Airline Name
Orion AirwaysIATA: KG / ICAO: ORN / Callsign: ORION
Country of Origin
United Kingdom
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
B732 (737-200Adv) (12 operated),Early 1980s livery,
Look at the spotters at MAN,
B733 (737-300) (7 operated),
Black snoz,
A30B (A300B4-200) (2 operated),
At LGW in 1988,
Prior to delivery after repainting at HKG,
Why should this airline be added?
Founded in 1979 as the charter arm of Horizon Travel it began flights based at East Midlands Airport with 3 737-200 Adv’s in March 1980 (Maiden flight to Naples from EMA). The airline steadily expanded its fleet of 737-200’s before beginning to take on 737-300’s in the mid 1980s (The first to operate the type outside of the US) and expanding its bases into Birmingham Airport. It continued to expand through heavy competition into opening new bases at London Gatwick and Manchester as well as I believe London Luton.During the early 1980s though, the airline operated weekly services from some smaller airports in which they were not based like Blackpool (Which was weekly to Tenerife and Alicante from my findings). 2 ex-Lufthansa A300’s arrived in 1987 being based at Manchester and Gatwick before the airline was purchased by a hotel group called Bass later in the year. In 1988 the airline was sold onto a little known airline called Britannia whom were the charter arm for Thomson Travel Group, who absorbed the fleet and the Orion name was no more. The management of Orion, however, went on to launch TEA UK based at Birmingham (The UK branch of Trans European Airways).
The airline was one of the host of charter operators appearing out the UK in the late 1970s and 1980s, flying routes to Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Canaries taking British tourists to and fro. It would make a for a nice addition to the game and as a snazzy livery for the 737-200/-300’s. Also, this is a nostalgic airline for Carlsberg so I thought I’d throw a suggestion together.
Some cool photos I found on Facebook whilst looking through,
737-200Adv undergoing some maintenance,
Aircraft at the stand at EMA with a Britannia B732,
The menu,
