Tradewinds Airways Ltd (IATA: IK, ICAO: IKA, call sign: TRADEWINDS ) was a British all-cargo airline. Its head office was located in Timberham House, on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, England.^[1]

History

Tradewinds was founded in November 1968 after the collapse of Transglobe Airways under the name BOBWOOD and flew charter flights from its base at London Gatwick (LGW) airport, using Canadair CL-44-D4 aircraft previously operated by Transglobe.

In January 1969 the name was changed to Tradewinds Airways but since Seaboard World Airlines (a USA based company) had a large interest in Tradewinds, the British Government would not issue a license. By April 1969 the majority of the stock was passed on to British nationals and the company was able to start operations later in 1969.

Tradewinds flew a lot of relief flights to Nigeria during the civil war with Biafra and that allowed the company to expand in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. Tradewinds also flew numerous flights for the UK Ministry of Defence. These military flights included the transport of missiles to the NATO arctic test ranges. Tradewinds also held the exclusive contract for the movement of Formula One racing cars. As part of this operation, charter services would be arranged for two of the CL-44's in South America and flight and ground crews were stationed in Brasil for two weeks each year whilst the Grand Prix were taking place. Tradewinds was also a specialist carrier of bloodstock, pioneering the use of special stalls that allowed horse to travel safely and without stress. Many champion race horses were transported in this way. Other livestock transport was also undertaken including sheep, goats and pigs. Tradewinds ran its own warehouse at London Gatwick Airport, a privilege accorded only to British Caledonian and British Airways. All other airlines had to use either Gatwick Handling services or one of these other carriers for handling.

Later history and closure

The company was taken over in 1977 by the Lonrho Group and began to replace the CL44's with used Boeing 707-320C freighters. With those aircraft, flights to Chicago and Toronto were begun. A December 1983 Tradewinds timetable lists scheduled weekly nonstop flights between London Gatwick Airport and Chicago O'Hare Airport and also between London Stansted Airport and Khartoum as well as "split charter services" flights between London Gatwick and Accra (operated on behalf of Gemini Airlines) and also between London Stansted and Kano, Lagos, Mogadishu, Nairobi and Port Harcourt.^[2]

Tradewinds previously operated twice-weekly scheduled services to Larnaca in Cyprus on behalf of Cyprus Airways, which eventually were operated by that carrier when they purchased CL-44 5B-DAN. Tradewinds then acted as the General Sales Agent, Flight Operations Department and Warehouse for scheduled cargo flying to Cyprus on Cyprus Airways' services. Although the scheduled carrier held licences for services from Cyprus to many other destinations in the middle east, including one to Dubai that regularly appeared in international schedule guides, the economics were insufficient for these services to take place. These services were part of a major export drive by the Cypriot Government to supply northern Europe with fresh fruit and vegetable produce every night. As such, services would operate via Basle and occasionally Manchester. 5B-DAN was maintained after sale by Tradan Engineering Ltd at the glider airfield of Lasham in Hampshire, a joint venture between Tradewinds Airways Limited and Dan-Air. Experience gained from these operations was utilised in Tradewinds' own scheduled operations, which led to the formation of another joint venture, Sudan Air Cargo with Sudan Airways, to operate twice-weekly Boeing 707 freighter services from London Gatwick to Khartoum.

With the new services, the company grew to be the largest British pure cargo airline during the early 80's, but the Lonrho Group ran into financial trouble and was forced to sell Tradewinds to Homac Aviation. Lack of capital did not allow the 707 aircraft to be replaced when they became subject to new noise regulations and the airline ceased operations on September 28, 1990.^[3]

Fleet

Canadair CL-44^[4]

Boeing 707-320C^[5]