Dan-Air Engineering

Dan-Air Engineering was established in 1954 at Lasham Airfield to maintain the fledgling airline's rapidly growing fleet as well as to cater to the maintenance requirements of third parties.

When the fledgling airline moved its operating base to Blackbushe in 1955, it continued to face a shortage of adequate maintenance facilities as Airwork, Britavia, Eagle, Silver City and Westminster Airways, whose presence at the airport predated Dan-Air's, had already occupied most of the available hangar space.

The airport's biggest drawback was its location on both sides of the A30 along the Hampshire-Surrey county border, with the terminal and apron to the north and the maintenance area to the south, and taxiways as well as one of the runways crossing it.

Eventually, Davies and Newman, the parent company of both the airline and its new engineering offshoot, managed to negotiate a 21-year lease of the airfield's maintenance facilities with the Air Ministry.

[9] These aircraft were ferried from BOAC's Heathrow base to Lasham during the early summer of that year for a six-month conversion by Dan-Air Engineering from a 74-seat, low-density, two-class long-haul scheduled configuration into a 106-seat, high-density, single-class short- to medium-haul inclusive tour (IT) layout.

[10][11][12][13] This conversion involved structurally "reinforcing" the aircraft — including strengthening the cabin floor and the wing roots – as they were expected to perform many more takeoffs and landings after entering service with Dan-Air (compared with their original role at BOAC).

[13] Subsequently, acquired, larger Comet series 4B and 4C aircraft underwent similar structural modifications to enable them to carry up to 119 passengers before entering service with sister airline Dan-Air.

[nb 3] After reaching the US, they underwent an extensive modification programme at Boeing's Wichita plant in Kansas to comply with British Civil Airworthiness Requirements (BCAR).

[1][2][4] At the same time, Dan-Air Engineering was facing growing competition in the global third-party MRO market from rival specialist providers with far greater economies of scale, considerably lower labour costs and much more powerful parent organisations in places such as China, the Middle East and the Republic of Ireland.

As a result, Davies and Newman was no longer in a position to fund the competing investment requirements of both its airline and engineering subsidiaries from its own, limited financial resources.

[4][35] In the event, Davies and Newman sold Dan-Air Engineering to FLS Aerospace, a major specialist MRO provider in the UK and Ireland with bases at Stansted, Manchester and Dublin, for £27.5 million on 28 February 1991.

It was decommissioned once more as a consequence of British Airways's subsequent decision to de-hub Gatwick, following the adoption of a new corporate strategy aimed at restructuring the airline's loss-making operation at the airport in the aftermath of recording its first-ever full-year loss since privatisation in 2000.

A de Havilland Comet 4C sister airline Dan-Air acquired from Kuwait Airways in 1971, seen here in 1974.
The interior of sister airline Dan-Air's Comet 4C G-BDIX, seen here on display at the National Museum of Flight , East Fortune , Scotland.
One of two BAC One-Eleven 300s sister airline Dan-Air acquired in 1969 following British Eagle 's bankruptcy, seen here passing behind a Britannia Airways Boeing 737-200 at Manchester Airport in 1972.
One of three Boeing 727-100s sister airline Dan-Air acquired from Japan Airlines in 1972, seen here in 1974 (note the additional emergency door at the rear of the fuselage).
One of four BAC One-Eleven 500s sister airline Dan-Air acquired in 1974 following Court Line 's bankruptcy, seen here at Pisa Airport in 1975.
One of three Airbus A300 B4 series sister airline Dan-Air acquired from
Hapag-Lloyd in 1986 and 1988 respectively. G-BMNC (ex-D-AMAX), the aircraft seen here taxiing towards its stand at London Gatwick in March 1990, entered service with Dan-Air in August 1988.
Sister airline Dan-Air 's first aircraft, Douglas C-47 B Dakota 4 G-AMSU, seen here at Manchester Airport in 1964 (note the Dan-Air Airspeed Ambassador behind the KLM Viscount in the background).