Crilly Airways started up running two eight seat
de Havilland Dragons from
Braunstone, a suburb of
Leicester. The first of these two aircraft was christened
Spirit of Doncaster. They also operated a
de Havilland Fox Moth and two
General Aircraft Monospar twin-engined monoplanes. In 1935, Crilly Airways sought government approval to operate an air service between
Britain and
Ireland but was refused. It was the Irish government's intention to operate a national airline between the two countries. The airline was the first to offer a
frequent-flyer programme. Crilly Airways bought four twelve-seater
Fokker F.XIIs from
KLM. Using these planes, the airline was the first to run an airmail service between Portugal and England, opening this service on 1 February 1936. At the Portuguese capital,
Lisbon, one of the Fokker F.XIIs was christened
Lisboa ("Lisbon") by Menina Maria do Carmo Carmona Costa, the young granddaughter of
the nation's president. It was Crilly's intention to extend this service to
Gibraltar and West Africa, but this plan came to nought when the Spanish government refused the airline permission to overfly its territory during the
Spanish Civil War. Unable to survive financially following the failure of the Portuguese venture, the company ceased trading on 9 September 1936 and entered receivership.
British Airways Ltd. bought the aircraft and started the company British Airways Iberia Ltd. with Crilly as managing director. But this company also soon went bankrupt. The planes were then sold, via shady deals, to the
Spanish Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. ==See also==