Aquila Airways Short Solent G-ANAJ City of Funchal moored off Madeira. (via author)
On 14 May 1949 Aquila Airways commenced regular fortnightly flights between Southampton and Funchal, and a weekly service linking Funchal with Lisbon. This latter service became very popular, as the alternative boat trip took some thirty-six hours. It was, however, mainly patronised by business travellers and civil servants as the fares were beyond the reach of most ordinary Madeirans. The Southampton–Funchal service was a success from the start, carrying more than 3,000 passengers on forty-two round trips during its first year. One of these passengers was the Right Honourable Winston Churchill, hurrying back to England from a painting holiday on Madeira on 12 January 1950 after a General Election had been called. Over the years other notable Aquila passengers were to include the entertainer Harry Secombe, the actress Constance Cummings, and a young Margaret Thatcher. From December 1951 Short Solents were introduced onto the route, with G-AKNU operating the first service by the type. This example was fitted out as a forty-one-seater, with its two decks linked by a spiral staircase. Most outbound passengers travelled by a particular train from Waterloo to Southampton Central station, where a motor coach and baggage van were waiting to take them to Berth 50 at the docks. Here, their baggage was weighed and their tickets, passports and visas (still required for travel to Madeira in the 1950s) were checked. They were then taken through to customs, and once the formalities had been completed they could relax in the bar and lounge in the Marine Terminal until it was time to board the flying boat. As soon as the aircraft was on its way to the take-off area further down Southampton Water the Aquila ground staff maintained a radio watch on the flying boat and its attendant launches until forty-five minutes or an hour had elapsed. Three types of launches were used by Aquila; a control pinnace (used as a floating control tower), a lead-in launch, and an uncovered work boat.
The Solents soon displaced the Sunderlands from the mainline route to Madeira, although the older type continued to be used on the Madeira–Lisbon link. Once the Southampton–Funchal service had become successfully established the owners of the Miramar Hotel in Funchal added a villa adjacent to the hotel for the exclusive use of visiting Aquila crews. In early 1952 Las Palmas was added to the route network, and the February/March 1952 flight schedule read:
The Aquila Airways Short Sunderland G-AGEU Hampshire moored off Funchal during the airline’s inaugural service in 1949. (via author)
TUE ...
Depart Funchal 1000hrs (Sunderland).
Arrive Lisbon 1515hrs.
WED ...
Depart Lisbon 1130hrs (Sunderland).
Arrive Las Palmas 1445hrs.
WED and SAT ...
Depart Southampton 0045hrs (Solent).
Arrive Funchal 0800hrs.
THURS and SUN ...
Depart Funchal 0700hrs (Solent).
Arrive Lisbon 1130hrs.
Depart Lisbon 1230hrs.
Arrive Southampton 1745hrs.
SAT ...
Depart Funchal 1030hrs (Sunderland).
Arrive Las Palmas 1230hrs.
Depart Las Palmas 1430hrs.
Arrive Funchal 1630hrs.
Throughout its early years Aquila Airways tried with varying degrees of success to diversify its operations. During the summer of 1949 a series of holiday charter flights was operated from Falmouth to St Mary’s in the Scilly Isles, and on 17 October that year Sunderland G-AGKY returned to Southampton from Foynes in Ireland after completing a short season of charter flights from there to Fatima in Portugal. Early in 1950 Aquila worked with Thomas Cook & Son to set up a programme of ‘aerial cruises’ around the Mediterranean, incorporating stopovers in Marseilles, Venice, Rome, Cyprus, Malta and Bordeaux. The fare for the 5,600-mile journey was set at £235, and the first departure was scheduled for 15 June that year, but in the event the series of flights had to be cancelled due to a lack of bookings.
Another attempt at diversification entailed an attempt to introduce scheduled flying boat services linking Southampton with Scotland during the summer of 1950. A round trip to Glasgow was scheduled for each Tuesday, with one to Edinburgh on Fridays. The fare to either city was to be £9 one-way, or just over £16 for a round trip, which was comparable to the first-class rail fare. On 1 June 1950 a route-proving flight with twenty-six invited guests and seven crew members on board was operated by Sunderland G-AGJN. The route was mostly overland, passing overhead Swindon, Oxford, Birmingham and Manchester before arrival at Edinburgh, where a water landing was made at the Leith Marine Airport, which had only been opened that day. After being welcomed by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the party flew on to Glasgow, alighting on the River Clyde near Greenock. Scheduled services were due to commence during the first week in July, but these were destined never to take place, again because of a shortage of bookings. One venture that did prove successful was the reinstatement of the pre-war air link between Southampton and Jersey. On this service the Sunderlands were configured to carry up to twenty-nine passengers, with two round trips being operated each Saturday from 7 July 1950 until the end of the summer season. At Jersey the aircraft alighted in St Aubin’s Bay, and the flights quickly proved very popular. By the autumn of 1950 BOAC had discontinued its flying boat services to South Africa, leaving Aquila as the only UK operator of the craft. Sensing an opportunity for expansion the airline applied to take over the former BOAC route, but permission was not forthcoming. Undeterred, Aquila continued to look for new routes, and on 17 May 1952 inaugurated scheduled services to Marseilles, again under a BEA associate agreement.
