Obituary: Frank Hope, co-founder of Caledonian Airways

Published on Thursday 14 October 2010 20:09

Frank Hope, co-founder of Caledonian Airways. Born: 24 June, 1930, in London. Died: 2 October, 2010 in Crawley, Sussex, aged 80.

The roots of Frank Hope's aviation career were sown against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain when, in the skies above his native London, the aerial dogfights of the Second World War raged.

Although he was evacuated during periods of particularly heavy bombardments, he was always keen to return to home, feeling he had more to offer back in his city.

And it was that intuition and wartime experience during some of his most formative years that ultimately helped to lead him towards a career in aviation.

As an adult his determination led to overcoming obstacles to join the RAF, create a new airline and support a range of aviation start-ups around the world, earning him a reputation as an airline planning genius.

Born in Camden, North London, he was educated at William Ellis Grammar School, joining the RAF aged 17, in 1947, despite initially being informed his eyesight didn't make the grade. Determined not to be outdone by failing the small matter of the entrance exam, he learned all of the characters on the sight card by their position and successfully embarked on a career as a navigator, serving across Europe and Africa.

When he left the RAF, he joined Eagle Airways as commercial manager, forging his career in the post-war commercial aviation sector and developing many new sales initiatives and numerous strategies for utilising aircraft that broke the norms of the time. He followed that up in 1961 by becoming one of the founding directors of Caledonian Airways (Prestwick) Ltd. He worked alongside Glaswegian Adam Thomson, who described Hope as "my master planner", obtaining a heraldic coat of arms to enable the aircraft to fly with its original red lion rampant branding on its tail.

A wholly private, independent Scottish charter airline, Caledonian Airways began with a single Douglas DC-7 aircraft. Its first flight was on St Andrew's Day, carrying immigrants from Barbados.

There was an early disaster the following March when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off in Africa, killing all 101 passengers and ten crew. Although it was the company's only fatal accident, at the time it was the worst accident in British aviation history.

However, despite tragedy, the business grew rapidly over the next few years to become a leading transatlantic carrier.It offered cheap charter and package holiday flights from Prestwick and Gatwick and flew pilgrims to Mecca and migrants to Australia as well as specialising in transatlantic deals for "affinity groups" - travellers who all had to be members of one organisation - resulting in clubs such as Ma Brown's Paisley Buddies and the Rose and Maple Amity Club suddenly being created on both sides of the pond.

Hope's forte, thanks to his mathematical brain, was flight schedule planning, a skill crucial for a charter airline with planes at numerous destinations. "He had an absolutely astonishing ability to plot and plan and run very complex flight schedules," recalled his colleague Tony Cocklin, "and it was that that gave Caledonian its competitive edge. He could run these complex schedules in the most efficient and profitable way possible."

Whilst many s rivals failed, Caledonian Airways soared and by 1968 was regularly flying Boeing 707s between Gatwick and New York, Los Angeles and Singapore. It became Britain's most consistently profitable and financially most secure, independent airline of the era, never failing to make a profit in all its ten years of existence.

Passenger numbers rocketed from just 8,000 in 1961 to 800,000 in 1970 when it was re-launched, again on St Andrew's Day, as British Caledonian, following a government review of the industry and the acquisition of the ailing British United Airways.

Hope left British Caledonian in 1973. Through the Seventies and Eighties, he worked around the world supporting fledging aviation start-up operations in a diverse range of nations, from Liberia to Panama, before joining the British Caledonian Airline Group, where he was managing director of its charter operation, Cal Air, later Novair International.

An astute businessman who never sought the spotlight, he retired in 1990 having, during his long career, encouraged a number of young aviation professionals to become today's senior airline executives.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, sons David, Brian and Steven and their grandchildren.