It's impossible to tell the story of Court Line without telling that of
Autair, founded by helicopter pioneer William 'Bill' Armstrong. Autair
itself was an offshoot of his global helicopter operation, but Bill also
had his finger in many aviation 'pies' including a multitude of
operations in Africa, where so many aircraft and airlines were created,
bought and sold with such prolificacy that even he could not remember
the names and how many there were! There is also the background to Court
Line's shipping concerns and the Caribbean operations of the hotel
chains and regional airline Leeward Islands Air Transport which Court
owned for a while.
Covered in detail is the introduction, demonstration and use of the
Lockheed TriStar wide-bodied airliner, the first of the type used in the
Inclusive Tour business.
Court Line Aviation and Tom Gullick's Clarksons Holidays brought to the
forefront the concept of value-for-money Inclusive Tour holidays
following the 'vertical integration' business model whereby owning and
controlling each step of the holiday allowed the company to make a small
profit at every stage.
The orange, pink, turquoise and yellow jets brought flashes of color to
dreary British airports, and quickly streamed a multi-colored rainbow
across European skies to Mediterranean destinations and even further
afield. Truly they did indeed put colors in the Sky!
