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70-718: Court Line was a 20th-century British tramp shipping company that was founded in 1905. In the 1960s it diversified into shipbuilding and charter aviation . Its merchant shipping interests were based in London . Its shipyards were at Appledore in Devon and Sunderland in Tyne and Wear . Its airline was based at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire . It also provided bus services in Luton and surrounding areas. Its airline helped pioneer

140-497: A jet operator in 1968, when three brand-new BAC One-Eleven 400 series joined its fleet. The new jets mainly operated IT flights. 1968 was also the year Clarksons' customer base had grown to 175,000 (up from 4,000 in 1964), many of whom flew to their holiday destination on Autair's new jets. By spring 1969, five One-Eleven 400s (including an example acquired second-hand from Channel Airways ) operated Autair's IT flights, primarily under contract to Clarksons Tours . These carried

210-492: A solid-state battery with a capacity of 1000mAh, which the company reckoned is the world's highest in its kind. In February 2024, Japanese Secretary of State Yoko Kamikawa stated that a recent decision by the South Korean government to authorize the transfer of money from Hitatchi Zosen to a South Korean plaintiff who sued for compensation based on the issue of labor from the era of Japan's 1910 to 1945 colonial rule over

280-552: A builder of fishing vessels and coastal transports. By 1955, Hitachi Zōsen had emerged as one of the largest shipbuilders in Japan. The company also expanded into other markets. In 1957, as part of a technical cooperation with B&W Diesel in Denmark , Hitachi built the world’s largest diesel engine . It also completed its first turn-key overseas plant project with the completion of a chemical fertilizer plant for India in 1964. In

350-547: A cargo depending on whom they are working for. A committee of owners, brokers and charterers are elected to manage the exchange to ensure everyone's interests are represented. With the speed of today's communications the floor of the Baltic Exchange is not nearly as populated as it once was, but the information and networking the exchange provides is still an asset to the tramp trade. Due to the explosion of liner services, and in large part, due to containerisation since

420-405: A consortium of eleven British banks and financial institutions. They were uniquely customised for Court with double-width doors to speed up passenger evacuation and featured integral passenger stairs and baggage conveyors to facilitate operations at smaller airports. The introduction of these brand-new widebodies was a big gamble for a small airline operating in a seasonal market with tight margins as

490-562: A desperate attempt to fill the group's planes and hotel rooms so that it could stay afloat, Clarksons continued selling holiday packages below cost, with a fortnight all-inclusive holiday to Majorca selling for as little as £50. A deal between the Court Line group and the Wilson Government to sell the former's shipyards at Appledore and Sunderland to the latter for £60 million turned out to be "too little too late" to stave off

560-741: A few years tramp ships became the workhorses of trade, transporting coal and finished products from British cities to the rest of the world. The size of tramp ships remained relatively constant from 1900 to 1940, at about 7,000 to 10,000 deadweight tons (dwt.). During the Second World War , the United States created the Liberty Ship , a single design that could be used to carry just about anything, and which weighed in at 10,500 dwt. The U.S. produced 2,708 Liberty Ships and they were used on every international trade route. After

630-661: A fleet of seven ships and was operating as Court Line, Ltd. Anti-German sentiment arose in Britain in the war, so in 1915 Haldinstein shortened his surname to Haldin. In 1915 Haldin bought a second-hand ship, Dalebank , which he renamed Ilvington Court . In 1917 a U-boat sank Ilvington Court in the Mediterranean , killing eight of her crew. Haldin sold several ships between 1916 and 1921, reducing his fleet to only two ships: Geddington Court and Hannington Court . From 1924 onward Haldin expanded his fleet again. He bought

700-519: A fully crewed BCal One-Eleven jet for Horizon's flying programme and to provide it with additional business. In addition to BCal forcing Court Line to compensate it for the loss of Horizon's business, Thomas Cook's money-back guarantee – a scheme widely copied by other rival tour operators – further reduced the number of Horizon holidaymakers travelling on Court Line's jets. As a result, Court Line carried far fewer Horizon customers than it had anticipated. Clarksons's financial position further deteriorated. In

