Grounded: Air UK

This episode of Grounded looks at Air UK (or AirUK depending on how you look at it), formed through the amalgamation of four smaller airlines AirUK became the largest regional airline in the United Kingdom and the country's third largest airline behind British Airways and British Caledonian.

AirUK operated from 1980 until 1997 when it was rebranded as KLM UK and then divided up between KLM Cityhopper and Buzz, the low fare airline acquired by Ryanair. This episode tells the story from start to finish, hopefully doing the airline and the folks involved proud and hopefully, not too long to watch either ;)

**PRODUCTION NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE**
*This episode took a lot longer than planned to produce due to a few issues, in order to do a good job, I have not rushed it though I have had to trim it slightly for timing purposes.
*The joke regarding the weather - I know the skies are blue once above the grey and rainy clouds, I don't need reminding - I spent some of the best years of my life above the clouds ;)
*I have tried to put a couple of other jokes in here, hopefully they hit the mark :)
*The Dan Air London 737 G-TREN - I have indeed worked on that aircraft, in fact it was the second aircraft I worked on as Cabin Crew (Flight Attendant) when it was with Islandsflug as TF-ELV.
*AirUK Leisure / Leisure International and British Island Airways (1982) are currently in production and will arrive in due course :)

**Airlines Referenced in This Episode that are covered by other Grounded Episodes**

UK International - UK Long Haul airline headquartered above a furniture shop;
https://youtu.be/etlKJMZ4wjU

National Airlines - Established in the late 1990s and part owned by several Las Vegas hotels, National operated a fleet of Boeing 757s;
https://youtu.be/0HJQgmxg3vs

Hooters Air - The Restaurant Chain had it's own airline for a few years, operating some 737s and 757s;
https://youtu.be/Ud7VY1qLVMw

Gill Airways - A regional airline based in the North East of England;
https://youtu.be/8En-ultRpok

Viking Airlines - Expanded into the void left behind by XL Airways following their collapse, ran into the ground by the same management team;
https://youtu.be/tGQJeec0Yxw

XL Airways - One of Europe's largest travel companies collapsed spectacularly in 2008, part of a several episode arc this episode looks as the fall of XL Airways;
https://youtu.be/lfeQkVa0eH4

Excalibur Airways - Where it all began for me, Episode 1 of Grounded looked at this promising UK holiday airline which following a takeover was led by some fairly braindead management who bankrupted the company within months;
https://youtu.be/O6dY68NG1rE

If you are interested in the history of ITV, Matthew Harris has a great series called "ITV in the Face", episode one looks at the South West region and covers Westward Television and its successors;
https://youtu.be/HK4sCZ_IkD8

I really hope you have enjoyed this episode, I have been wanting to cover AirUK for quite a while. I am fairly happy with how it has come out and hope that you folks like it :)

Thanks for watching and I really appreciate any feedback or suggestions for future episodes.

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Видео Grounded: Air UK канала Expo Aviation