Crilly Airways

Crilly Airways Ltd was founded by entrepreneur Frederick Leo Crilly. The airline operated passenger services between several cities in England in the mid 1930's^[1]. The airline started with a capitalization of 12,000 pounds.

Crilly Airways started up running two eight seat de Havilland Dragons from Braunstone, a suburb of Leicester. ^[2]. The first of these two aircraft was christened Spirit of Doncaster. They also operated a de Havilland Fox Moth, and two General Aircraft Monospar twin engined monoplanes.

In 1935 Crilly Airways sought government approval to operate an air service between Britain and Ireland but was refused. It was the Irish government's intention to operate a national airline between the two countries. ^[3]

This airline was the first to offer a frequent flyer program.

Crilly Airways bought four 12 seater Fokker F.XIIs from KLM. Crilly Airways, using these planes, was the first airline to run an airmail service between Portugal and England, opening this service on 1 February 1936. At the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, one of the Fokker F.XIIs was christened Lisboa (Lisbon) by Menina Maria do Carmo Carmona Costa, the young granddaughter of the nation's president. It was Crilly's intention to extend this service to Gibraltar and West Africa, but this plan came to a halt when the Spanish government refused Crilly Airways permission to overfly its territory due to the Spanish Civil War.

Unable to survive financially following the failure of the Portuguese venture, the company ceased trading on September 9, 1936, and entered receivership. British Airways Ltd. bought the aircraft and started the company British Airways Iberia Ltd. with Crilly as managing director. But this company also soon went bankrupt.

The planes were then sold, via shady deals, to the Spanish nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. ^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Smith, Myron (2000). The Airline Encyclopedia. Scarecrow Press.. 
2. ^ "Leicestershire Aeroclub History". Archived from the original on 2007-09-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20070922201544/http://www.leicesterairport.com/pastandpresent. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
3. ^ "Privatisation Experiences in the EU". A joint Initiative of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Ifo Institute for Economic Research. http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/page/portal/ifoContent/N/neucesifo/CONFERENCES/SC_CONF_1999-2006/PRI03/PRI03_PAPERS_PART2/PRI03-BARRETT_B.PDF. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 
4. ^ "Fokker F.XII". http://www.dutch-aviation.nl/index5/Civil/index5-2%20F12.html. Retrieved 2007-09-29. 

External links

• Crilly Airways timetable
• Commemorative stamp flight Lisbon-London