770-573: A leak in a water intake in her engine room . When the Second World War began in 1939, Haldin & Philipps Ltd had a fleet of 23 ships. In the war it lost 14 ships, 13 of them to enemy action, with the loss of 136 lives. One ship, Pennington Court , was lost with all hands. From 1940 onward Haldin & Philipps started to manage some Empire ships for the Ministry of War Transport . In 1945 and 1946 it bought these ships and renamed them with " —ington Court " names. In 1948 Philipps retired, and

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840-576: A mixture of new and second-hand ships. The second-hand ones were ships that had been built just after the end of the First World War to the Shipping Controller 's war standard designs. Haldin continued to name his ships in the same " —ington Court " style, and re-used some names more than once. By 1926 the fleet had 26 ships. In 1926 Haldin registered his fleet under the name United British Steamship Co Ltd. In 1929 Richard Philipps,

910-413: A price-sensitive environment. The concept itself consisted of pre-packed meals or snacks – usually, Spam salads out and sandwiches back — loaded into a small, two-shelf compartment in the seat back in front of each passenger. The meal/snack for the outbound journey could be found in the top compartment, the one for the return trip in the lower section. The latter contained a pellet of dry ice placed under

980-525: A regional airline based in the Caribbean, in 1972 was part of Court's long-haul expansion strategy. Court Line provided LIAT with BAC One-Eleven series 500 aircraft for scheduled passenger services in the Caribbean. The BAC One-Eleven was the only jet aircraft type ever operated by LIAT. The introduction of the TriStar led to an increase in maintenance personnel and the modification of an existing hangar at

1050-480: A result of their onboard catering innovation eventually forced every other major UK charter airline to adopt "seat-back" catering on most flights serving short- and medium-haul IT destinations. In 1973, Court Line took delivery of a pair of Lockheed L-1011 TriStars and became the first European airline to operate the Lockheed widebody . The aircraft were acquired on long-term lease from Airlease International,

1120-408: A ship to the charterer. The demise charter is the least used in the tramp trade. The ship owner only provides a ship devoid of any crew, stores, or fuel. It is the charterer's responsibility to provide everything the ship will need. The ship owner must provide a seaworthy vessel, but once the charterer accepts the vessel, the responsibility of seaworthiness is the charterer's. The charterer crews

1190-404: A single commodity. Today, the tramp trade includes all types of vessels, from bulk carriers to tankers . Each can be used for a specific market, or ships can be combined, such as oil or bulk carriers, to accommodate many different markets, depending where the ship is located and the supply and demand of the area. Tramp ships often carry their own gear, such as booms, cranes and derricks, in case

1260-414: A time charter, the owner provides a vessel that is fully crewed and equipped. The owner provides the crew, but the crew takes orders from the charterer. The owner is also responsible for insuring the vessel, repairs the vessel may need, engine parts and food for the ship's personnel. The charterer is responsible for everything else. The main advantage of the time charter is that it diverts the costs of running

1330-415: A voyage charter a part or all of a vessel is leased to the charterer for a voyage to a port or a set of different ports. There are two types of voyage charter – net form and gross form. Under the net form, the cargo a tramp ship carries is loaded, discharged, and trimmed at the charterer's expense. Under the gross form the expense of cargo loading, discharging and trimming is on the owner. The charterer

1400-534: A way that penniless adventurers can explore exotic ports by being taken on as a crew member. Hitachi Zosen Corporation Hitachi Zosen Corporation ( 日立造船株式会社 , Hitachi Zōsen Kabushiki-kaisha ) is a major Japanese industrial and engineering corporation. It produces waste treatment plants, industrial plants, precision machinery, industrial machinery, steel mill process equipment, steel structures, construction machinery , tunnel boring machines , and power plants . Despite its name, Hitachi Zosen, of which

