Jersey Airlines

Jersey Airlines

Jersey Airlines Douglas C-47B Dakota landing at Manchester Airport in 1962
IATA ICAO Callsign JY
Founded	1948
Ceased operations	1968 (absorbed into British United Island Airways)
Hubs	States' Airport, Jersey Croydon Airport (November 1948 — May 1958) London Gatwick Airport (May 1958 — 31 October 1968)
Fleet size	13 aircraft (1 Handley Page HPR.7 Dart Herald 200, 2 Handley Page HPR.7 Dart Herald 100, 6 Douglas DC-3 Dakota/ C-47 Skytrain, 4 de Havilland DH 114 Heron (as of April 1962))
Destinations	Europe
Parent company	British United Airways (1962 — 31 July 1963) Air Holdings (1 August 1963 — 31 October 1968)
Headquarters	States' Airport, Jersey
Key people	M.L. Thomas, Capt. B.W. Gardiner, T.C. Chandler, H.F. Popham, Capt. J.A. Spencer, H.I. Allan

Jersey Airlines was an early post-World War II private, independentBritish airline formed in 1948. In 1952, the airline operated its first scheduled service. Four years later, British European Airways (BEA) took a 25% minority stake in Jersey Airlines and made it an "associate". In June 1958, a Jersey Airlines de Havilland Heron became the first commercial airliner to arrive at the newly reconstructed Gatwick Airport. In 1960, Jersey Airlines ordered four state-of-the-art Handley Page Dart Herald 200 series turboprops. By 1962, BEA had sold its 25% minority holding in Jersey Airlines. The same year, Jersey Airlines became part of the British United Airways (BUA) group of companies. In August 1963, Jersey Airlines changed its trading name to British United (C.I.) Airways. Following the BUA group's 1967/8 reorganisation, BUA (C.I.) was absorbed into British United Island Airways (BUIA) in November 1968.

During the summer of 1948, Welshman Maldwyn L. Thomas was working for a car rental company in St. Helier, Jersey, and arranged ad hoc charters for day trippers to be flown from London's Croydon Airport to Dinard in Brittany, France. Due to the growing popularity of these trips, in November of that year, he decided to form a company to offer such charter flights on a regular basis. That company was to be incorporated under the name Jersey Airlines Limited. However, its similarity to an existing company named Jersey Airways Limited, a recently nationalised airline that was absorbed into BEA, resulted in the new company being registered as Airlines (Jersey) Limited and using Jersey Airlines as its trading name.