MISR AIRLINES -ARAB AVIATION IN THE 50S-PART 1

MISR AIRLINES THE AIRWORKS DAY

From pininterest.com, this beautiful vintage Misrair Airlines poster . Copyrights to the authors

Vintage poster-Flickr/SDASM Archives

MISR AIRLINES' birth is the result of 2 political decisions. The first and the most obvious is the establishment of an Arab airline in Egypt to take advantage of the strategic position of Cairo as a crossroad between the Colonial powers at that time and the Middle East, Pakistan, India and the Fart East and the second one...of a more mundane nature, to stop the attempts by Mussolini to establish a joint Italo-Egyptian airline company.

Imperial airways at that time was the airline arm of the Foreign Office and tainted by British government involvement was not chosen to establish a carrier in Egypt , instead AIRWORKS was selected whose political independence was better suited to this role.

MISR AIRWAYS was established on May 7, 1932 as "Societe Anonyme MISR AIRWORK with a capital structure comprising BANQUR MISR (85%), AIRWORKS (10%)  and the remaining 5% in the hand of Egyptian private interest  Talaat Harb ( a famous Egyptian nationalist) being one of the most prominent shareholders.

The company was granted a 30-year concession from the Egyptian government + subsidies for the 1st 15 years and a monopoly on certain domestic routes after that period.

The company began its operations in July 1933 with a weekly flight from Cairo to Alexandria continuing to Mersa Matruh, frequencies to 2 daily flights to Alexandria in August 1933 and in December a route operating twice weekly : Cairo-Assiut-Luxor-Aswan . The services were operated with 2 DH84 SU-ABH and SU-ABI

In 1934, international expansion occurred with services to Lydda and Haifa initally on a twice weekly service but increased to a daily service in 1935.

The 1935 summer saw flights to Cyprus from both Cairo and Port said. Operated first on a seasonal basis, the service became hugely popular that it run  daily  in 1940s. MISR AIRWORKS was commonly referred to MISR AIRLINES and this title was applied to their DH84.

MISR AIRLINES ADVERTISING  from the Jan Willemsen collection/Flickr/

 

source www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection

In 1935, the company carried 7015 passengers.

The company took delivery of the DH86 SU-ABN in June 12, 1935, in August 1935, it received its first DH89 SU-ABP and in September of the same year an additional 3 frames SU-ABR/ABQ/ABS

SU-ABS "HELWAN"at Tel Aviv airport from the Manston online collection

SU-ABU "HELIOPOLIS "at Tel Aviv airport from the Manston online collection

  

SU-ABJ-FLICKR/SDASM

In 1936 further international expansion with 2 weekly flights to Baghdad either through Cyprus and  Haifa and a direct service via Rutbah Wells.

The September 9, 1936 timetable gives us an excellent view on the company's operations and Misr Airlines transports 15710 passengers.

source www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection

  
Network length 3368 km

In January 1938 , a pool  agreement was reached with the  Greek airline company ΕΛΛΙΝΙΚΗ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ ΕΝΑΕΡΙΩΝ ΣΥΓΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΩΝ (better known as Societe Hellenique de Communications Aeriennes) by which MISR AIR would carry passengers to Crete (Cairo-Alexandria-Megalokastron (Crete)), passengers would to continue to Athens and Salonika on SHCA.The service started in April 1939 on 3 weekly basis and ended in November 1940 after the invasion of Greece by the Axis powers)  .

The 1938 timetable dated May 15 is a witness of the development of the company.
 

source www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection

Network length 2489 km

In 1940 a weekly flight to Adana (Turkey) is launched. 

In 1941 22872 passengers boarded MISR AIR.

In 1942 a 2 weekly flights to Beirut and 1 weekly flight to Khartoum are introduced

In 1944 Cairo-Damascus is launched      

The 1945 fleet stood at :

3 DH89A Rapides,  2 DH89A Dominies, 4DH86 Express, 3 Avon Ansons, 1DH84 Dragon, 1DH90 Dragonfly

The summer 1946 timetable informs us of the introduction of the Beech D18-S of which 10 were acquired and delivery spanned from 1946 to 1948.

source www.timetableimages.com/Bjorn Larsson collection

Routes Damascus-Baghdad and Tel Aviv-Baghdad have a technical stop at the RAF base of H3B


Network length 5978 km

In 1948, BOAC, AIRWORKS and Egyptian shareholders will reorganize the company which will become wholly government owned in 1949 under the name of MISRAIR S.A.E

MISRAIR BEECHCRAFT D18 SU-ADL .Copyright Ed Coates

Ten Beechcraft D-18-S machines were acquired. These were, in fact, purpose built civil aircraft 3 of which will be delivered in 1946.Seven additional D-18s, delivered in 1947/8, 

To renew its ageing fleet, the company purchased 2nd hand Vickers Viking 1B ( they were ex Aer lingus, DDL ,and British European Airways ), the vikings were named after ancient Egyptian pharaohs and deities  : Amoun, Akhenaton,Tutankhamun ...The 3 Vickers Vikings purchased from DDL in 1949 were delivered from August to October of the same year.

MISRAIR SU-AGM VICKERS VIKING "Akhenaton" (ex DDL OY-DLO) Copyright Ed Coates

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.