1470-603: A world economy even in a down market. The advantage of tramp ships is they are relied upon at a moment's notice to service any type of market. Even in a down economy there will be a market for some type of commodity somewhere and the company with the ships able to exploit that market will do better than the company relying on liner services alone. Tramp steamers and freighters are associated with off-the-beaten track, romanticized adventure and intrigue in pulp stories , children's books, novels, films, and other fictional works. When characters such as spies or resistance fighters are on

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1540-423: Is drawn up between the ship owner and the charterer. There are three types of charters: voyage, time, and demise. The voyage charter is the most common charter in tramp shipping. The owner of the tramp is obligated to provide a seaworthy ship while the charterer is obligated to provide a full load of cargo. This type of charter is the most lucrative, but can be the riskiest due to lack of new charterers. During

1610-404: Is only responsible to provide the cargo at a specified port and to accept it at the destination port. Time becomes an issue in the voyage charter if the tramp ship is late in her schedule or loading or discharging are delayed. If a tramp ship is delayed the charterer pays demurrage , which is a penalty, to the ship owner. The number of days a tramp ship is chartered for is called lay days . In

1680-476: The Dutch bulbfield season. Airspeed Ambassadors and a leased Handley Page Herald were introduced in 1963. The former were the airline's first pressurised aircraft while the latter was its first turboprop . On 1 October 1963, the airline commenced scheduled services between Blackpool and Luton with Vikings. The route was subsequently operated with Ambassadors and extended to Glasgow on 24 May 1966. In

1750-591: The oil tanker business. It resulted in greater economic security for the charter airline industry and enabled it to acquire new aircraft on more favourable terms. Court Line invented "seat-back" catering, a new concept that permitted a reduction in the amount of galley space inside its aircraft's cabins. The extra space obtained was equivalent to three seats on the One-Eleven 400. This enabled it to increase seating densities and reduce individual seat rates to allow tour operators to hold on to their market shares in

1820-474: The oiler RFA  Derwentdale . All Court Line tankers were named in the same " Halcyon — " style. In 1964 Court Line bought Appledore Shipbuilders in Devon . In 1972 it took over a larger shipbuilding business, the Doxford and Sunderland Group . When the Court Line group went bankrupt in 1974, the shipyards and remaining ships in the fleet were sold. The airline, originally named Argus Air Transport ,

1890-591: The surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, under the SCAP 's economic democratization policy (dissolution of the zaibatsu and large business enterprises), the company was spun out from Hitachi, Ltd. in 1947. Since then Hitachi Zōsen has been independent from Hitachi or the Nissan Group although it is still a member of the Shunko-kai and Shunko Kowa-kai . Hitachi Zōsen quickly restarted operations as

1960-435: The 1960s, the tramp trade has decreased, but is by no means ended. A contemporary trend in the shipping business has resulted in renewed interest in tramp shipping. To increase profits, liner companies are looking at investing into tramp ships to create a buffer when the market is down. For example, Mitsui OSK Lines possesses a large fleet with tramp ships and liners. With both types of shipping covered they are able to service

2030-595: The 1980s. By 1988, the company employed only 5,596 workers, down from 24,660 ten years earlier. The company also made strong efforts to diversify away from the shipbuilding roots, expanding especially into industrial and municipal waste disposal facilities. However, its boldest move was in October 2002, when it sold its shipbuilding operations to a new joint venture with NKK Corporation (now JFE Holdings ) called Universal Shipbuilding Corporation (now called Japan Marine United ). In March 2021, Hitachi Zosen unveiled

2100-483: The Beverley was never civil registered and so was never used). The airline's total investment in widebodied equipment amounted to US$ 55 million. As early as 1971, Clarksons lost as much as £2.6 million despite increasing its turnover by £9 million to £31 million. Industry sources estimated that this equated to a loss of £4 per head. In 1972, Clarksons's loss grew to £4.8 million. This was almost 2½ times as much as

