HISTORY: CHANNEL AIRWAYS LIMITED was one of the earliest, post-World War II British independent airlines. Former Royal Air Force squadron leader Reginald "Jack" Jones founded Channel Airways in June 1946 as an aerial joy ride business, which was incorporated as East Anglian Flying Services on 16 August 1946. On 29 October 1962, East Anglian Flying Services officially changed its name to Channel Airways. (Although the Channel Airways name had first appeared on the company's aircraft as long ago as 1952, the old name was retained as the officially registered name until the somewhat similarly sounding Channel Air Bridge name became defunct to avoid any confusion. By that time, Channel Airways operated frequent scheduled passenger and freight services from Southend, Ipswich and Rochester to the Channel Islands, Rotterdam, Ostend and Paris as well as from Portsmouth to the Channel Islands. As by winter 1971/2 work for the remaining jet fleet had all but dried up, jet services ceased on 15 February 1972. Operations ceased completely on 29 February, when de Havilland Heron 1B G-APKW, the first and only aircraft to which Air England titles were actually applied, had completed the last Channel Airways flight from Ostend to Southend. Permanent cessation of operations was followed by withdrawal of Channel Airways's air operator's certificate at the end of March 1972.
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