VY TTN Operating bases Founded 1984 Fleet size 1 | TTN TARTAN Headquarters Prestwick Airport Ceased operations 1987 | |
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Destinations New York-Newark, London Stansted, Birmingham, London Gatwick, Brussels | ||
Highland Express Airways was an airline based in Scotland. Its main base was at Prestwick International Airport. It ceased operations in 1987.
Contents
History
The airline was formed in 1984 by Randolph Fields and operated a daily service between Prestwick and Newark.
Highland Express planned to officially launch on the day of the Scottish International Airshow at Prestwick on Saturday, May 30, 1987 to Newark and Toronto. However, the first scheduled flight using a Highland Express flight number actually took place a few days earlier. That flight used a hired Caribbean Airlines Boeing 747-200 as the airline's own Boeing 747 had not yet been delivered. Many of the cabin crew were employees of Highland Express and wore the airline's uniforms. The founder, Randolph Fields was on board, and to celebrate the inaugural flight complimentary refreshments were served.
Many of the passengers with return tickets on that flight were forced to return using the Northwest Airlines service with the booking paid for by Highland Express. Things continued to go wrong when the Toronto route licence was not forthcoming and their sole Boeing 747 was delivered weeks late.
Operations finally began with flight VY201 from London Stansted Airport to Newark via Prestwick on Tuesday, June 30, 1987. Operations ex Birmingham were operated from Saturday, July 4, 1987 on flight VY211. Initially, four Stansted and three Birmingham rotations were planned weekly. However, after a few weeks the Monday morning flight from Newark to Stansted via Prestwick routed onto Brussels for maintenance with Sabena, returning on a Tuesday.
Passengers could purchase a one-way economy ticket from Prestwick to Stansted for £19 and could travel first class for an extra fee. This made Highland Express the first scheduled low-cost carrier from Prestwick, Stansted and Birmingham.
With passenger numbers not meeting targets and debts mounting, a short lived service from Gatwick Airport to Newark via Prestwick was launched in November. But some three weeks later the lessors of the aircraft, Citicorp repossessed the aircraft which was in Brussels on maintenance.
Fleet
The Highland Express fleet consisted of one aircraft which was eventually bought by Virgin Atlantic before being scrapped.