GB Airways

Overview

GB Airways is an airline based at London Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom. It operates scheduled services as a British Airways franchise to 30 destinations in Europe and North Africa from Gatwick and its hubs at Manchester International Airport, and London Heathrow Airport.

Code Data

IATA Code: GT
ICAO Code: GBL
Callsign: Geebee Airways

History

The airline was established in 1931 as an offshoot of Gibraltarian shipping company MH Bland, in Gibraltar. Gibraltar Airways, as it was then known, started operations later that year between 'the Rock' and Tangier, Morocco, using a Saunders-Roe A21 Windhover flying boat.

During World War II, the airline represented Imperial Airways/BOAC and in 1947 began its relationship with the newly created British European Airways (BEA). BEA began flying between London and Gibraltar, connecting with Gibraltar Airways' flights to Morocco. BEA took a 49% stake in the airline, which began trading as GibAir, and the London Heathrow to Gibraltar service was jointly operated by the two carriers. British European Airways would become British Airways in 1973 upon its merger with BOAC, but the financial and operational relationship with GibAir continued. Meanwhile, GibAir continued to operated services from Gibraltar, primarliy to Morocco, and also began charter flights to Portugal and France.

In 1989, the company moved to the United Kingdom in order to increase the scope for expansion. A base was established at London's Gatwick Airport and the company became GB Airways Ltd. The livery on the airline's fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft at this time was mainly white, with red and blue twin stripes down the centre of the fuselage, sweeping down to form a 'chin strap' under the nose cone. The twin stripe was repeated on the tailfin, with a speeding red arrow creating a diamond shaped centrepiece, which was repeated on the forward fuselage. A stylised version of this diamond logo is still used by the company today.

The relationship with British Airways was firmly entrenched in 1995 when it became a full British Airways franchise operator, with BA relinquishing its financial holding in the airline. The franchise agreement with British Airways continues until 2010, and under these terms GB Airways trades as British Airways, with all flights operated under BA flight codes (the range BA6800-6999 are allocated to GB Airways flights). All GB Airways aircraft are presented in full British Airways livery, appointed with the same interior and class product as the BA main fleet, and staff wear the BA uniform. GB Airways flights are booked through British Airways and the airline participates in BA's Executive Club and BA Miles programme. GB Airways is an affiliate member of oneworld. However, GB Airways continues its own inflight magazine, Med Life, in addition to the regular BA publications.

The relationship with British Airways has seen 10 new destinations added to the GB Airways network, and in May 2005 a new hub at Manchester was established.

GB Airways headquarters is known as 'the Beehive', and is Gatwick Airport's original terminal building. The airline carries some 2.6 million passengers annually on 65 flights per day, and employs 980 people. The airline is wholly owned by the Bland Group, which owns several travel and shipping companies within the UK, Europe and north Africa, and is now in its fourth generation of family ownership. James Gaggero became chairman of the company in 2003, with his father Joseph J Gaggero CBE becoming president and non-executive director.

In 2000, the airline was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.

Destinations

GB Airways operates scheduled services to the following destinations (at March 2006): Agadir, Alicante, Almería, Bastia, Casablanca, Dubrovnik, Faro, Fez, Funchal, Gibraltar, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Lanzarote, London (Heathrow and Gatwick), Madeira, Málaga, Malta, Manchester, Marrakech, Menorca, Montpellier, Murcia, Nantes, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Porto, Seville, Sharm El Sheikh, Tangier, Tenerife (Los Rodeos and Reina Sofía), Tunis and Valencia. GB Airways has recently announced however that their service to Fez, Morocco will be suspended from 26th May until 29th September 2006. A new service will be launched between Gatwick and Rhodes between 3 May 2006 and 28 October 2006.

Fleet

The GB Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft (at November 2005):

11 Airbus A320-200 (further 1 on order)
4 Airbus A321-200 (further 7 on order)