AirUK
Air U.K. Limited, branded as AirUK, was a regional airline in the United Kingdom formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving four rival UK-based regional airlines. British & Commonwealth Holdings-owned British Island Airways and Air Anglia were the two dominant merger partners.
The merged entity's corporate headquarters were originally located at Redhill, the location of the old BIA head office. It subsequently relocated to Crawley. In addition to the main maintenance base at Norwich Airport, there also used to be a second major maintenance base at Blackpool Airport. This was closed down following Air UK's major retrenchment during the early 1980s recession.
In 1987, Air UK established Air UK Leisure as a charter subsidiary. The following year, Air UK shifted its headquarters to Stansted Airport. When Stansted's new Foster + Partners designed terminal opened in 1991, the airline became its first and subsequently main tenant.
Air UK was a full member of the International Air Transport Association for most of its existence.
Air UK originally was a wholly owned subsidiary of British Air Transport Holdings, a successor to the Air Holdings Group owned 90% by B&C and 10% by Eagle Star Insurance. This made the Cayzer family, who owned B&C, the controlling shareholders.
Following the beginning of the gradual liberalisation of the European Union internal air transport market in 1987, Dutch flag carrier KLM, a long-standing business partner of Air UK and its predecessor Air Anglia, acquired a 14.9% minority stake in Air UK's holding company. In 1995, KLM increased its minority stake in Air UK to 45%. In 1997, KLM became Air UK's sole shareholder when it acquired B&C's stake in British Air Transport. The following year Air UK was renamed KLM UK.
History
Aircraft operated
Air UK operated the following aircraft types at one point or another during its 19-year existence:- Avion de Transport Regional ATR-72
- BAC One-Eleven 200/400 series
- British Aerospace 146 100/200/300 series
- Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante
- Fokker F27 100/200/400/500/600 series
- Fokker F28 Fellowship 1000/4000 series
- Fokker 50
- Fokker 100
- Handley Page Dart Herald
- Shorts 330
- Shorts 360
Fleet in 1980
File:Air UK BAC 1-11.jpg|thumb|right|An Air UK BAC One-Eleven still in basic BIA livery at Basel/Mulhouse EuroAirport in 1980
File:F-27-G-SPUD-0594.jpg|thumb|right|An Air UK Fokker F27 still in basic Air Anglia livery at Aberdeen Airport in 1981
| Aircraft | Number |
| BAC One-Eleven 400 | 4 |
| Fokker F28 Fellowship 4000 | 2 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 200 | 14 |
| Handley Page Dart Herald | 11 |
| Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante | 6 |
| Total | 37 |
Air UK employed 1,700 people at this time.
Fleet in 1983
In April 1983 the Air UK fleet comprised 21 aircraft.File:Air UK Handley Page Herald.jpg|thumb|right|An Air UK Handley Page Dart Herald in the modified blue-and-white scheme at Jersey Airport in 1983
| Aircraft | Number |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 200 | 10 |
| Handley Page Dart Herald | 6 |
| Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante | 5 |
| Total | 21 |
Air UK employed 850 people at this time.
Fleet in 1985
In March 1985 the Air UK fleet comprised 22 aircraft.File:Air UK F-27 Friendship.jpg|thumb|right|An Air UK Fokker F27 in the modified blue-and-white scheme at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1985
| Aircraft | Number |
| Fokker F28 Fellowship 1000 | 1 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 200 | 16 |
| Shorts 360 | 4 |
| Shorts 330 | 1 |
| Total | 22 |
Air UK employed 850 people at this time.
Fleet in 1988
In March 1988 the Air UK fleet comprised 22 aircraft.File:Shorts360.JPG|thumb|right|A pair of Air UK Shorts 360s in the second scheme at Humberside Airport in 1989| Aircraft | Number |
| BAC One-Eleven 400 | 1 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-200 | 1 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 500 | 2 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 600 | 3 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 200 | 10 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 100 | 1 |
| Shorts 360 | 4 |
| Total | 22 |
Two British Aerospace BAe 146-200 were on order.
Air UK employed 975 people at this time.
Fleet in 1990
In March 1990 the Air UK fleet comprised 27 aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-300 | 4 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-200 | 3 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-100 | 2 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 500 | 2 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 600 | 2 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 200 | 11 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 100 | 1 |
| Shorts 360 | 2 |
| Total | 27 |
Air UK employed 1,340 people at this time.
Fleet in 1995
In March/April 1995 the Air UK fleet comprised 28 aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-300 | 7 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-200 | 2 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-100 | 2 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 500 | 6 |
| Fokker 50 | 1 |
| Fokker 100 | 9 |
| Shorts 360 | 1 |
| Total | 28 |
Eight Fokker 50 were on order.
Air UK employed 1,466 people at this time.
Fleet in 1997
In March/April 1997 the Air UK fleet comprised 36 aircraft.| Aircraft | Number |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-300 | 10 |
| British Aerospace BAe 146-100 | 1 |
| Fokker F27 Friendship 500 | 5 |
| Fokker 50 | 9 |
| Fokker 100 | 11 |
| Total | 36 |
Four Fokker 100 were on order.
Air UK employed 2,000 people at this time.
Third Force
Air UK was the name of the new airline resulting from the merger of BIA and Air Anglia. It was incorporated on 1 January 1980. Operations commenced on 16 January 1980. At the time of its inception, Air UK was the largest regional airline in the UK and the country's third-largest scheduled carrier. It had a staff of 1,700, carried more than 1m, mainly scheduled, passengers annually and had a fleet of 40 aircraft, consisting of six jets and 34 turboprops. Apart from the four One-Eleven 400s, which were predominantly operated on charter flights, all the other aircraft were part of Air UK's scheduled service fleet.For marketing purposes, there was no gap between the letters "U" and "K" in the "Air UK" logo in the newly merged entity's first livery, which was a stylised Union Flag.
Former BIA managing director Peter Villa became Air UK's first MD as well.
At the time of its creation, Air UK was sometimes referred to as the unofficial "Third Force" among the main contemporary scheduled airlines in the UK being the UK's official "Second Force" and British Airways.
Following the merger, most of the fleet progressively adopted Air UK's new blue, white and red colour scheme. Originally, this featured a predominantly blue fuselage with a white-red-white strip across the windows and a white roof. The tail was also predominantly blue, apart from the "Air UK" logo. However, the Civil Aviation Authority disapproved of this predominantly blue livery, arguing that it could potentially pose a safety hazard for other aircraft as it was difficult for other crews to see the blue aircraft against a blue sky. To address the CAA's safety concerns, Air UK decided to amend its original colour scheme by opting for a hybrid blue-and-white scheme featuring a blue fuselage and a white tail.
Air UK's scheduled route network initially served the following 33 points: Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Basel, Belfast, Bergen, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brussels, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Guernsey, Humberside, Isle of Man, Jersey, Leeds Bradford, Le Touquet, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, London Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Ostend, Paris, Rotterdam, Southampton, Southend, Stavanger and Teesside.
Air UK was the first and, at the time, only scheduled airline in the UK to fly from all three main London airports.
Following British Airways' decision to retire its Vickers Viscount turboprop fleet and to withdraw from its loss-making regional scheduled routes, Air UK assumed BA's regional routes from Heathrow to Guernsey, Manchester to the Isle of Man, Leeds to Belfast and Dublin, and Edinburgh to Jersey in April 1980. Air UK's new, year-round Heathrow—Guernsey route was its most prominent scheduled route serving London's premier airport.