Court Line fifty years ago today
Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 8:57 am
Yes folks, believe or not, 15 AUG74 was a black day in the holiday airline business.
Court Line Aviation, owners of Airfair, Clarksons Holidays, Horizon Holidays, Meon Villas and OSL, collapsed into bankruptcy leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded abroad, thousands more out of pocket as paid for holidays and deposits were non refundable not to mention the loyal, hard working and dedicated staff unemployed.
Their colourful fleet of BAC1-11 500 aircraft in pastel colours of lilac, pink, turquoise and yellow plus two TriStars AA (yellow banana)and AB (Pink Lady) were grounded. Although not a launch customer of either aircraft the 1-11 was widely used by British and German holiday airlines. Despite BEA, later BA receiving government subsidies to operate an aircraft not of their own choice, the independents were not afforded this benefit despite being profitable obtaining the highest hour utilisation of 1-11s by Court Line.
The aftermath was a game changer. The launch of ATOL to protect holidaymakers funds, a return to sensible seat rates in the charter market and the emergence of Britannia Airways as the UK’s largest holiday airline, eclipsing Dan-Air London and later, Laker Airways.
So despite being a tragedy to lose such a trailblazing company the lessons learned, or should have been by later competitors such as Air Europe, paved the way for today’s easyJet and Ryanair to provide low cost, efficient and effective travel across the European continent and further afield.
Court Line Aviation, owners of Airfair, Clarksons Holidays, Horizon Holidays, Meon Villas and OSL, collapsed into bankruptcy leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded abroad, thousands more out of pocket as paid for holidays and deposits were non refundable not to mention the loyal, hard working and dedicated staff unemployed.
Their colourful fleet of BAC1-11 500 aircraft in pastel colours of lilac, pink, turquoise and yellow plus two TriStars AA (yellow banana)and AB (Pink Lady) were grounded. Although not a launch customer of either aircraft the 1-11 was widely used by British and German holiday airlines. Despite BEA, later BA receiving government subsidies to operate an aircraft not of their own choice, the independents were not afforded this benefit despite being profitable obtaining the highest hour utilisation of 1-11s by Court Line.
The aftermath was a game changer. The launch of ATOL to protect holidaymakers funds, a return to sensible seat rates in the charter market and the emergence of Britannia Airways as the UK’s largest holiday airline, eclipsing Dan-Air London and later, Laker Airways.
So despite being a tragedy to lose such a trailblazing company the lessons learned, or should have been by later competitors such as Air Europe, paved the way for today’s easyJet and Ryanair to provide low cost, efficient and effective travel across the European continent and further afield.
