Silver City Airways
Silver City Airways was an airline based in the United Kingdom that operated mainly in Europe between 1946 and 1962. Unlike many airlines at the time, it was independent of government-owned corporations; its parent company was Zinc Corporation, an Australian company involved mainly in mining and mineral processing. The name "Silver City" originated as a nickname of Broken Hill, Australia – an area famed for silver mines, including some owned by the airline's parent company.
The first commercial flight by Silver City departed London Heathrow for Sydney via Johannesburg in late 1946. The following year, Silver City leased its first Bristol Freighter, moved its base to Blackbushe and participated in the airlift of Hindu and Muslim refugees between Pakistan and India. In 1948, control of Silver City passed from the Zinc Corporation to British Aviation Services. In July of that year, the airline inaugurated the world's first air ferry service across the English Channel between Lympne Airport and Le Touquet Airport. In 1948–49, Silver City participated in the Berlin Airlift. In 1949, it established a French sister airline.
In 1953, Silver City took delivery of its first Bristol Superfreighter. The following year, the company moved to a new permanent home at Lydd Ferryfield, Britain's first newly constructed post-war airport. The same year, Silver City Airways came under the control of P&O. By the mid-1950s, Silver City had become the biggest air cargo carrier in the United Kingdom while annual passenger numbers at its "Ferryfield" base had reached ¼ of a million. During that time, the airline also inaugurated air ferry services between Scotland and Ireland and from/to the Midlands. This period also saw the launch of Silver Arrow, a London—Paris coach-air-coach/rail service, with the cross-Channel air portion operating between Lydd and Le Touquet. In 1957, Silver City accomplished its one-millionth Channel crossing. In summer 1958, Silver City's "Ferryfield" base recorded more aircraft movements than any other UK airport. That year, also marked the conclusion of Silver City's first decade of air ferry operations during which the airline operated more than 100,000 flights carrying over 200,000 vehicles and ¾ of a million passengers, with peak-day frequency exceeding 200. In 1959, Silver City took over sister airline Britavia's Handley Page Hermes fleet and Manston base. That year, the airline also began oil industry support flights in Libya.
By 1960, Silver City's 40,000 annual cross-Channel flights transported 220,000 passengers and 90,000 vehicles while network-wide freight haulage reached 135,000 tons a year. The following summer, the airline reached agreement with a French rival to co-finance construction of a branch line linking Le Touquet Airport with the nearby main railway line to reduce surface travelling time from/to Paris. Unsustainable losses as a result of the loss of the Libyan oil industry support flight contract, increasing competition from roll-on/roll-off ferries and the lack of suitable replacements for the ageing Bristol Freighters resulted in growing financial difficulties, culminating in Silver City's takeover by British United Airways holding company Air Holdings in 1962.
History
The 1940s
In 1946, Air Cdre Griffith James Powell got in touch with W.S. Robinson, chairman of London-based mining company the Zinc Corporation. That meeting resulted in Robinson appointing Powell as the Zinc Corporation's adviser.One of Powell's first visits in his new capacity took him to Broken Hill, Australia, also known as Silver City. This visit resulted in the decision to set up a new air transport operator to serve the mining industry, to be named Silver City.
Silver City Airways was incorporated on 25 November 1946. British Aviation Services, an early post-World War II airline holding company and air transport operator, became one of Silver City's shareholders, initially taking a 10% stake. Air Cdre Griffith James Powell was the first managing director of both BAS and Silver City.
Silver City's first base was at Langley Aerodrome.
The airline's initial fleet comprised four ex-military Douglas Dakotas and three Avro Lancastrians, the 13-seater civil version of the Lancaster Mark 3 bomber. Two of the latter were new aircraft that had been ordered by British South American Airways.
Lancastrian G-AHBW operated the company's first commercial flight, from London Airport to Sydney via Johannesburg in November 1946. This was followed by similar operations to Johannesburg via Karachi and to Malta before the end of the year.
In October 1947, Silver City became involved in the airlift of Hindu and Muslim refugees between Pakistan and India, following the Subcontinent's partitioning. This operation constituted the fledgling airline's first major engagement. Initially, the repatriation airlift was undertaken by four Dakotas. On short journeys, the authorities granted Silver City dispensation to raise the limit on the maximum number of passengers it could carry from 28 to 52 to airlift as many people as quickly as possible.
Also that year, Silver City moved its base to Blackbushe Airport, as a result of Langley's closure due to Heathrow's expansion.
Also in 1947, Silver City leased its first Bristol Freighter from the manufacturer to replace one of the four Dakotas that had originally been allocated to the repatriation airlift in the Indian subcontinent. Like the Dakotas it had operated on that airlift, Silver City was given dispensation to increase the maximum number of passengers it could carry on the Bristol Freighter above the normal limit of 32. Actual loads on this aircraft type often exceeded 100 passengers per flight, resulting in a total of 1,105 evacuees and their belongings being transported aboard Silver City's single Freighter over a period of nine days. The airline's Bristol Freighter fleet soon expanded to four aircraft. The Freighter would play a major role in the company's development over the coming years. Powell realised that the Bristol Freighter could be adapted to fly car owners with their vehicles from Britain to Continental Europe and the Channel Islands. This "air ferry" would allow British holidaymakers avoid long waits for sea ferries and time-consuming, bumpy rides in rough waters.
