initially operated with Douglas Dakota and Vickers
Viking piston airliners from the company's Bovingdon base. A
change of name to Hunting Air Transport occurred in 1951. By
that time, the airline had emerged as one of the healthiest and
most securely financed independent airlines in Britain. In October
1953, the firm's name changed to Hunting-Clan Air Transport,
as a result of an agreement between the Hunting Group and the
Clan Line group of companies to invest £500,000 each in
a new company named Hunting-Clan Air Holdings Ltd, the holding
company for the combined group's air transport interests. Apart
from Hunting-Clan Air Transport itself, this included Field Aircraft
Services Ltd, the Hunting group's aircraft maintenance arm. In
1960, Hunting-Clan Air Transport merged with the Airwork group
to form British United Airways (BUA). |
