Air Anglia Limited

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Air Anglia Limited was a Norwich-based British regional airline created on 22 July 1970 through the combination of Anglian Air Charter, Norfolk Airways and Rig-Air. Backed initially by Norwich Union, it made Norwich Airport its corporate, operating and engineering home—an ambitious regional outfit taking off just as the airport itself found its feet.

The airline inherited an eclectic early fleet: light aircraft, Piper twins and a Douglas Dakota. Its first scheduled service linked Norwich with Edinburgh and Aberdeen on 7 December 1970. A Norwich–Amsterdam route followed in December 1971, while charter flying, North Sea oil-industry support and cargo gave the operation more hustle than its tidy regional image suggested.

Fokker F27 turboprops became the workhorses, carrying Air Anglia across Britain and into Europe. By the late 1970s, it was flying routes to places including Amsterdam, Paris, Bergen and Stavanger, and had added Fokker F28 jets. Not bad for a carrier born from three local air-taxi businesses and a collection of aircraft that sounds like a very determined hangar clearance sale.

In October 1978, British and Commonwealth Shipping acquired an 85 percent shareholding. On 1 January 1980, Air Anglia joined British Island Airways, Air Wales and Air Westward in the creation of Air UK. Our Air Anglia Limited collection celebrates Norwich nerve, Fokker-era optimism and the glorious regional-airline confidence of connecting the map one brisk propeller turn at a time.