A bit of additional information, correction and clarification around the post from Manston Airport about European.
The elderly BAC1-11s acquired from the RAAF (along with the RAAF’s spares inventory) were never put into service.
European Aviation Group existed before the charter airline (EAC) was set up.
European Aviation Group is the name of the parent company of EAC.
After initial operations at BOH, the airline relocated to Bristol Filton where they had their base – a large number of 1-11s were present there, some painted in the familiar European c/s, but some were in partial Okada Air of Nigeria colours (not dis-similar to the old British Caledonian c/s), but with European titles. After a fairly short period of time, operations were relocated to BOH.
The 1-11s flew on behalf of many other airlines, including subcharters and leases as well as IT and adhoc charters.
At least one 1-11 was operated in a VIP layout, and used by Paul Stoddart, the groups owner, as transport to F1 Grand Prix where his Minardi team was racing.
EAC also operated regularly on behalf of the MoD flying between the UK and Germany.
After the 1-11s were withdrawn, EAC being the last European operator IIRC, a B737 was used as the VIP configured a/c, the other 737s continuing a similar type operation as the 1-11 had carried out.
Although European, acquired A300s and painted them in their full c/s, these aircraft were never operated commercially by EAC and were broken up after spending a couple of years at BOH.
European acquired a single 727-100, but like the A300 the aircraft never operated commercially for EAC although it was in full c/s. Never added to the UK register, the aircraft kept its Czech registration until it was sold to Balkh Air of Afghanistan.
EAC has been contracted by Dorset based tour operator Bath Travel / Palmair for a number of years, and performs the bulk of their flying on services from BOH.
In more recent years EAC’s history has been troubled – the acquistion of Boeing 747s saw many flights operated on behalf of tour operators and other airlines around the world – the unexpected cancellation of a contract by Travelcity Direct meant that many staff had to be laid off and some 747s were withdrawn from use.
Some 747s remained in service, but with the final withdrawal from service of the 747 last autumn staff were once again laid off.
This point also saw a contraction of 737 operations too with bases closed and staff laid off.
More recently, additional 737s have been acquired, plus the return of aircraft from Australia, and this may signal an upturn in the group’s fortunes.
The BAe 146s have already been mentioned, though the purchase of a number of former Chinese MD82s appears to have fallen through.
EAC has always generated strong opinions from its employees and industry experts – whatever their thoughts, it could never be suggested that the operations were anything but varied. Its history is fascinating with the variety of customers and and ups and downs it has endured.
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