higher fuel consumption and a little bit of
extra weight.RETIREMENT
From January 13, 1992, Boeing 737-236s
began to replace the One-Eleven leet in
the ‘Super Shuttle’ back-up role. The shuttle
from Heathrow to Glasgow, Edinburgh and
Manchester was a ‘turn-up and go’ service. If
one aircraft was illed, another was brought
in to take the additional passengers. One-
Elevens were used as irst choice on some
of the services.
Six of the original series 510EDs were
retired to Bournemouth Hurn Airport for
storage awaiting sale. From August 1, 1992,
One-Elevens were withdrawn from front
line services at Manchester, and again
replaced by Boeing 737-236s. The inal One-
Eleven light from Manchester took place
on Christmas Eve 1992, when G-AVMW
operated a Santa special as BA9396C.
The inal revenue light from Birmingham
was a round-trip to Edinburgh using oneof the BCAL 500 series aircraft, G-BJRU,
on June 23, 1993. As each member of
the leet stood down, they were sent to
Bournemouth or Lasham. Bournemouth-based European Aviation purchased 16
of those, together with four of the former
BCAL aircraft. G-AVMO and G-AVMU
later found new homes with museums in
Duxford and Cosford (later Edinburgh),
standing as shining examples of British
engineering excellence.
A curious footnote to British Airways’
history with the One-Eleven extends the
story by a few years. Birmingham European
Airways acquired ive of the original 400
series in 1990, using them on scheduled
services between its West Midlands airport
base and various European centres. A
merger with Brymon Airways in October
1992 was soon superseded when Maersk
Air of Denmark acquired the Brymon
operation. The new subsidiary Maersk Air
UK started on August 1, 1993 and repainted
the aircraft back to the British Airways
‘Landor’ colours and lew them with BA
light numbers. The inal two series 501EX
variants were eventually withdrawn from
service in August 1998.26 Aviation News incorporating Jets December 2018
‘The popular
Viscounts were still
performing well but
the emergence of
short-haul jets into
the marketplace left
customers hungry
for opportunities to
fly faster, higher and
further than before’
Several One-Elevens continued lying in British Airways’ Landor designed scheme until 1998, despite being operated by Maersk Air UK. Bob
O’Brien CollectionFive British Airways One-Eleven series 500s
stored awaiting sale. Bob O’Brien Collection