Scottish Airways
Scottish Airways was an airline serving most of Scotland, especially the Highlands and Islands. It was active from 1937 until 1947, when it was merged into British European Airways.
History
Foundation
The company was established on 12 August 1937 by a group of investors including Whitehall Securities Corporation, LMS Railway and Western Isles Airways.Whitehall Securities was a wealthy, powerful investment enterprise which had already set up British Airways Ltd which operated mainly in England. Whitehall was run by Clive Pearson, who was now performing a similar feat in Scotland.
LMS Railway wanted to invest in transport to the Scottish islands where rail couldn't reach. Railway Air Services was the rail industry's response to the airlines with whom they were already competing. LMS was already a partner in RAS and saw Scottish Airways as an extension of their operation rather than competition.
Western Isles Airways was an investment tool, 50% owned by David MacBrayne ferry company, and 50% owned by Whitehall Securities, It was set up because the Ministry of Transport required MacBraynes to keep separate accounts for its aviation interests. MacBrayne, which was 50% owned by LMS already, could see air travel as a complement to their existing operations.
Scottish Airways consisted of two airlines already owned by Whitehall: Highland Airways and Northern & Scottish Airways. At the time of the formation of Scottish Airways, N&SA had a change of name, becoming Northern Airways. The precise details of ownership of Scottish Airways were Northern Airways 31.9%, Highland Airways 18.1%, LMS 40%, and WIA 10%. This effectively meant that Whitehall Securities held a 55% share of Scottish Airways, with LMS controlling 45%.
Highland Airways was run by its founder, Ted Fresson and was based in Inverness, specialising in services to the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. Likewise, N&SA was run by its founder, George Nichols, but was based at Renfrew Airport, Glasgow, specialising in serving the Western Isles. At the start, each airline retained its own identity, their bosses remained in place, and their roles and responsibilities were little changed. The N&SA timetable for October 1937 shows the company name as "Northern and Scottish Airways ".
The coverage of Scotland was not complete, however, largely because of the intransigence of Eric Gandar Dower, the founder of what was now Allied Airways, based at the airport he founded and owned; Dyce at Aberdeen. He was operating routes to the Northern Isles in competition with Fresson. He refused to allow competing airlines access to his airport, and rejected any thoughts of co-operation with or investment by anyone else, a situation that endured until all private airlines were nationalised after World War II.
Pre-war operations
At first the operations of the two divisions went on much as before the takeover. Advantages which the new airline with its railway and ferry investors promoted were that tickets were now available from all British railway stations as well as the usual travel agents, and heavy luggage could be sent in advance by rail and ferry. Of particular note was “inter-availability”; tickets could be exchanged between air, rail or MacBrayne ferries.On 3 May 1938 N&SA opened a new route, flown by chief pilot David Barclay in their new Dragon Rapide G-AFEY, from Renfrew Airport via Perth, Inverness and Kirkwall to Sumburgh. Another intermediate stop, at Wick, was soon added.
In 1938 the Air Transport Licensing Authority had been established by the government to license scheduled airline services and civil airports, as part of the effort to improve the British aviation industry spurred by the Maybury Committee report of 1936. Other areas of activity were to improve navigation, air traffic control and radio aids, weather reporting, pilot training and certification, and airport facilities. In order to rationalise airline routes to provide good service without needless, wasteful and often damaging competition, many small airlines closed or merged, and larger, better financed operations thrived. Scottish Airways was performing valuable services for the Highlands and Islands, and its routes were largely unaffected, but one decision the ATLA took, in February 1939, was to stop their competition on routes to Aberdeen, leaving that city's routes to Eric Gandar Dower's Allied Airways. As a condition of licence approval, airlines had to commit to providing their aircraft for government use in the event of national emergency.
Western Isles Airways was granted the ATLA licences for the routes from Glasgow to the Inner and Outer Hebrides, but those were actually operated by N&SA.
The first regular airmail service between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay was performed by Ted Fresson on 31 July 1939 in Dragon G-ACIT.
In the summer of 1939 Scottish Airways started an Orkney to London route taking just six hours. Leaving Kirkwall at 6:25am, the flight would connect with North Eastern Airways at Perth, flying in their Airspeed Envoys to Edinburgh, Newcastle and London. The service only lasted a few months before war caused its cancellation.
