Hawker Siddeley HS 748 | 1973

Airline - Jade Airways
Aircraft - Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Series 2 | VP-LSS
Delivered to Jade Airways, 1973
Stored at Antigua V. C. Bird International Airport, 1999
Scrapped at Antigua V. C. Bird International Airport, 2000
Livery - Standard 1973
Country - Antigua & Barbuda

In 1973, Jade Airways launched operations with two HS 748 turboprops, registered VP-LSS and VP-LTT. The airline was funded by private investors from a number of Caribbean islands, namely Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands (both British Overseas Territories), St Lucia and the federation of Antigua & Barbuda (both part of the West Indies Associated States at the time) and the recently independent Barbados. The intent was to serve all of these territories as an unofficial flag carrier of the British Caribbean, and as such the flags of all these territories and states were displayed proudly on both of the airline's aircraft. Service began with a multi-stop shuttle route - from Bridgetown (Barbados) to Castries (St Lucia) to St John's (Antigua) to Anguilla to Tortola (British Virgin Islands), and return. There were also some limited flights to to Barbuda, Virgin Gorda, St Thomas (US Virgin Islands), Bassaterre (St Kitts), New Castle (Nevis), Point-a-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Arnos Vale/Kingstown (St Vincent), and other airports in the region, however with only two aircraft in its fleet at the time, it was difficult for the new carrier to operate any serious volume of service outside of its key routes.