On 7 July 1948, a Silver City Bristol Freighter operated the first cross-Channel air ferry service, between Lympne near Folkestone in Kent and Le Touquet on France's northern Côte d'Opale coast, with good road connections from and to London and Paris respectively. The new service, which initially operated on a seasonal charter basis, became a year-round scheduled operation in 1949. In the beginning, there was a flat £32 one-way fare to take a group of four passengers along with their car across the Channel. Once opposition from British European Airways to the carriage of passengers travelling without vehicles was overcome, a new fare structure was introduced. For example, a group of four travelling with a small car was charged only £27, while the comparable fare for four people travelling with a large car remained at £32. By the end of 1949, this operation fully utilised five Freighters, which carried 2,700 cars and 10,000 passengers. These figures represented a significant increase over the previous year when only 178 cars and their occupants, as well as some motorcycles and bicycles had been carried until the end of the season in September.
The same year, the Zinc Corporation sold its shareholding in Silver City to BAS, making the latter the airline's sole owner. Silver City subsequently became BAS's biggest operating division.
Silver City joined the 1948–49 Berlin Airlift with a single Bristol Freighter in September 1948. Owing to heavy demand for additional civilian airlift capacity, the airline leased a further two Freighters from the Bristol Aeroplane Company. By the time the civil contribution to the Airlift was scaled down in February 1949, the company's three Bristol Freighters were the last twin-engined airliners employed in this operation. When it came to an end, the firm's Freighters had flown a total of about 800 hours.
In February 1949, Silver City established a French sister airline headquartered in Paris to operate vehicle ferry flights from Le Touquet Airport. The new company was registered under the name Société Commerciale Aérienne du Littoral. A number of Silver City aircraft were registered to this company. These were transferred onto the French aircraft register. In addition, an agreement was reached to appoint the Automobile Club de France as Silver City's and SCAL's official representative in France. These steps were necessary to secure French approval to turn the seasonal charter flights Silver City had operated on this route into a full-fledged scheduled operation.
The 1950s
By 1950, the number of cars and passengers carried on Silver City's cross-Channel services roughly doubled to 5,000 and 24,000 respectively.To encourage further traffic growth on its Lympne — Le Touquet cross-Channel car ferry service, Silver City reduced fares with effect from 19 September 1950: the rate for cars up to 14 feet in length was cut from £27 to £19 while the rate for larger vehicles dropped from £32 to £25. This reduction left Silver City's fares only slightly higher than the Dover—Calais ferry fares of British Railways' Southern Region and, together with the service's earlier extension permitting the carriage of cycles and motor cycles, helped establish the airline's ferry services as a serious competitor to the railways.
The success of Silver City's Lympne — Le Touquet air ferry service resulted in subsequent introduction of additional routes across the English Channel and to other parts of the United Kingdom.
Over the coming years, Silver City pursued a policy of continuous fare reductions to fill the additional capacity on its growing air ferry network. This included new car ferry services between Southampton and Cherbourg as well as between Southend and Ostend and a DC-3 passenger service linking Gatwick and Le Touquet. Both of the former commenced in spring 1952, while the latter was inaugurated the following year. As a result, the number of vehicles carried doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 between 1950 and 1952 and quadrupled to 40,000 by the end of the following year. The latter was the consequence of an average 40% fare reduction.
BAS's takeover of Air Kruise, an independent charter and pleasure flight operator based at Lympne, in March 1953 brought a fleet of all-passenger de Havilland Dragon Rapides and Douglas Dakotas. This acquisition resulted in formation of Silver City's "Passenger Division".
File:Bristol 170 21 XF662 Silver City BLA 13.09.53 edited-2.jpg|thumb|right|Silver City Bristol 170 in RAF markings during 1953 for use on freight flights to and through the Suez Canal Zone
In summer 1953, Silver City leased a Breguet Br.763 to participate in the second Little Berlin Airlift on the Hamburg — Berlin route. A total of 127 round trips carried of freight with up to three round trips being made in a day, each leg taking 52 minutes' flight time.
In 1953, Silver City also took delivery of its first stretched Mark 32 Bristol Superfreighter, the first of six. The Superfreighter's elongated nose enabled it to accommodate three cars or to be fitted with 60 seats in an all-passenger Super Wayfarer configuration. The new Superfreighters joined a fleet of nine standard Mark 21 Freighters. Other freight charter work at this time included flights to the Suez Canal Zone supporting the UK military forces then stationed there.
