This airline stole Continental Airlines’ livery – and got away with it!

The Flight Detective
an airplane on the runway

Once upon a time, there was an airline in the United Kingdom called Channel Airways. They were a frugal outfit, and were one of the first to introduce a low-fares, maximum utilisation concept in aviation. They also stole Continental Airlines’ livery.

Founded by Sqn Ldr Reginald Jones AFC (commonly known as Jack Jones) as East Anglian Flying Services on 16 August 1946, it changed its name in 1962. Eventually it became one of the leading providers of inclusive tour holiday seats to major tour operators.

How Channel Airways stole Continental’s Livery

In need of more capacity, Channel Airways decided to purchase Continental’s entire fleet of Vickers Viscounts. When they arrived in 1966, Jack Jones decided it would cost money to change the livery, so he kept it.

The following year, the jet powered BAC One-Eleven was introduced, and it also had the same colour scheme. Another year passed and the Hawker Siddeley Trident was acquired and – you guessed it – same scheme. Looking at the images, you can clearly see the tails of Channel’s aircraft have “Continental Golden Jet” written on them. This was how the US airline marketed themselves at the time, and it’s quite cheeky to see it there!

Overall Thoughts

Channel Airways stole Continental’s livery lock, stock and barrel. Since both airlines were confined to their respective geographic areas, I am sure there was an agreement of some kind to let this ride. It would be relatively unlikely anyone would have mistaken each others airline, as they operated completely separately.

This kind of thing could only have happened in the disconnected media landscape of the time, well, compared to today anyway. It’s a fun little aviation footnote to remember. Oh, do you know what else Channel Airways was known for? Seven abreast seating in their Tridents!

Did you know about Channel Airways stealing Continental’s livery? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Ralf Manteufel on Airliners.net.
Boeing 707 by Jon Proctor via AirlineFan.com.
BAC One-Eleven by Lars Söderström on Airliners.net.
Trident in flight by BAE Systems via KEY.AERO.

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