Court Line

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Court Line was a prominent British holiday charter airline during the early 1970s based at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire.

It pioneered the concept of "cheap and cheerful" package tours to Spain and other "Med" destinations in conjunction with Clarksons Holidays, thus establishing a whole new way of holidaymaking for the British.

Contents 1 Autair The Beginning 2 Court Line The Re-launch 3 The widebody era 4 Hard times 5 The end 5.1 Factors behind collapse 5.2 Disposal of airline's assets 6 Facts of Interest 7 Aircraft operated (Autair International) 8 Aircraft operated (Court Line) 9 Code Data 10 References

[edit] Autair The Beginning

The airline, which was originally named Autair (Luton) Ltd and later Autair International Airways, was formed in 1960. It started operations in 1961 with one Douglas DC-3 used on contract work for other operators. More DC-3 aircraft and Vickers Vikings were bought and the airline operated both freight and passenger services and inclusive tours. The Airspeed Ambassador was introduced in 1963 and a leased Handley Page Herald was also used.

In October 1963 the airline commenced scheduled services between Blackpool and Luton. In the following years the piston-engined aircraft types were withdrawn and replaced with turboprop types (the Hawker Siddeley 748 and the Handley Page Herald). In 1966 the Court Line Shipping Company took a controlling interest in the airline. Further scheduled services within the United Kingdom were operated with the Heralds and five BAC One-Eleven 400 series jets were introduced to operate the inclusive tour flights.

In October 1969 the schedules services were stopped and the turboprop aircraft sold, the airline also ordered the bigger 500 series version of the BAC One-Eleven.

[edit] Court Line The Re-launch

To coincide with the arrival of the first BAC One-Eleven 500 the airline changed its name on the 1 January 1970 to Court Line and introduced a new corporate look and a focus exclusively on the then fast-growing package holiday market. As the larger One-Eleven 500s were delivered the smaller former Autair 400 series aircraft were retired.

The corporate look was an all-over colour design by Peter Murdoch. The BAC One-Elevens were painted a variety of distinctive eye-catching pastel colours: yellow/gold/orange, pink/rose/magenta, pale violet/mauve/purple, light green/mid-green/forest green, in keeping with the holiday "feelgood-factor". Aircrew wore trendy uniforms designed by Mary Quant and passengers were made to feel the flight was a fun part of the holiday. For many, it would be their first flying experience.

Other airlines were quick to jump on the burgeoning package tour bandwagon. In the early 1970s a holiday in Majorca or on the Costa del Sol became affordable to the average person for the first time.

[edit] The widebody era

In 1973 Court Line was the first European airline to order and take delivery of a pair of Lockheed L-1011 Tristar widebodies (G-BAAA and G-BAAB). This was a big gamble, as the new jets had about three times the 1-11's passenger capacity (400 vs. 119). Court took the view that the market would grow and that such large aircraft could be operated profitably. In addition, it was looking to expand to new holiday markets in the US and the Caribbean, which at the time was wholly new territory for the UK package tour market.

[edit] Hard times

Unfortunately, the gamble failed to pay off.

At the time the UK was in the grip of a major recession as a result of the mid-1970s energy crisis caused by OPEC's oil boycott of the West in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. This was a punitive measure directed against these countries for their support of Israel during that war. It led to a drastic reduction in the availability of petroleum products - including jet fuel - resulting in a quadrupling of the oil price. 1974 also became known as the worst year for the UK package tour industry. Clarksons, Court Line's main customer, was facing mounting financial pressure and Vladimir Raitz's Horizon Holidays collapsed during that year. The airline decided to purchase Clarksons to prevent it from going the same way as Horizon, thereby trying to protect its business. However, Clarksons financial position further deteriorated during the course of that year. In a desperate attempt to fill the group's planes and hotel rooms so that it could stay afloat, Clarksons began selling its holiday packages below cost, with a fortnight all-inclusive holiday to Majorca selling for as little as £50.

[edit] The end

On 15 August 1974, the company went bankrupt, with all flights cancelled and as many as 50,000 holidaymakers stranded overseas with no means of getting home.

As a result of this, the Association of British Travel Agents set up a fund to provide an insurance against such an event in future.

The following day (16 August 1974) all of the group's UK-based subsidiaries went into voluntary liquidation. This included both Court Line and Clarksons, its associated in-house tour operator.

[edit] Factors behind collapse

In addition to the early- to mid-'70s oil crisis, there were other factors that had caused the collapse of the group of companies that included Court Line and Clarksons.

One of these factors was the parent company's precariously highly geared investment in the shipping and leisure industry sectors.

According to some insider reports at the time, Court Line itself was a viable business. However, a proposed MBO was rejected as its liquidation value was needed to pay off the parent company's debts.

[edit] Disposal of airline's assets

Following the spectacular crash of Court Line and Clarksons at the height of that year's holiday season, most of the failed carrier's fairly new aircraft were quickly snapped up by other airlines. Cathay Pacific acquired both of the L-1011 "Tristar" widebodies while Dan-Air and Monarch Airlines respectively acquired four and two of the 1-11-500 narrowbodies.

[edit] Facts of Interest

• Court Line had two wholly owned subsidiaries. These were Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT), a regional arline based in the Caribbean, and Court Line Helicopters, based in South Africa. Both of these subsidiaries survived the spectacular Court Line crash of August 1974.
• Dan-Air and Monarch needed to re-register the aircraft they acquired from Court Line and pay off the debts Court had incurred at various foreign airports because these planes had been impounded by overseas airport authorities in lieu of the airport user charges the failed airline owed them.

[edit] Aircraft operated (Autair International)

• Airspeed Ambassador
• BAC One-Eleven 400
• Douglas DC-3
• Douglas DC-4
• Handley Page Dart Herald
• Hawker Siddeley 748
• Vickers Viking

[edit] Aircraft operated (Court Line)

• BAC One-Eleven 400
• BAC One-Eleven 500
• Lockheed Tristar

[edit] Code Data

• IATA Code: OU
• Callsign:

[edit] References

• Merton Jones, T. (1972). British Independent Airline & Operators Since 1947. LAAS International. NONE.