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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 1210.PDF
198 FLIGHT Internationa), 22 August 1974 AIR TRANSPORT The Bubble bursts AT six o'clock last Thursday night the Court Line Group announced that it was going into liquidation. The * collapse left stranded overseas some 49,000 tour ists, 40,000 of whom had booked holidays with Clark- sons and the remainder with other Court Line subsidiaries. By 11 on Friday morning steps had been taken to return them to the United Kingdom on aircraft belonging to Laker Airways, British Caledonian Airways, Dan-Air and British Airways. This was made possible by the fact that Court Line had lodged a £3-3 million bond with the Asso ciation of British Travel Agents. The two TriStars and nine One-Elevens operated by the airline were grounded and its licences—although not its Air Operator's Certificate—have been revoked by the British Civil Aviation Authority. One One-Eleven is on lease to the German charter carrier Germanair and an other is stranded by hostilities at Nicosia Airport, on lease to Cyprus Airways. The Court Line collapse, the largest in British air trans port history, came some eight weeks after Mr Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Secretary of State for Industry, an nounced that the Government was to acquire, for £16 mil lion, the shipbuilding assets of the group (see Flight for July 4, page 3. This was seen at the time as ensuring the continuing existence of the holiday and air transport side of the Group. However, the Civil Aviation Authority and Mr Peter Shore, Secretary of State for Trade, revealed last Friday that in the week before the final collapse it had been hoped only to continue operations until the end of September—the end of the holiday season. Mr Peter Shore told a press conference that an examination of the Group's books had revealed that not even this was possible. Consequently, under company law, the decision was taken to liquidate. As we go to press, one TriStar has been impounded at Luton by Luton Corporation, which owns the airport, and the CAA has impounded a One-Eleven. All the aircraft in Court Line's fleet are leased, the TriStars being owned by Airlease International. The collapse will make redundant Court Line Aviation's 1,150 employees, as well as staff working for Clarksons Holidays, Horizon Holidays, Halcyon and OSL. Advance- booking passengers, who had signed contracts with Air Fair are likely to be able to fly as planned, since most fees have already been paid. However, it appears un likely that those passengers booked on European inclusive- tour holidays will have their cash refunded. The cost of returning holidaymakers who were outside the country on Friday is likely to be £1-5 million. The cost of pay ing their hotel and other bills is likely to be about £500,000. As we go to press there are reports that some Spanish hoteliers are demanding that bills Should be paid before people return. This leaves, at least, a little over £1 million available to recompense the 100,000 people who had booked holidays with the Group. It is reported that as much as £40 million may have been paid for holidays that will not now take place, although £7 million seems a more accurate estimate. After the collapse, it became clear that the Government, the Association of British Travel Agents, the Tour Opera tor Study Group and the Civil Aviation Authority had known about Court Line's unsound financial position for at least four days before the final failure. Even so, deposits were accepted for holidays which were never to take place. Talks between the four parties were aimed at sustaining operations for about six weeks, but even this proved im possible. On August 16, Mr Rupert Nicholson was appointed COURT LINE was formed in 1957 as Argus Air Trans port, later changing its name to Autair International Airways. It built up a network of scheduled and charter services using Vikings and later HS.748s and Heralds. In 1965, it became part of the Court Line shipping group and increased its stake in the inclusive-tour market. In November 1969 it pulled out of scheduled-services and took the decision to concentrate- ex clusively on charter work. In January 1970 its name was changed to Court Line Aviation, trading as Court Line, and a new holiday image was projected to the travelling public, travel agents and tour operators. Aircraft, vehicles, tickets, even stationery, were identi fied by bold shades of green, turquoise or pink and the "Halcyon" motif was stressed. The One-Eleven 40Os were sold and replaced by a fleet of Series 500s. In creasingly, Court Line became identified with Clarksons Holidays, offering mass-travel at the "bottom" end of the market. When Clarksons was in danger of bank ruptcy in April 1973, Court stepped in. When Horizon, "up market" but closely identified with Court, was in danger of folding in January, it was also taken over, for a nominal £1. Last year's summer season saw the introduction of two TriStars—large, economic, and the first in Europe. Typically, Court had decided to try to expand out of the corner it found itself in. The TriStars, seating 400, could each do the work of four One-Elevens and they were to have enabled the airline to ride the twin tides of inflation, and, later, of fuel price increases. They were bold, big, and difficult to ignore ... to the extent that a delay involving 400 passengers at a time attracted far more adverse publicity than the strand ing of four lots of 100 passengers. Seven weeks ago, the world was told, the airline was safe, and safe with it were Clarksons, Air Fair, Horizon, 4S Travel, Halcyon Holidays and OSL travel. The injection of £16 million from the sale of the Court Group's shipbuilding and ship-repair interests, was to ensure its future and the future of 3,000 employees. And it was only at six in the evening last Thursday that the public realised that this was not so. special manager to the liquidator, the Official Receiver. The political storm that has followed, has centred on whether Mr Benn and Mr Shore had misled Parliament and the public, and whether the Government delayed in handing over the £16 million to be paid for Court's ship ping interests. • The collapse of Court Line puts into doubt the future of Leeward Islands Air Transport, 75 per cent owned by Court Line Aviation since 1971, when the Group was build ing hotels in the West Indies in anticipation of American tourist dollars that never materialised. At the beginning of this year the airline was operating three One-Eleven 500s, six HS.748s and five Islanders. The fuel crisis, in flation and a slump in American overseas travel contributed to the return of the three jets to Court Line as well as to increasing losses. The ownership of the airline has been under discussion for some time, but now that it no longer enjoys the patronage of a two-million-passengers-a-yeao airline and one of Europe's largest travel empires it must be a less attractive proposition to a buyer than it was a week ago. • Autair International, the Luton-based helicopter opera tor, is not part of the Court Line group and has not been for some years. Court Line helicopter interests include Court Line Helicopters, of South Africa, an S-61N and S-62A operator.
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