Dan Air at Manchester

• Published in: Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology
• Main Author: Ford C.Eng., Terry
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald 1985
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb036120; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/eb036120/full/xml; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/eb036120/full/html

THE Engineering Division of Dan Air Services was formed in 1954 when the parent company, Davies and Newman Holdings, decided that the successful operation of its (then) newly formed airline required in‐house maintenance and the first such facilities were established at Blackbush which was then a thriving airport. The first engineering base was established at Lasham where the environment offered scope for the planned long‐term expansion. Dan Air's reputation during the early years was mainly as a freight airline but it gradually became a passenger carrier and in 1960 moved to its present operating base at Gatwick. Fleet expansion and the increase in the overhaul facility at Lasham coupled with the one‐time very busy North Atlantic operation were further high spots for the airline but by 1978, the transatlantic traffic had fallen away and the carrier sought expansion in other fields. The base at Lasham had meanwhile again expanded and with the departure of the Boeing 707's and the Comets, the fleet was centred around the 748's. The additional hangar space available now enabled the company to offer their own services to other aircraft operators and this venture was so successful that a second engineering base was opened at Manchester early in 1976 to service the airline's BAe One‐Eleven and 748 aircraft. It has remained a centre for these types to the present day with the other aircraft of the airline, now including the BAe 146, being maintained at Lasham.