As operations expanded, the small grass airfield at Lympne became increasingly inadequate. The search for a suitable location to site a new, purpose-built airport began in 1953. Interim moves to Southend and West Malling were followed by final selection of an area covered by grazing land on the edge of the Dungeness shingle desert on the Kentish coast close to the village of Lydd. This site would host Britain's first newly constructed post-war and first privately owned airport. It would feature two runways, a control tower, passenger terminal with a restaurant, maintenance area and petrol station. The new airport — named Ferryfield — opened on 14 July 1954, after six months' work costing £400,000. However, it took almost another two years for the official opening ceremony to be performed at Ferryfield, which occurred on 5 April 1956. On that day, the Duke of Edinburgh arrived at Ferryfield just before 11.00 am on board the Royal Heron. The occasion marked the Duke's first visit to a private British airline at an all-new, privately owned airport. Following his tour of the airport's facilities, the Duke boarded one of Silver City's scheduled air ferry services to Le Touquet on Superfreighter G-AMWD. During the 19-minute flight, the Duke flew the aircraft at its scheduled en route height of 1,000 ft. The Duke's reception at Le Touquet Airport was followed by an informal lunch hosted in his honour by the president of the French Aero Clubs in the airport restaurant. The Duke then departed, flying the Royal Heron to London Airport.
File:Douglas C-47B G-AMYX Silv City RWY 13.02.54 edited-2.jpg|thumb|right|Silver City Airways Douglas Dakota landing at Manchester Airport in 1954
By 1954, the Silver City cross-Channel network comprised five routes: Gatwick — Le Touquet, Lydd — Le Touquet, Lympne—Calais, Lympne—Ostend and Southampton—Cherbourg.
Following the opening of Ferryfield in mid-1954, Silver City initially split its operations between the new airport and Lympne. For a short while, Le Touquet flights operated from the former while Calais and Ostend services continued to use the latter. The last of 33,000 Silver City flights, which had carried a total of 54,000 cars and 208,000 passengers since 1948, departed Lympne on 3 October. From then on, vehicle ferry services were concentrated at Ferryfield.
Also in 1954, control of Silver City passed to P&O via General Steam Navigation, which had acquired a 70% stake in BAS, the airline's parent company. It was also the year Silver City complemented its Gatwick — Le Touquet all-passenger operation with a vehicle ferry service.
By 1955, Ferryfield handled 250,000 passengers annually. This made it busier than Gatwick.
Also in 1955, Silver City launched its first air ferry services between Scotland and Ireland and its first such service from the Midlands. These linked Stranraer with Belfast and Birmingham with Le Touquet. In addition, the airline opened a new service from Southampton to Deauville.
That year also saw Silver City become the UK's biggest air cargo carrier with an annual freight volume of 70,190 tons.
In 1956, Silver City commenced London—Paris coach-air-coach/rail services via Lydd and Le Touquet/Étaples. As Le Touquet Airport was not linked to the French railway network at the time, the journey between the airport and Paris involved an additional change between coach and train at Étaples. DC-3s initially operated these all-passenger services, which were marketed as Silver Arrow in the UK and as Flèche d'argent in France. Silver Arrow/''Flèche d'argent was a joint operation between British Railways, Silver City and Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer français.
By 1957, BAS's airline subsidiaries included Air Kruise, Aquila Airways, Britavia, the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation and the original Manx Airlines, apart from Silver City Airways itself.
Also in 1957, Silver City completed its one-millionth Channel crossing since its inaugural Lympne — Le Touquet air ferry service took to the air in July 1948.
That year also saw Silver City become involved in supporting the oil industry in Libya, flying geologists and supplying desert camps with a fleet of DC-3s and a single DC-2 from bases at Tripoli and Benghazi. The airline's sole DC-2 was originally operated by Swissair and subsequently sold to new owners in South Africa, who leased it to Silver City.
By 1958, Ferryfield had become one of Britain's three busiest airports. It recorded more aircraft movements during the peak summer months than any other airport in the UK, and only Heathrow and Northolt were busier in terms of annual air freight volume.
That year also marked the conclusion of the first decade of Silver City's air ferry services. During that period, the airline completed 125,000 ferry flights. These carried 215,000 vehicles and 750,000 passengers. At its peak, Silver City operated 222 daily ferry flights across the English Channel, as well as between Scotland and Ireland and to/from the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Cross-Channel flights to France operated between 7.30 am and 11.00 pm. The average fare was £25 per car and £4 per passenger. This was furthermore the time the Air Kruise cross-Channel services, as well as all Dragon Airways, Lancashire Aircraft Corporation and Manx Airlines operations from Newcastle upon Tyne, Blackpool and the Isle of Man were transferred to Silver City's new Northern Division to streamline BAS's fragmented airline operations. It was hoped that these measures would improve BAS's financial performance.
In May of the same year, the crew of a Silver City Dakota made the first sighting of the Lady Be Good, a WW II bomber that had disappeared in 1943 while returning from an operation to Naples, in the Libyan Desert.
In 1959, Britavia transferred its five-strong Hermes 4A fleet to sister airline Silver City, as a consequence of the loss of a trooping contract to Eagle. The Hermes were based at Manston, from where they operated Silver Arrow all-passenger services to Le Touquet and inclusive tour charters to European destinations until parent company BAS's acquisition by British United Airways parent Air Holdings in 1962.
Also in 1959, Silver City opened a Blackpool-Dublin route.
By the end of that decade, Silver City advertised £8 18s day-return fares for its London—Paris Silver Arrow/Flèche d'argent'' service.