[2][3] The introduction of exchange controls in the early 1950s resulted in a major contraction of the travel market, in turn compelling East Anglian to cease all operations other than pleasure flying.

[13][14][15] A bus stop scheduled service linking the airline's Southend base with Aberdeen via six intermediate points briefly operated in the late-1960s with modified Viscounts.

[20][21][22] Low utilisation of the Trident fleet resulted in the type's disposal in December 1971, followed by closure of the Stansted engineering base and return of the head office to Southend.

Former Royal Air Force squadron leader Reginald "Jack" Jones[1] founded Channel Airways in June 1946 as an aerial joy ride business, which was incorporated as East Anglian Flying Services on 16 August 1946.

[2][3] Commercial operations commenced on 16 August 1946 with a single, early-1930s vintage, three-seat Puss Moth, offering joy rides at 10s (50p as of early-2012[28]) a time from a landing strip near the Kent seaside town of Herne Bay.

One of East Anglian's engagements at the time included a one-off round-trip to Cyprus carrying a party of schoolboys, which was operated by a Miles Aerovan lacking radio equipment and an autopilot.

[29][31] Following a gradual pickup in demand, East Anglian brought back into service aircraft that had been laid up during the slump, re-hired laid-off employees and, in 1953, obtained a lease on the grass airfield at Ipswich Airport as a secondary base for its charter operations and a future feeder point on its scheduled network.

[31][32] During the 1950s, East Anglian also began the process of augmenting and eventually replacing pre-war aircraft designs such as the Dragon Rapide with more modern equipment, starting with the acquisition of three de Havilland Doves from West African Airways Corporation in 1954.

Moreover, the company ran regular, 52-seat luxury express coach services linking Norwich with Ipswich as well as Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, London, Reading, Basingstoke and Guildford with Portsmouth.

[36]) In addition, IT and general passenger and freight charter services, which accounted for a growing share of the firm's business, were operated while rival Southend-based independent airline Tradair equipped with Vickers Vikings became a wholly owned subsidiary of Channel Airways on 31 December 1962.

[31][39] The arrival of Channel's first turbine-powered aircraft coincided with the introduction of a new Continental Airlines-derived "Golden Jet"-themed livery that was subsequently adopted for all Viscounts, HS 748s, One-Elevens and Tridents, with minor variations for each sub-fleet.

This was one of the few marketing gimmicks in which the airline indulged and marked a major departure from its refusal to build a brand identity or to engage in prestige promotion to keep costs down.

This order was the culmination of a successful sales campaign by Hawker Siddeley, which went out of its way to find a customer for its remaining five unsold Trident 1Es that were nearing completion on the production line at Hatfield in mid-1967.

[52] By that time, most UK independent airlines that were in the market for short-haul jet aircraft – including Channel Airways – had already committed themselves to the BAC One-Eleven, the Trident's more economical and ultimately more successful, home-grown rival.

For want of viable alternatives and despite Channel Airways's reputation as financially weak, Hawker Siddeley began sales negotiations with the airline in August 1967.

Channel's first Trident operated the airline's first revenue service with the type on 13 June of that year, when the aircraft departed Southend for Barcelona via Teesside, while the second example was displayed at the following month's Farnborough Airshow.

Channel also took advantage of the Trident's higher cruising speed[nb 10] by promoting the type's 3-hour 15-minute non-stop flying time between Stansted and Las Palmas as the fastest flight from anywhere in the UK to the Canaries.

[7][10][51][56] As Channel's new jets suffered range and payload restrictions at Southend due to its short runway and the introduction of the One-Eleven at the airport led to growing complaints about the aircraft's take-off noise, this resulted in Stansted becoming the main operating base in 1968.

[13][14][20][48][57][58] Nineteen sixty-eight was furthermore the year Channel reduced its outstanding jet aircraft orders due to the difficult economic situation in the UK during that time, especially the sterling devaluation and a tightening of the existing exchange control regime that limited passengers to £50 a trip.

[51][59][60][53] The introduction of these jet aircraft enabled Channel Airways to become a major provider of charter airline seats to the leading package tour operators in the UK from bases at Southend, Stansted, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Manchester and Teesside.

[9][12][20][48][51] Channel's increasing dependence on the IT market made it a highly seasonal airline, with pronounced peaks and troughs in activity and aircraft utilisation.

Each year, the end of the winter trough was followed by a six-week period of intense activity starting in April, when the company's aircraft were contracted by Clarksons to ferry British tourists to and from Rotterdam for the Dutch bulbfield season from ten UK departure points.

[nb 18][20] The Scottish Flyer was the name of a twice-daily multi-stop, bus stop type scheduled service Channel operated with modified, 69-seat Viscount 812s featuring a large baggage compartment inside the aircraft's cabin.

This service ran for a brief period from January until November 1969 between Southend and Aberdeen, with six four- to five-minute long, engine-running intermediate stops, including Luton, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Teesside, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The only way the airline was able to fulfil its contractual obligations towards Lyons under these circumstances was to acquire five ex-BEA de Havilland Comet 4B series for £2 million, which resulted in a significant increase in its charter capacity.

These were worth £11 million per annum and resulted in the opening of a base at the city's Tegel Airport, where two aircraft – a Trident and a One-Eleven – were stationed from March 1971 to operate more than 50 weekly round-trips during the peak summer season.

[22][72] Channel Airways's failure to enter the transatlantic affinity charter market was followed by an unsuccessful attempt to establish itself as the UK's third scheduled domestic trunk airline (in addition to BEA and British Caledonian), when partial approval of an application made to the UK Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB) in early-1971 to fly from Stansted to Newcastle, Belfast and Glasgow resulted in the ATLB's decision to provisionally license Channel Airways to fly between Stansted and Glasgow from May 1972 being ultimately reversed under pressure from BEA.

[69] During the first week of December 1971, Channel Airways sold both of its Trident 1Es to BEA to counter the increase in unit costs resulting from low utilisation of these aircraft.

[77] Lack of fleet standardisation[nb 20] and low, all-year round aircraft utilisation due to seasonal peaks and troughs in its charter and scheduled markets drove up Channel's unit costs while low charter rates and poor yields on short-haul scheduled routes served in competition with British Air Ferries from Southend depressed revenues.

[12][24][61][78] To bring costs in line with revenues, Channel Airways announced the closure of its Stansted engineering base and the return of its headquarters to Southend at the end of January 1972.