British Imperial and Colonial Airways Corporation

Over view
British Imperial and Colonial Airways (British Commonwealth and Colonial Airways as of 2012) is a minor airline operation in the Indian Ocean, Tanzania, Mayotte and the Maldives.

It has made 5 orporate buy-outs of other minor airways and one the O.E.C.D.'s praise for fighting wasteful and /or inefficient office and maintenance procedures in 2012.

1922-1972
British Imperial and Colonial Airways was founded as British Empire Mail Services of Zanzibar, in Zanzibar during 1922, as a twice weekly mail plane service running between Zanzibar and Dar el Saalem and Mogadishu It was found by Steven Boyd, John Stokes and Ann Boyson. It had a fleet of 2 Airco DH.1A01s at this time. A English Electric Company Limited plant was built in capital of Zanzibar (Zanzibar City) in 1922 and supplied them with parts until it burn down in the summer of 1930.

As trade was brick in the region routs were expanded to cover Nairobi and Mombasa in 1925 and to Mayotte and Mogadishu in 1927. 3 Cirrus Moths were bough in 1925 and a Bristol Primary Trainer was bought 1928.

It merged during the Great Depression of 1929-34 with British Imperial and Hadhramaut Airways in 1929. It was founded as a minor twice weekly passenger and cargo service, by Abdul Hassan and Jonathan Snow. It's routs run between Muscat, Aden, Mogadishu, Hadhramaut city and Sana'a. It had a fleet of 3 Cirrus Moths, a de Havilland DH.50 and a Bristol Primary Trainer.

It later recovered from the down turn in trade and dropped both Hadhramaut city and Mayotte services were removed. Both Airco DH.1A01s were obsolete and scrapped.

the Mayotte was reinstated, but Hadhramaut city permanently scrapped in 1933.

The firm was doing reasonably well in 1937 and purchased 1 The de Havilland DH 82A Tiger Moth, 1 Dh.foxmoth and 1 de Havilland Puss Moth for passenger services between Sana'a, Aden and Muscat.

It was nationalised by the British government between 1939 and 1947 under the War Act during World War 2. They are given 2 de Havilland Beaver (DHC2)s by the British government and ordered to run weekly Nairobi-Zanzibar-Moroni-Port Louis route to help support the minor island colonies of the region.

In 1948, all the non-amphibious or training aircraft made before 1932 were scrapped and replaced by 5 ex-military Douglas C-47 Skytrain Dakotas and a civilian  Douglas DC-3.

In 1955 they bought a Fokker F27 Friendship and used it on various routs on a ad-hock basis.

1962 saw a slight rise in post-colonial African Air travel.

The Mayotte Helicopter Flying School was opened in 1965 to help develop a helicopter flying branch.

The much smaller British and Tanganyika Airways was bought out in in 1969. This added Dodoma to the route list. There other destination was Dar el Saalem. Their fleet was made up of 2 Fokker F27 Friendships and an Antonov An-10.

BICA buys 1 DHC-300 Twin Otter 300 and 1 De Havaland Commit due to the upswing in tourism. The package tourist trade begins in without route between-


 * 1) Cairo
 * 2) Mombasa
 * 3) Victoria (Seychelles),
 * 4) Malé,
 * 5) Port Louis,
 * 6) Saint-Denis (Réunion),
 * 7) Mamoudzou,
 * 8) Moroni
 * 9) Zanzibar City
 * 10) Mkoani

1973 to 9/11
Aden was permanently dropped from the duty roster in 1975 due to the hostility of the Communist South Yemeni Government.

In 1977

In 1978

In 1982 Deir ez-Zor in Syria was added to the list of destinations.

In 1987 all pre-1950 aircraft were scrapped, a Bombardier Dash-8-400 was bought and the Cairo-Aden route was dropped to save costs. The Puss Moth is put in Zanzibar's local museaum. Deir ez-Zor is abandoned due to the risk of terrorism.

Kismyo and Mogadishu were abandoned due to the Somali civil war after 1997.

9/11 and later
Passiger numbers fell by 12% for a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.A.

In 2008 Muscat is abandoned due to the risk of terrorism. Anglo-Indian Inter-island Airways (Mauritius, Maldive Islands and Madras) in 2008. A.I.I.I.A had a fleat of 3 Bombardier Dash-8-400s and 1 DC 10. Maputo was added to the destination list, but services were only occasional.

In 2009

In 2012

Corporate expatiation
It has made 5 corporate buy-outs of other minor airways-
 * British and Tanganyika Airways (Tanzania) in 1969.
 * Mayotte Helicopter Flying Union (Mayotte) in 1975.
 * John Style Air Services Ltd. (Northern Ireland) in 1998.
 * Anglo-Pakistani and Waziristan Helicopters Ltd. (Wazeristan) in 1999.
 * Anglo-Indian Inter Island Airways (Mauritius, Maldive Islands and Madras) in 2008.

New Name
It was renamed British Commonwealth and Colonial Airways as of 2012.

Market value
It is listed on the Tanazanir Stock Exstange at a value of 10,000,000 Tanzanian shillings.

All 15 Destinations

 * 1) Zanzibar City,
 * 2) Nairobi,
 * 3) Mombasa,
 * 4) Dar el Salem,
 * 5) Muscat
 * 6) Victoria (Saychelles),
 * 7) Malé,
 * 8) Port Louis,
 * 9) Saint-Denis (Réunion),
 * 10) Mamoudzou,
 * 11) Moroni
 * 12) Dodoma
 * 13) Madrass
 * 14) Lusaka

Fleet

 * 3 British Aerospace BAe 146-200s,
 * 2 Mil Mi-26 mixed passenger/cargo helicopter,
 * 2 Piasecki H-21 cargo helicopters
 * 5 DC-3/C-47 Dakota's,
 * 1 Cessna 208 Caravan,
 * 2 DHC-300 Twin Otter 300,
 * 3 Cessna 172N Skyhawks,
 * 5 Robinson R44 helicopters,
 * 5 RotorWay Exec 90 helicopters,
 * 2 Fokker F27 Friendship,
 * 3 Aérospatiale Gazelle helecopters.
 * 4 Flybe Bombardier Dash-8-400
 * 2 DC10s