During May 1952 Aquila set out to lengthen the tourist season to the traditionally winter destination of Madeira by introducing a new low excursion fare for the summer months. The fare was valid for stays of up to twenty-one days commenced before 30 November, and at £59 10s 0d for the round trip offered a substantial reduction on the winter round trip fare of £89 2s 0d. As an additional incentive the airline also introduced a money-back guarantee, under which any passengers who experienced more than half an inch of rain during a holiday in July or August could claim back their full air fare plus a further £40 to cover hotel bills and other travel expenses. The Madeiran hoteliers also joined in the marketing effort by reducing their rates by as much as 25 per cent during the summer season. By taking advantage of these deals it was possible for British holidaymakers to enjoy full ‘en pension’ accommodation for the equivalent of as little as 18s 9d per day. These incentives proved very successful in attracting new business, and by August 1953 the summer passenger loads were almost double those of the previous year.
In 1952 there were also some notable non-scheduled flights. On 21 April Sunderland G-AGJN set off from Southampton for the Falkland Islands, on charter to the Falkland Islands Company. The aircraft finally arrived there on 28 July, after stops at Lisbon, Funchal, Cape Verde, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. In July and August 1952 the Summer Olympic Games were held in Finland, and Aquila operated charter flights to Helsinki in connection with these events. In August of that year the airline commenced a series of trooping flight charters, transporting servicemen and their families to and from Singapore in a fifty-three-seater Short Solent. One of these passengers was Derek Sofe, who in October 1952 flew back to the UK with Aquila for demobilisation. He recalls that the same crew stayed with the aircraft throughout the whole journey, with stops being made at Karachi, Trincomalee, Goa, Bahrain, and Limassol. After Cyprus the next stop was scheduled to be at Malta, but for some reason the personnel there were unable to set out the necessary flarepath and so the aircraft was diverted to the French naval base at Bizerte before completing the last leg to Southampton. Aquila was to commence a second season of trooping flights on 16 January 1953, this time between Southampton and Freetown and Lagos in West Africa.
The Aquila Airways Short Solent G-AKNU Sydney taxiing off Funchal. (via author)
The first few months of 1953 saw several of the airline’s flying boats involved in accide
nts, fortunately without serious injury to their occupants. On 21 January Sunderland G-AGJN dragged its moorings at Funchal, became holed on some rocks and eventually capsized. In Southampton a week or so later, Sunderland G-AGKY taxied out in preparation for a service to Madeira. The take-off run had to be abandoned and the aircraft developed a list to one side. According to a report in the Times newspaper, four female passengers clambered out onto the wing on the opposite side to try to keep the aircraft level until help arrived. In due course all twenty-seven passengers, the crew, and the baggage were safely taken aboard an Aquila launch and the Southampton fireboat. An attempt was made to tow the flying boat back to base, but during the journey it capsized. On 2 February a Sunderland en route from Lisbon to Funchal with thirty-six passengers had to turn back following an engine fire. A safe landing was accomplished at Lisbon, but the damage was such that the aircraft was deemed not repairable. Aquila had since 1950 been withdrawing and scrapping much of its Sunderland fleet, and these accidents left the airline with just one airworthy example, which continued to operate the 1953 schedules alongside the newer Solents. It was around this time that the airline’s founder Barry Aikman first expressed an interest in acquiring the three giant Princess flying boats under construction. BOAC had lost interest in them and they were now being considered for completion as troop transports for the RAF. He submitted an offer in excess of £1 million per aircraft, but this was declined. The closure of BOAC’s flying boat operation at Southampton had left Aquila in the unenviable position of having to maintain the facilities there single-handedly and entirely out of its own pocket. In an interview Mr Aikman outlined the problems his airline faced:
Madeira is perhaps exceptional. It is only because we can use facilities parallel to the shipping, and because the Portuguese charge us no landing fees, that we can keep our costs down. The other end of the route presents a very different picture. At Southampton we require more facilities because of the congestion in Southampton Water and because we operate there at night. Notwithstanding the fact that we provide and man our own facilities, the Harbour Board charges us a landing fee, the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive charges us a docking fee, and we have to use the port stevedores to handle our luggage. All this is very costly indeed. We use two radio-equipped control launches, one of which is stationed at the upwind end of the alighting area, and the other at the downwind end. At night we use five or more flare dinghies to mark out the alighting area between them. In addition to using all these, the Ministry of Civil Aviation still insists that we provide a fire float, although there is no case on record of a flying-boat catching fire on take-off or landing. Furthermore, if such a disaster did occur it is doubtful if it could offer any assistance. There is enough water around as it is. The only fire we have experienced at Southampton was when our fire float burst into flames and became a total loss.
