programme, British Eagle purchased an additional three Viscount 700s. Despite losing £80,000 during its first year of operation, the reconstituted airline gradually regained profitability. The later years and closure (1964–1968) In January 1964 the airline acquired two Britannia aircraft (ex-Transcontinental SA) for modification to freighters. Following modification they entered service in July 1964 in support of the UK's Blue Steel missile programme ferrying equipment and personnel to the Woomera Test Range in Australia. Integration of Starways On 1 January 1964, British Eagle – Starways began operating the Liverpool—Heathrow route at a frequency of three flights a day in each direction. Two of these were non-stop, using both Britannias and Viscounts. An additional Viscount service routed via Chester Airport. The same day, the new airline combine assumed the former Starways operation between Liverpool and Glasgow. The remaining Starways routes were taken over by 1 April. By that time, the joint Eagle – Starways fleet comprised 18 aircraft, consisting of 10 Britannias, five Viscounts and three DC-6s. Of these, three Viscounts were stationed at Liverpool. Temporary withdrawal of UK domestic services By October 1964, British Eagle had accumulated a deficit of £300,000 on its domestic scheduled operations. Load factors on the Belfast route averaged only 13%. Persistent refusal of British Eagle's requests for a frequency increase led to Bamberg's decision to suspend his airline's domestic operations as of 20 February 1965. Return to profitability British Eagle's financial and traffic results for 1964 were published at the start of 1965. These showed that after writing off losses of up to £350,000 for the development of domestic scheduled services, the airline earned an operating surplus of £853,700. The retained net profit amounted to £101,500. This represented 2% of total assets employed (£4.9 million), after allowing for depreciation and other charges. This set of figures marked the first profitable period of operation following reconstitution. Limited resumption of UK domestic services Following the suspension of British Eagle's scheduled operations on the three main domestic trunk routes from Heathrow to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast, BUA applied to the ATLB to have these licences transferred to itself. BUA wanted to operate the former British Eagle routes with its new BAC One-Elevens from its Gatwick base at similar frequencies (10–12 round-trips per week). It argued that its proposed services were primarily intended as domestic feeders for its growing international scheduled and non-scheduled operations at Gatwick, that this was supported