Channel Express

If you look into British cargo flying of the 1980s and 1990s, you can’t get around Channel Express. The airline from Bournemouth flew flowers from the Channel Islands, mail and newspapers across Britain at night and express parcels to the Continent – with a fleet that sounds like a museum catalog today: Handley Page Herald, Lockheed Electra, Fokker F27 and Airbus A300. What is most fascinating, though, is the ending: Channel Express became Jet2.com, one of Britain’s largest leisure airlines. Here you’ll learn how that fits together, which aircraft shaped the airline and how to recognize them on old photos.

Channel Express at a glance

Channel Express was a British cargo and charter airline based at Bournemouth Airport in Dorset. The headquarters was in a building on the airport grounds, from where all flight operations were managed. The company carried the name Channel Express from 1983 – but its roots reach back much further.

It all began in 1971 on Guernsey. Growers on the island and the entrepreneur Art Carpenter set up an operation that flew fresh cut flowers and vegetables to mainland Britain and distributed them there. In 1975 it became Express Air Freight. The first aircraft were Douglas DC-3s, replaced in 1977 by Handley Page Dart Heralds. From 1978, the company also offered passenger charter as Express Air Services.

The decisive step came in 1983: Philip Meeson bought the company and gave it the name Channel Express. The business was split into an aviation and a logistics division. Meeson remained the defining figure for decades – first at Channel Express, later at Jet2.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code LS: appeared in front of flight numbers and in cargo documents.
• ICAO code EXS: served air traffic control as an identifier – the “EX” recalls Express Air Freight and Express Air Services.
• Callsign CHANNEX: this is how crews identified themselves on the radio, a contraction of “Channel Express”.

The special thing: all three identifiers are still active today. When the company was renamed Jet2.com in 2006, it kept the codes and callsign. If you see a Jet2 flight on the tracker today, it shows EXS – and on the radio you hear CHANNEX. For newcomers that is confusing, for aviation historians a nice detail. How the two code systems work is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes. Why callsigns often sound completely different from the brand name, you can read in Airline callsigns and their history.

The history in stages

Jersey European: a short connection

A side note with consequences: in 1979, the Express Air group put its flight operations into a merger with Intra Airways, from which Jersey European Airways emerged. Already in October 1980, the paths separated again, and the Heralds returned to the old group. Jersey European then developed independently and later became Flybe – so the origins of two major British airlines lie close together.

The Dart Group

Meeson first took the company to the Unlisted Securities Market, and in 1991 came the renaming to Dart Group plc along with a listing on the London Stock Exchange. The name is a nod to the Dart Herald, the aircraft with which it all began. In 1994, the group also bought the refrigerated logistics company Fowler Welch from Spalding, becoming a conglomerate of air freight and road logistics. In 2020, the Dart Group renamed itself Jet2 plc.

The fleet: Herald, Electra, F27 and A300

For long stretches, Channel Express was a turboprop airline. Jets only joined in the late 1990s. The most important types at a glance:

Type	Period	Use	Spotter tip
Douglas DC-3	until 1977	Flower flights of the early days	Still under the predecessor name
Handley Page Dart Herald	1977–1999	Mail, newspapers, parcels, Channel Islands	High-wing with two Dart turboprops
Lockheed L-188 Electra	from 1989	Channel Islands, Royal Mail, UPS	Four-engine low-wing
Fokker F27	from 1990	Night cargo, including to Brussels	High-wing, own fleet from 1994
Airbus A300B4 (freighter conversion)	from 1997	Express parcels for TNT and UPS	Widebody twinjet with cargo door
Boeing 737 Quick Change	from 2001	Cargo and passenger charter	Conversion between cargo and seats possible

Handley Page Dart Herald: the heraldic animal

No type stands for Channel Express as much as the Herald. The British high-wing aircraft with two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops joined the fleet in 1977, and newspaper and mail contracts made the number grow to nine aircraft by 1990. In 1985, a Herald started a nightly parcel service from Birmingham to Nuremberg and Hanover – so Channel Express was also a night visitor at German airports.

On April 9, 1999, the era ended: the Herald G-BEYF flew its last mission from Liverpool to Bournemouth and was retired afterward. It was regarded at the time as the last Herald still in service. With that, an entire aircraft type bid farewell to commercial operation – at a cargo airline from Bournemouth.

Lockheed L-188 Electra: four propellers for the night

In November 1989, the first Lockheed L-188 Electra came to Bournemouth, initially for the route to the Channel Islands. Two more followed by autumn 1991. The American four-engine aircraft from the late 1950s had long been replaced as a passenger aircraft, but as a freighter it was robust and roomy. At Channel Express it flew, among other things, for UPS between Southend and Cologne, later also to Helsinki, Stockholm and Bergamo. From summer 1992, the night mail route for Royal Mail between London-Stansted and Edinburgh was added.

For spotters, the Electras of Channel Express were a highlight: a four-engine propeller aircraft in night operations, which you could hear with its distinctive turboprop sound before you even saw it. The manufacturer later merged into Lockheed Martin. Why such aircraft have almost disappeared today is described in the article The end of the four-engine jets.