Routes, 1938
From timetable dated May 1938- Glasgow — Campbeltown — Islay
- Glasgow — Islay
- Glasgow — Tiree
- Glasgow — Barra — South Uist — Benbecula — Tiree — North Uist
- Glasgow — Perth — Inverness — Wick — Kirkwall — Lerwick
- Aberdeen — Inverness — Wick — Kirkwall — Lerwick
- Isle of Man — Glasgow
Routes, 1939
- Kirkwall — Sanday — Stronsay — Westray — Longhope — North Ronaldsay
- Kirkwall — Wick
- Inverness — Wick — Thurso — Kirkwall
- Kirkwall — Shetland
- Thurso — Longhope — Kirkwall
World War II
NAC found that it was having to subsidise the airlines under its control, so it requisitioned the aircraft of those companies it didn't deem to be essential, effectively closing them down, although those with substantial engineering departments became Civilian Repair Units organised by the Civilian Repair Organisation. Scottish Airways was selected as a CRU at Renfrew. The airlines that were left all had close associations with rail companies, whose influence was noted by Member of Parliament Robert Perkins, who also represented the Air Line Pilots Association.
NAC had access to the following Scottish Airways aircraft. See the Fleet list below for further details.
- De Havilland Dragon: G-ACIT, G-ACNG, G-ADCT
- De Havilland Dragon Rapide: G-ADAJ, G-AEWL, G-AFEY, G-AFOI, G-AFRK
- Spartan Cruiser II: G-ACSM, G-ACYL, G-ACZM
- Spartan Cruiser III: G-ADEL.
On 3 September 1939 inter-island services were suspended, resumed in November and finished again on 27 April 1940, and the island airfields were blocked by stone cairns. Stromness and Thurso airfields were taken over by the military and rendered permanently unusable.
In the Orkneys, Ted Fresson was left with one Rapide, G-ADAJ, for doing much-needed charter flights, but soon the need for a regular service was recognised, and Scottish Airways restarted an Inverness — Kirkwall — Sumburgh route. Longman Airfield at Inverness was available to Scottish Airways despite the fact that it had been requisitioned for military use. The airline stopped serving Wick in February 1941 because it was unsuitable, but it became available after RAF Coastal Command laid tarmac runways there. On 18 March 1940 Scottish Airways' Rapide G-AFEY crashed into a stone wall at Wideford, and both Scottish Airways and Allied Airways were allowed to use RNAS Hatston, but it appears that at this stage they didn't. In late 1941 one of Allied's Rapides, G-ACZF, crashed, also hitting a stone wall at Wideford. This time they did move, first to RAF Skeabrae, much further from Kirkwall, and on 10 December 1941 to RAF Grimsetter, much closer to Kirkwall and the site of the present Kirkwall Airport.
With the surrender of France on 22 June 1940, once all their surviving aircraft had returned, on 27 June NAC was replaced by a new organisation, the Associated Airways Joint Committee. Based at Liverpool's Speke Airport, it took control of most of the domestic private air companies. Scottish Airways joined it and its aircraft became part of the fleet. Some were impressed for use by the armed forces, and others were used to run the services that the AAJC deemed necessary. During and after the war the AAJC provided further aircraft, De Havilland Dominies, which were military versions of the Dragon Rapide, with improved engines.
Before the war, Ted Fresson had tried tirelessly to get an airfield built at Stornoway, the largest town in the Hebrides, on the island of Lewis and Harris. Finally he convinced the council, and the airfield was completed in August 1939 at Melbost, just outside the town, on a golf course where Fresson had landed several times on air ambulance missions. The outbreak of war had prevented its use, but the NAC granted permission, and the Southern Division of Scottish Airways extended its Hebrides route there in May 1940. Eventually, after RAF Coastal Command had laid runways there, the Northern Division was also given permission, and direct flights from Inverness started on 24 May 1944. This was a particularly difficult route, especially in winter, as it crossed the highlands, and gales, ice and low clouds were often encountered. An alternative route around the north-west tip of Scotland was possible, but was long and arduous, especially in high winds.
Along with Allied Airways, Scottish Airways was kept extremely busy during the war, with thousands of passengers carried, including civilians, Norwegian refugees, and military personnel, plus freight, mail and newspapers. Air ambulance and search operations for survivors from torpedoed ships were also undertaken. All of this was happening with the constant threat of encountering enemy aircraft.
To demonstrate the importance of their services, between 1940 and 1945 Scottish Airways and Allied Airways together flew 41% of all domestic airline passengers carried in Britain, and 64% of the mail and freight.