Air Charter was an early post-World War II private, British independent[nb 1] airline formed in 1947.

[4] Following its formation in early 1947, Air Charter Limited started operations from London's old Croydon Airport with two Dragon Rapides.

[5] Freddie Laker followed up his acquisition of bankrupt Surrey Flying Services in February 1951 with the purchase of loss-making Air Charter later the same year.

Laker's main motivation to take over these airlines was his eligibility to use those companies' tax losses to offset Aviation Traders' profits as a convenient way to reduce his taxable earnings.

Prior to the Skyways crash, the War Office always favoured the lowest bid although the award of trooping contracts had been dependent upon inspection of the aircraft the bidder proposed to use.

As a result of that crash, the Government's attitude towards safety standards of the independent airlines that were to be contracted for its trooping business changed.

Until then, all trooping flights were conducted with ex-wartime aircraft and early post-war designs derived from wartime bombers such as the Avro York and Handley Page Hermes.

The £90 per flying hour the War Office was contracted to pay Air Charter made flying troops in cheap, second-hand planes a very profitable business, given the fact that Laker could easily amortise the cost of each York for about £5,000 as a result of the massive spares stockpile he had purchased at rock-bottom prices in government surplus sales on behalf of Aviation Traders.

In terms of cargo carried, Air Charter was second only to Silver City Airways among the UK's contemporary independent airlines.

Apart from carrying refugees out of Berlin under contract to British European Airways, they were used on a West African colonial coach-class passenger service[nb 3] between Stansted, Idris and Lagos as well as on trooping flights.

[4][17] In April 1955, Air Charter inaugurated its first vehicle ferry service between Southend and Calais using Bristol Superfreighter Mark 32s.

The War Office specified exclusive use of state-of-the-art Bristol Britannia turboprops on the Far Eastern route as it had calculated that this would save the Government £1.75m each year compared with continuing use of the Hermes.

[21] During that time, the cash flow Air Charter and Aviation Traders generated also financed the design and construction of the prototype of the ill-fated Accountant, which was completed early in 1957.

[22][23] The end of the second "Little Berlin Airlift" in 1957 resulted in Air Charter redeploying Supertraders used on that run to carry "Black Knight" and "Blue Streak" rockets to the Woomera rocket-testing range in Australia under contract to the UK government.

On that day an Air Charter Britannia operated a trooping flight from Stansted to Christmas Island in the western Pacific with 124 passengers on board.

Hunting-Clan's successful bid to take over the UK—Singapore trooping contract from Airwork had been priced too low to leave any room for the depreciation of that airline's two new Britannias.

[24] In August 1958, another Air Charter Supertrader embarked on a memorable long-distance journey, when it flew to Christchurch in New Zealand to collect spares for a Bristol Freighter.

[nb 5][4] During that year, Laker furthermore announced his decision to sell both Air Charter and Aviation Traders to Airwork for £600,000 cash plus a further £200,000.

[11][26] Air Charter's operations were absorbed into the newly formed BUA, as a result of the Airwork – Hunting-Clan merger in June 1960.