Fokker F27: the successor to the Herald

From January 1990, a specially assigned Fokker F27 served the night connection to Brussels. From 1994, Channel Express built up its own F27 fleet, which gradually replaced the aging Heralds. The two types look alike – high-wing, two Dart turboprops – and are often confused on old photos. The surest way to tell them apart is the registration and the details on the nose and tail. You’ll find more about the manufacturer at Fokker, and tips for telling propeller aircraft apart in the article How to tell turboprops apart.

Airbus A300: the leap to the widebody freighter

In July 1997, the first Airbus A300B4 entered service, converted into a freighter with a payload of around 45 tons. At first it flew on weekdays between Sweden and Luxembourg. Within about a year and a half, four more joined. Three of them flew parcel traffic for TNT, later for UPS – including on a route from Stansted via Cologne to Dubai. With that, Channel Express had finally arrived in the business of the big express integrators, which the article on DHL, FedEx and UPS looks at more closely. You can read more about the manufacturer at Airbus.

Boeing 737 Quick Change: the bridge to Jet2

In 2001, Channel Express brought two Boeing 737s in Quick Change configuration into the fleet on a wet lease. This version can be converted between cargo and passenger configuration within a short time. With around 17 tons of cargo capacity, they worked as freighters, while at the same time Channel Express was aiming them at passenger charter, such as incentive trips and subcontracts for other airlines. In retrospect, that was the first step toward Jet2. What converted 737 freighters look like is shown on the page on the 737-300SF and -400SF.

What Channel Express transported

The business can be roughly divided into four areas:

• Fresh produce from the Channel Islands: cut flowers and other fresh produce from Guernsey – the origin of the company.
• Mail: night flights for Royal Mail and the express service Datapost, such as on the major Stansted–Edinburgh route.
• Newspapers: contracts with major newspaper publishers got the morning editions to more remote places on time. These very contracts made the Herald fleet grow.
• Express parcels: flights for TNT and UPS within Europe and beyond.

From 2001, passenger charter was added. The difference between the two business models is explained in the article Charter flights and scheduled flights.

The road to Jet2

In the early 2000s, the Dart Group saw an opportunity in the growing low-cost market. With the 737s from charter operations, Channel Express had already gained passenger experience. From that came the brand Jet2.com: on February 12, 2003, the first flight went from Leeds Bradford to Amsterdam, twice daily with two Boeing 737-300s. In 2004, bases in Manchester and Belfast followed.

The passenger division grew quickly, and in 2006 the group drew the conclusion: Channel Express (Air Services) Limited was renamed Jet2.com Limited, and the corporate seat moved from Bournemouth to Leeds. In the same year, the group also sold the Channel Express logistics base in Portsmouth. The cargo roots remained visible under the Jet2 roof for a while, though – more on that on the page on Jet2.com.

So the small flower airline from Guernsey became one of Britain’s largest leisure airlines. Hardly any British airline story shows so clearly how a niche cargo operation can become a passenger giant.

How to recognize Channel Express

On old photos, the combination of name, registration and aircraft type helps you most:

• Name on the fuselage: the Channel Express titles are the surest clue.
• British registration: all aircraft carried a G- registration, such as the F27 G-CHNL or the Herald G-BEYF. How the British register is structured is explained in the article on British G- registrations.
• Typical type mix: Herald, Electra, F27 and A300 in one fleet – this combination was unusual.
• Cargo features: large cargo doors and often closed-off or missing windows reveal freighter conversions. How to recognize freighters in general is shown in the article Recognizing cargo aircraft.
• Place and time: Bournemouth, Guernsey, Jersey, Stansted, Edinburgh or night shots from the 1980s and 1990s.

Incident on Guernsey

On January 12, 1999, the Fokker F27 G-CHNL crashed on approach to Guernsey on a cargo flight from London-Luton. After full flaps were extended, the load shifted aft, and during a go-around attempt the aircraft entered a stall and hit the ground just short of the runway, brushing the conservatory of a house. Both pilots died in the ensuing fire, and nobody on the ground was injured. The investigation found that the aircraft had not been loaded in accordance with the loading plan. It was the most serious accident in the history of Channel Express – and it struck the very island where the company had once begun.

Channel Express today: tracing the legacy

You can no longer see Channel Express live. Today, tracing its legacy leads mainly to Jet2 and to the airports of the time.

The old destinations are still interesting spotting locations: London-Stansted as a cargo hub, Edinburgh with its night mail legacy and Cologne/Bonn as a major parcel airport. Old charter contemporaries like Britannia Airways and Dan-Air are worth a look too, as is the regional airline Air UK, which connected British airports at the same time.

Common mix-ups

• Taking CHANNEX for a cargo airline of today – the callsign now belongs to Jet2.com, a leisure airline.
• Taking Channel Express and Jet2 for two separate companies – it is the same company with a new name.
• Confusing Herald and F27 – both are high-wing aircraft with Dart turboprops, but different types from different manufacturers.
• Taking the Electra for a military aircraft – the P-3 Orion is based on the Electra, but Channel Express flew the civilian L-188.
• Equating Channel Express with Jersey European – both briefly shared roots in 1979/80, but went their separate ways.

Conclusion

Channel Express was never a glamorous airline but a workhorse of the night: flowers, mail, newspapers and parcels, flown with Herald, Electra, F27 and A300. That is exactly what makes it so appealing to aviation fans – hardly any British airline had such a colorful mix of types. And its story doesn’t end with the name: the company lives on as Jet2.com, and every “CHANNEX” on the radio recalls the small cargo airline from Bournemouth.