2170-645: The Onohama Shipyard in Kobe before moving to Osaka and establishing a new shipyard at the junction of the Nakatsu and Aki rivers which could construct ships of under 1000 tons displacement. His first vessel, the Hatsumaru was launched in 1882. Hunter intended to build a company which was completely self-sufficient, and also produced engines, boilers, bridges and irrigation equipment. An additional facility

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2240-471: The Second World War, economies of scale took over and the size of tramp ships exploded to keep up with a booming supply and demand cycle. During that time the bulk carrier became the tramp of choice for many owners and operators. Bulk carriers were designed to carry coal, grain and ore, which gave them more flexibility and could service more ports than some of their predecessors, which only carried

2310-484: The Tour Operators' Study Group (TOSG), the package holiday industry association. This operation was paid for using the £3.5m bond the failed group's tour operators had deposited with TOSG. The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) set up a fund to provide an insurance against such an event in the future. This was a compulsory bonding scheme for travel companies that transported their customers by air. It

2380-553: The UK package tour industry. At the beginning of the year, Britain plunged into the three-day working week , as a consequence of the miners' strike that had been called to topple the Heath Government . This immediately reduced package holiday bookings by 30%. Clarksons, Court Line's main customer and in-house tour operator since April 1973, was facing mounting financial pressure, and Vladimir Raitz 's Horizon Holidays, another of

2450-453: 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 . This in turn resulted in a tripling of the oil price in October 1973 and a subsequent quadrupling. 1974 became known as the worst year for

2520-502: The airline's Luton base to accommodate the new widebody. It also resulted in the purchase of a former Royal Air Force Blackburn Beverley cargo transporter from the Royal Aircraft Establishment to airlift Rolls-Royce RB211 replacement engines and/or other essential spares in case the planes developed a serious technical fault at an overseas station that prevented them from returning to Luton (although in fact

2590-573: The airline's major customers, collapsed during that time. Following Court Line's takeover of Clarksons the previous year for a nominal £1 (excluding a £3.4 million "subsidy" from the airline's parent company to cover the tour operator's projected 1973 loss), it purchased the Horizon group's goodwill for £600,000—including the acquisition of 58% of Horizon Midlands for £400,000—from the administrator . The deal, which became effective in February 1974,

2660-652: The airline's scheduled network served Belfast , Blackpool, Carlisle , the Channel Islands , Dundee , Glasgow, Hull , the Isle of Man , London and Teesside in the UK, Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and Amsterdam in the Netherlands . Scheduled services accounted for 12% of Autair's turnover . The airline's scheduled operation was estimated to have generated an annual loss of £150,000 (only London—Teesside

2730-596: The bulk of the airline's half-a-million annual charter passengers, which far outnumbered the 66,000 using its scheduled services each year. From 1 April 1969, the airline's scheduled operation in London was consolidated at Heathrow , joining Teesside services which had already transferred to London's premier airport from the company's Luton base on 1 November 1967. In summer 1969, Autair announced its decision to withdraw all scheduled services "irrevocably", following an unsuccessful request for government subsidies. By that time,

2800-516: The combined loss of Thomson Holidays (£1.6 million) and Horizon Holidays (£388,000), its closest rivals. By 1973, Clarksons carried over a million passengers and accounted for 40% of Court Line's turnover. During the 1973–74 winter season, Clarksons's plight worsened. At the time, the UK was in the grip of a recession , as a result of the early 1970s energy crisis caused by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ' oil boycott of

2870-537: The company into a joint stock company , turned it over to his son, Ryutarō Hanta in 1915. The company continued to prosper, adding the Bingō Dockyard in 1919, Harada Shipbuilding Works in 1920, Hikojima Dockyard in 1924. Many of the iron bridges in Osaka and surrounding areas were designed and built by Osaka Iron Works. The company also began to expand into equipment for hydroelectric power plants in 1924. The company

