In 1947, former Royal
Air Force pilot Gerald "Gerry" Freeman founded Transair
Ltd as an air taxi operator at Croydon Airport. Following a difficult
start, in Britain's poor economic conditions, the airline became
very profitable by specialising in distributing newspapers. By
1952, the number of annual newspaper delivery flights using Avro
Ansons exceeded 3,000. Transair's newspaper flights also established
industry performance standards. Transair Douglas C-47B Dakota
at Manchester (Ringway) Airport in 1953. In 1953, Transair began
flying British holidaymakers to sunnier climes in the Mediterranean
following the signing of its first IT charter contract with Vladimir
Raitz's Horizon Holidays. By that time, the airline's fleet was
ten Douglas Dakota piston airliners. Although all of these were
second-hand, they were immaculately maintained. By late-1956,
Freeman was planning to shift Transair's operating base and headquarters
from Croydon to Gatwick and to replace some of the ageing Dakotas
with three brand-new, state-of-the-art Vickers Viscount 800 series
turboprops. He was also planning to build a new hangar at Gatwick
for £300,000. Although he had £500,000 in retained
profits, he needed a further £1m for the planned investment.
Freeman's search for finance led to an offer from Airwork to
buy him out. Airwork also offered to leave him in control of
Transair and to give him a seat on the board of Airwork's holding
company. Freeman's accepted Airwork's offer and Transair became
an Airwork subsidiary the following year. During that time, the
War Office invited new tenders for trooping flight contracts
to Europe and the Far East, as a consequence of the Government's
growing dissatisfaction with the operational performance and
high costs of the ageing Handley Page Hermes fleet that was contracted
from Airwork, Britavia and Skyways to operate most of these flights.
The War Office awarded Transair the European contract, which
was to be operated with the new Viscounts the airline had on
order. The contract was to become effective from 1958. By the
time Transair joined Airwork, its operations encompassed the
Viscount trooping contract between the United Kingdom and the
Western Mediterranean, intensive mail and freight services under
long-term charter contracts, IT flights, ad hoc night charters
and a seasonal London—Jersey scheduled service. In May 1958,
Transair shifted its entire operation from Croydon to Gatwick.
By that time, its fleet consisted of three Viscounts and ten
Dakotas. On 30 May 1958, Transair operated the first commercial
air service from Gatwick. Transair's Viscount 804 G-AOXU was
the first aircraft of its type to be based at the airport. This
was also the time the process of merging the Airwork-controlled
airlines with Hunting-Clan to form BUA started. Transair operated the following aircraft types:
Avro Anson,
Douglas C47's
Vickers Viscount 804
In April 1958, the Transair
fleet comprised 13 aircraft.
Transair fleet in April 1958 Aircraft Number
Vickers Viscount 804. 2
Douglas C47's. 11 |
