Court Line
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[edit] Overview
Court Line was a prominent UK 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.
[edit] The Beginning
The airline, which was originally named Autair International, could trace its history back to the early post-World War II years. It had provided both holiday charter as well as domestic and European regional scheduled services with a mixed fleet consisting of second-hand piston-engined aircraft types, such as the Douglas DC-3 "Dakota", the Vickers Viking and the Airspeed AS 57 Ambassador. These were later supplemented and eventually replaced with several turboprop types, which included the Hawker Siddeley 748 and the Bristol Britannia among others, and five BAC 1-11-400 jets.
[edit] Re-launching the airline
A change of strategy as well as a completely new corporate look accompanied Court Line Aviation's launch in 1970. (Both of these were the result of a change in ownership.)
[edit] A new strategy and a new corporate look
It was decided to end the loss-making scheduled activities in which Autair had been engaged as it was felt that these would not become profitable in the long term. Instead, Court Line was to focus exclusively on the then fast-growing package holiday market. Court Line was also going to replace the small fleet of BAC 1-11-400s it had inherited from Autair with nine brand-new, larger 1-11-500s and retire all remaining turboprops that had been plying Autair's scheduled routes.
The breakthrough all-over colour design was by Peter Murdoch. The BAC 1-11s 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". Aircrews 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 ordered the first pair of Lockheed L-1011 "TriStar" widebodies to be registered in the UK (G-BAAA and G-BAAB). This was a big gamble, as the new jets had about three times the 1-11's passenger capacity (365 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] Code Data
- IATA Code: OU
- Callsign:
