Air Anglia was a wholly privately owned, independent British regional airline formed at Norwich Airport in 1970. Created as a result of a merger of three smaller operators, the new entity became an important regional scheduled carrier during the 1970s, serving the Eastern half of Britain. In 1980 Air Anglia merged with three regional rivals to form Air UK.
AirUK was a wholly privately owned, independent regional British airline formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving four rival UK-based regional airlines. British and Commonwealth -owned British Island Airways (BIA) and Air Anglia were the two dominant merger partners.[4] The merged entity's corporate headquarters were originally located at Redhill, Surrey, the location of the old BIA head office. It subsequently relocated to Crawley, West Sussex.
In addition to the main maintenance base at Norwich Airport (Air Anglia's former engineering base), there also used to be a second major maintenance base at Blackpool Airport (the old BIA engineering base). This was closed down following Air UK's major retrenchment during Britain's severe recession of the early 1980s. In 1987, Air UK established Air UK Leisure as a charter subsidiary. The following year, Air UK shifted its headquarters to London Stansted Airport.
When Stansted's new Norman Foster-designed terminal opened in 1991, the airline became its first and subsequently main tenant.
Air UK was a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for most of its existence. The company originally was a wholly owned subsidiary of British Air Transport (Holdings), a successor to the Air Holdings Group owned 90% by B&C and 10% by Eagle Star Insurance. This made the Cayzer family, who owned B&C, the controlling shareholders.
Following the beginning of the gradual liberalisation of the European Union (EU) internal air transport market in 1987, Dutch flag carrier KLM, a long-standing business partner of Air UK and its predecessor Air Anglia, acquired a 14.9% minority stake in Air UK's holding company.[6][9] In 1995, KLM increased its minority stake in Air UK to 45%. In 1997, KLM became Air UK's sole shareholder[10] when it acquired B&C's stake in British Air Transport (Holdings). The following year Air UK was renamed KLM uk.
Fleet List* 11003 PH-MOL Air UK li. 05Nov1984 – 05Nov1985.* 11133 G-WWJC Air Anglia 12Oct1979. Air UK mgd 16Jan1980 rmt. Air Alsace 08Apr80.* 11135 G-JCWW Air Anglia 21May1979. Air UK mgd 16Jan1980 rmt. Air Alsace li. 23Aug1980.
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