page_title: British European Airways
section_title: Scotland
hierarchical_section_title: British European Airways / History / Highlands and islands operations / Scotland
caption_attribution_description: English: Gatwick Airport in 1972 A view of what is now called the South Terminal, from the southern pier. A British Caledonian BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) 111 is in the foreground. A BEA (British European Airways) / Scottish Airways Vickers Viscount is in the middle distance.
context_page_description: British European Airways, formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974.
  BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The airline was also the largest UK domestic operator, serving major British cities, including London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as areas of the British Isles such as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. From 1946 until 1974, BEA operated a network of internal German routes between West Berlin and West Germany as well. The company slogan was Number One in Europe.
  Formed as the British European Airways division of British Overseas Airways Corporation on 1 January 1946, BEA became a crown corporation in its own right on 1 August 1946.
  Operations commenced from Croydon and Northolt airports, with DH89A Dragon Rapides and Douglas DC-3s.
context_section_description: The Dragon Rapides BEA had inherited from Scottish Airways and other former independent airlines it had taken over in early-1947 initially operated the corporation's Scottish routes, including services to remote communities in the Highlands and Islands.
  From 1948, BEA Dragon Rapides were contracted to operate the Scottish Air Ambulance Service.
  In 1952, BEA began replacing Dragon Rapides with Pionairs across its Scottish network; however, the pre-war de Havilland biplanes continued serving Barra as no other contemporary type in BEA's fleet could take off from and land on the island's beach airstrip. The Scottish Air Ambulance Service continued to contract BEA Dragon Rapides as well.
  Following successful trials of de Havilland's Heron Series 1 demonstrator G-ALZL on BEA's Channel Islands routes during the second half of 1951, the airline placed an order for two 1B series aircraft to replace "Islander" class Rapides on its Glasgow–Barra route as it was well-suited to serving restricted airfields in difficult weather conditions. Both aircraft were delivered in February 1955, wearing BEA's contemporary bare metal finish livery incorporating a burgundy cheatline separated by two thin, white lines above the cabin windows. In BEA service the Herons were known as "Hebridean" class aircraft seating 14 passengers on regular commercial flights. The Heron operated its first air ambulance service on 4 March 1955 while BEA crews were still undergoing conversion training on the new type. This was followed by a naming ceremony for both aircraft held at Glasgow's Renfrew Airport on 18 March 1955, when each aircraft was named after a Scottish medical pioneer (G-ANXA, the second aircraft to be delivered on 23 February 1955, was named John Hunter while G-ANXB, the first aircraft to be delivered on 12 February 1955, was named Sir James Young Simpson). Scheduled operations commenced on 18 April 1955, following which one aircraft was exclusively used on scheduled services while the other was kept on stand-by for air ambulance duties. An expansion of BEA's scheduled activities within the Scottish mainland as well as between the mainland and the Outer Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands necessitated the acquisition of a third aircraft to provide adequate cover for the air ambulance service. This resulted in an order for a third Heron 1B, which was delivered on 13 April 1956. This aircraft (G-AOFY, Sir Charles Bell) crashed on 28 September 1957 while on an air ambulance service to Port Ellen/Glenegedale Airport, Islay, Inner Hebrides, with the loss of the pilot, radio officer and duty nurse on board.
  From 1962, BEA supplemented the Herons it used on its Scottish internal services with three new, 48-seater Handley Page Dart Herald 100 series turboprops. These had originally been ordered in 1959 through the Ministry of Supply, which leased them to the airline. BEA operated its first commercial Herald service on 16 April 1962 on the Northern Isles route from Glasgow to Sumburgh via Wick, Aberdeen and Kirkwall. However, BEA operated its Heralds, which wore the red, black and white livery, only for a few years because of high crew training, maintenance and spares costs.
  1962 was also the year BEA introduced Viscounts on its Scottish network. These took over the routes to Benbecula and Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides from 21 May, only two days after BEA's last-ever Pionair service from Islay via Campbeltown to Renfrew.
  From October 1966, BEA operated only Viscounts and Herons on its Scottish network. It used the former on the busier, longer routes while it utilised the latter on short feeder routes to/from restricted airfields serving remote communities as well as on the air ambulance service.
  To improve the financial prospects of its loss-making Scottish lifeline routes, BEA established Scottish Airways Division in 1971. Glasgow-headquartered Scottish Airways became financially accountable for BEA's Scottish internal routes. It also assumed financial responsibility for the airline's services from Glasgow to Belfast, as well as from Aberdeen and Inverness 
caption: Vickers Viscount in the "Speedjack" livery of BEA Scottish Airways (back-ground). The aircraft is seen at London Gatwick sharing the ramp with a British Caledonian BAC One-Eleven (foreground) on 12 March 1972
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