Flying boat take-off runs were made at a full power setting and usually lasted between forty-five and fifty seconds. At Madeira the aircraft alighted at Funchal at dawn, when the sea was usually at its calmest. This necessitated a scheduled departure time from Southampton of 2300hrs, and meant that incoming flights usually arrived at Southampton after dark as well. On an ‘Arrival Day’ the first notification that an inbound service was on its way usually came in the form of a ‘departure message’ sent from Madeira and relayed via air traffic control at Hurn airport, Bournemouth. This gave details of the passenger load, mail and freight aboard, and was updated after the flight had left its transit stop at Lisbon. The aircraft crew eventually established direct radio contact with Berth 50 at Southampton and the control launch there about an hour before arrival. The experience of travelling by flying boat was described in a magazine article of the period thus:
Because of the depth of hull necessary in a ‘boat’ there is real roominess, and the possibility of walking about and even climbing stairs during the flight. Because there is no pressurisation the windows can be big and numerous, with each one of them also being an emergency exit. And because of the need for watertight bulkheads there is none of the ‘coach-tube’, sardine-packed business. The Solent has two lower-deck passenger compartments, and aft of these is a promenade and bar with a spiral staircase leading to the upper deck. This compartment is probably the most comfortable from the noise and vibration point of view, although the promenade area is also good and there is nothing to complain about in the forward ground-floor compartments either. These become temporarily ‘submarine’ while the Solent is building up speed during the early part of the take-off run, until the aircraft gets up on its ‘step’. Take-offs and landings are very great fun. I had long forgotten that slight feeling of helplessness as the engines are run up and the propellers exercised with no brakes to hold the aircraft. All the warming-up and running-up can usually be done while the aircraft is taxiing out.
During the Coronation Naval Review of June 1953 Aquila was granted permission to operate a series of sightseeing flights overhead the fleet drawn up for Royal inspection. The flights were carried out at an altitude of 1,000ft within specially designated zones. That year Aquila carried around 6,000 passengers in total. By mid 1954 a second Solent had joined the fleet and two of the damaged Sunderlands returned to service, enabling Aquila to think once again about expansion and open a new route. On 20 May 1954 a VIP inaugural flight was operated to the Isle of Capri by Solent G-ANAJ. This was the first air service to Capri, with access to the island previously restricted to ferry boat journeys from Naples or Sorrento. On board the inaugural flight were thirty-nine invited guests, including the famous entertainer and Capri resident Gracie Fields and her husband. Fortnightly summer services began on 3 June 1954, routeing via Marseilles, where lunch was taken. On arrival at Capri the flying boats alighted in the harbour at Marina Grande. Including the ninety-minute stopover at Marseilles, the journey from Southampton took eight hours forty-five minutes. To begin with the service was all first class, with the fare set at £66 round trip. As had been the case at Madeira, the hoteliers on Capri helped to get the service established by offering reduced rates to visitors by air from the UK, and from 1 July Aquila was able to upgrade the service to weekly. In December 1954 three more Solents were acquired, these having previously served with the New Zealand airline TEAL. They would be needed the following summer, when newly approved services to Genoa and to Santa Margherita on the Italian Riviera would commence. In the course of its delivery flight from New Zealand the crew of Solent G-ANAJ took the opportunity to land at Genoa to gain experience of flying into this new destination. Summer services to Capri reopened on 2 June 1955, but with an all-economy-class cabin layout and a fare of £52 round trip. The new routes to Genoa and Santa Margherita quickly followed on 4 and 5 June respectively. For these, departure from Southampton was at 0300hrs, arriving at 0745hrs local time, thus allowing passengers the best part of an additional day on holiday.
The following year, 1956, was to be another eventful one for Aquila. Another new route, direct from Southampton to Las Palmas, was inaugurated on 8 January. In command of the inaugural flight was Captain James Broadbent, who was entering his twenty-first year of flying boat operations. Unfortunately his day was spoiled by the late arrival of the connecting train service from London that, coupled with adverse winds, delayed the departure of the first service until 2130hrs. A refuelling stop at Lisbon was required, and the aircraft eventually alighted at Las Palmas with the aid of a torch-lit flarepath at 0200hrs. The first daylight departures from Southampton were introduced for the summer 1956 season, but this innovation was offset by the suspension of the Capri service due to low bookings. Aquila said that it hoped to reintroduce flights to Capri the following summer as part of inclusive tour packages in conjunction with a holiday company. Other new services for 1956 were a summer service to Montreux, where the flying boat alighted on Lake Geneva, and the reinstatement of first-class travel to Genoa, with a dedicated weekly service, marketed as the Tigullian, which replaced the previous Saturday tourist-class flig
ht. The Solent allocated to this new service had been reconfigured with an eighteen-seat passenger compartment, bar and galley on the upper deck. The lower deck was divided into three compartments accommodating a total of twenty-six passengers. Amidships was a toilet compartment with hot and cold water, a plug for an electric razor, and a separate drinking water supply. At the rear of the deck was a four-seat crew rest compartment. The capacity of the other Solents had been increased to fifty-eight tourist-class passengers by the removal of the cocktail bar and ladies’ powder room.
Flying Boats Page 10