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2940-469: The company name reverted to Haldin & Co. Haldin died in 1953, aged 73. From 1952 onward Haldin & Co started to buy new ships again. In the 1960s the fleet diversified into tankers . The first was Edith Borthen , which Haldin bought in 1963 and renamed Halcyon Days . The second was Halcyon Breeze , which Hitachi built for Court Line in Japan in 1964. The Admiralty chartered Halcyon Breeze as

3010-438: The company's impending collapse. On 15 August 1974, Court Line went bankrupt, with all flights cancelled, its fleet comprising two TriStars and nine One-Eleven 500s grounded, all 1,150 staff losing their jobs and as many as 49,000 holidaymakers stranded overseas with no means of getting home. To enable stranded holidaymakers to return to the UK at no additional cost to them, the collapsed group's rivals organised an airlift through

3080-409: The company. Hitachi Zōsen, with over 50% of its revenues from ships was hard hit by the cancellation in orders for supertankers and attempted to survive by turning to oil rigs , oil storage facilities, and steel structures, pipes and bridges. However, with rising material costs and losses due to fixed price contracts, high overhead and redundant facilities meant that the company had to restructure from

3150-543: The concept of "cheap and cheerful" package tours to Spain and other destinations in the Mediterranean in conjunction with Clarksons Holidays , thus taking part in the establishment of a whole new way of holidaymaking for the British public. The Court Line group, including its airline and subsidiary tour operators , Clarksons Travel Group and Horizon Travel , ceased trading on 15 August 1974, with at least £ 7 million owing to 100,000 holidaymakers. Philip Haldinstein

3220-701: The destination airport (although these were not always effective at deterring determined passengers). In addition to Court Line/Clarksons, Great Universal Stores (GUS) subsidiary Global was a major proponent of "seat-back" catering among the UK's leading contemporary tour operators. It demanded that package holiday costs be driven down to the bare minimum by replacing the traditional meal service on holiday charter flights with something much cheaper that would simply give passengers "a slice of pie". Industry insiders referred to Global's new inflight catering concept as Global Pie . The cost advantage industry leaders such as Court Line/Clarksons and Global gained over their rivals as

3290-505: The early 1970s, a holiday in Majorca or on the Costa del Sol became affordable for the average person for the first time. Court Line and Clarksons Holidays were also a UK pioneer of the "time charter" concept, whereby the airline entered into a long-term relationship with the tour operator. "Time charter" was modelled on similar long-term arrangements between ship owners and charterers in

3360-588: The following years, all piston -engined aircraft types were withdrawn and replaced with Hawker Siddeley 748 and Handley Page Herald turboprops. Three Heralds operated the company's scheduled services, including the main London — Teesside route. 1960 saw the formation of Clarksons Tours (later, Clarksons Holidays) with Tom Gullick as managing director . Over the next few years, Clarksons would become Autair's and its successor Court Line's most important tour operator customer. In April 1965 Court Line bought Autair's entire share capital for £215,000. Autair became

3430-601: The last word literally means shipbuilding , no longer builds ships, having spun off the business to Universal Shipbuilding Corporation in 2002, nor is it a keiretsu company of Hitachi any longer. Hitachi Zōsen's origins go back to April 1, 1881, when British entrepreneur Edward H. Hunter established Osaka Iron Works ( 大阪鉄工所 , Ōsaka Tekkosho ) in Osaka to develop the Japanese steel-making and shipbuilding industry . Hunter had come to Japan in 1865 and had established

3500-447: The latter joined the fleet in 1962. Both types operated freight and passenger services, including a growing number of inclusive tour (IT) flights. One of the earliest charter customers for Autair's DC-3s was ex- naval officer Tom Gullick , who would later head Clarksons . Clarksons began its relationship with Autair by contracting the airline's Vikings to ferry day-trippers between up to ten UK departure points and Rotterdam during

