Instone Air Line

This airline is not to be confused with the Instone Air Line of Stansted, which operated from 1981 to about 1996 with Bristol Freighter and Douglas DC-6.

[1][2] S. Instone & Company Limited, a shipping company set up by Sir Samuel Instone, had operated a private air service from Cardiff via London's Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Le Bourget aerodrome, near Paris, since 1919.

It stopped operating the London-Paris route in October 1922 due to competition.

Following this recommendation, Imperial Airways was created on 1 April 1924, absorbing the assets and routes of Handley Page Transport, Instone Air Line, Daimler Airway and British Marine Air Navigation Co Ltd.

There is a history of the airline: Early Birds – Air Transport Memories 1919–1924 by Alfred Instone (published by Western Mail & Echo, Cardiff, 1938) containing a number of photographs.