What is it about?
Britain regulated its own low-cost charter airlines so as to protect existing and anticipated passenger traffic for the flagship national airline. The low-cost airlines could only operate limited frequency and limited capacity flights, using old aircraft. Over a decade, the low-cost airlines flew about one third of all passengers on British services to and from Africa, and helped to make overseas air travel affordable. Low-cost airline services ended when de-colonization meant they could no longer be treated as flights within British territory.
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Why is it important?
Britain's low-cost, private airlines are among the first budget airlines in the world. Their history is one of constant struggle with authorities and state-backed airlines.
Perspectives
This was the first systematic archival research into Britain's 'Colonial Coach' air services. The volume and complexity of the historic documentation was a challenge, and illustrated the extraordinary efforts to expand British post-war civil aviation, but not at the expense of vested state interests.
Professor Gordon H Pirie
University of Cape Town
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Amplified British Aviation Authority in Africa, 1947–1960: Regulation of low-cost Overseas Airlines, The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, April 2020, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/03086534.2020.1741836.
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