3570-565: The new jets had four times the One-Eleven's passenger capacity (476 vs 119). Court took the view with Clarksons that the market would grow and that such large aircraft could be operated profitably. In addition, Clarksons was looking to expand further into cruise holidays and new markets in the US and the Caribbean . This, at the time, was wholly new territory for the UK package tour market. The acquisition of Leeward Islands Air Transport ( LIAT ),

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3640-413: The owner's ships. The Baltic Exchange , in London, is the physical headquarters for tramp ship brokerage. The Baltic Exchange works like an organised market and provides a meeting place for ship owners, brokers and charterers. It also provides easy access to information on market fluctuations and commodity prices to all the parties involved. Brokers can use it to quickly match a cargo to a ship or ship to

3710-406: The plastic food container, thus preventing the food from spoiling. For the airline's cabin staff , it eliminated handling trays while airborne and resulted in a reduction of their workload. To prevent outbound passengers from consuming meals intended for return passengers, locks needed to be installed on the lower compartment that could only be opened by cabin staff during the aircraft's turnaround at

3780-400: The ports they use lack suitable equipment for loading or discharging cargo. The tramp ship is a contract carrier. Unlike a liner , often called a common carrier, which has a fixed schedule and a published tariff, the ideal tramp can carry anything to anywhere, and freight rates are influenced by supply and demand. To generate business, a contract to lease the vessel known as a charterparty

3850-571: The run, or lovers are fleeing from an affair gone wrong, tramp steamers are used to slip in or out of a country. The crew of a tramp steamer is often a picaresque mix of societal outcasts and rogues with colourful (or even illegal-activity-filled) pasts who cannot or who do not want to work elsewhere. Steamers are often depicted as operating in a grey area of legality, both in terms of their lax observance of steamship safety regulations and their plying of black market trades and smuggling of goods and passengers. Fiction writers depicted tramp steamers as

3920-491: The shipbuilding field, Hitachi began to specialize in ever larger sizes of oil tankers, pioneering in methods for computer assisted design and modular, automated construction techniques. Hitachi acquired another shipyard, Maizuru Heavy Industries, in 1971 and opened a new shipyard at Ariake in Kyushu in 1973. However, the global oil crisis of 1973 with its consequent reduction in ship demand resulted in financial difficulties for

3990-592: The then fast-growing package holiday market. As the larger One-Eleven 500s were delivered, all but one of the smaller, former Autair 400 series One-Elevens were retired. The corporate look was an all-over colour design by Peter Murdoch. In keeping with the holiday "feel-good factor", One-Elevens were painted in the following distinctive, eye-catching pastel colour combinations : yellow/gold/orange, pink/rose/magenta, pale violet/mauve/purple, light green/mid-green/forest green. These were named Halcyon Skies . Aircrew wore trendy uniforms designed by Mary Quant . This

4060-460: The time many sailing vessels engaged in irregular trade as well). The tramp trade first took off in Britain around the mid-19th century. The dependability and timeliness of steam ships was found to be more cost-effective than sail. Coal was needed for ships' boilers , and the demand created a business opportunity for moving large amounts of best Welsh coal to various seaports in Britain. Within

4130-538: The undisputed cut-price leader in the IT market. By 1973, Clarksons carried 1.1 million holidaymakers—almost 1968's whole industry total—and contracted over 70% of Court Line's charter capacity. Its meteoric rise was entirely volume-based. It generated the required volumes by ruthlessly undercutting rivals and outbidding them to win the race for securing accommodation in popular overseas holiday resorts, especially in Spain. Thus, in

4200-411: The vessel, but the owner can make recommendations. There are no standardized forms in a demise charter, contracts can vary greatly, and are written up to meet the needs of the charterer. Tramp ship owners and tramp ship charterers rely on brokers to find cargoes for their ships to carry. A broker understands international trade conditions, the movements of goods, market prices and the availability of

4270-478: The youngest brother of Owen Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant , joined Haldin in the business, which was renamed Haldin and Philipps Ltd. In the 1930s part of the fleet was laid up. In 1939 Haldin was made a Knight Bachelor . In 1937 Court Line lost two ships. Nollington Court sank in the Caribbean after striking a submerged object. Less than a fortnight later, Quarrington Court sank in the Red Sea after springing

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4340-671: Was a British Jewish businessman from Norwich . He founded the tramp shipping company Haldinstein and Co Ltd in 1905. Robert Stephenson and Company launched Haldinstein's first ship, Arlington Court , at Hebburn on the River Tyne that October. Between 1906 and 1912 Haldinstein added several new steamships from shipyards on the Tyne and the River Wear . When the First World War broke out in 1914, Haldinstein & Co had

4410-454: Was administered by TOSG. On 16 August 1974, all of the group's UK-based subsidiaries went into voluntary liquidation . This included Court Line Aviation and Clarksons Holidays. Tramp trade The term tramper is derived from the British meaning of " tramp ", as being an itinerant beggar or vagrant. In this context, it was first documented in the 1880s, along with "ocean tramp" (at

4480-591: Was based on payment of £1 for each Horizon customer Court Line expected to carry over the following three years. The airline's decision to purchase Clarksons as well as Horizon was intended to protect its business. In reality, these deals did little to help improve Court Line's increasingly bleak prospects. As soon as Court Line began diverting Horizon customers onto its planes, British Caledonian (BCal) threatened having Horizon compulsorily wound up if Court Line did not agree to settle Horizon's outstanding debts of over £100,000. BCal's threat forced Court Line to sub-charter

4550-454: Was established downstream on the Aji river at Sakurajima in 1900 to handle construction of vessels larger than 1000 tons. The first oil tanker built in Japan, the 531-ton Tora maru was launched in 1908, for Standard Oil Company . Another shipyard was constructed at Innoshima, Hiroshima in 1911. Hunter changed his name to "Hanta" in 1915 after marrying a Japanese woman, and after transforming

4620-549: Was formed at London Luton Airport in 1957. In 1960, it became Autair (Luton) . On 27 September 1963, it changed to Autair International Airways . Autair started as a division of Autair Helicopters , a helicopter operator established in the early 1950s. (Autair's helicopter interests were subsequently hived off into a separate company.) It began public transport operations with an ex- British European Airways (BEA) Douglas DC-3 , used on contract work for other airlines. More DC-3s and Vickers Vikings were bought. The first of

4690-527: Was involved in the conversion of old merchant ships for military use. Hitachi Zōsen also built the Kumano Maru , a transport aircraft carrier , at its Innoshima works in 1945. During World War II , the Osaka Iron Works expanded by opening a new shipyard at Kanagawa and acquiring the existing Mukaishima shipyard in 1943. It also changed its name to Hitachi Zosen Corporation in 1943. After

4760-460: Was part of making passengers feel that the flight was a "fun part" of their holiday. For many, it would be their first flying experience. Other airlines and tour operators were quick to jump on the burgeoning package holiday bandwagon. This resulted in increasingly fierce competition between operators and led to a price warfare to fill planes and hotels. Under Tom Gullick 's management, Shipping Industrial Holdings' subsidiary Clarksons Holidays became

4830-535: Was re-organized in 1934, coming under the overall control of the Nissan zaibatsu , and was renamed as K.K. Nihon Sangyō Osaka Tekkoshō . While most of the lucrative contracts for naval warships for the Imperial Japanese Navy went to Osaka Iron Work’s competitors, the company did build a large number of smaller auxiliary vessels such as minesweepers , landing craft , transport submarines and

4900-421: Was said to be profitable). On 31 October 1969, scheduled services were stopped and all turboprop aircraft sold. This was followed by an order for seven of the larger 119-seat 500 series One-Eleven . To coincide with the arrival of the first BAC One-Eleven 500 , the airline changed its name on 1 January 1970 to Court Line Aviation and introduced a new corporate look and strategy that focused exclusively on

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