Lloyd International Airways Ltd was a private, British independent airline formed in 1961 to operate worldwide charter flights. It commenced operations with a single Douglas DC-4 piston airliner from Cambridge Marshall Airport. Lloyd International concentrated on passenger and cargo charters with four-engined, long-range aircraft. It also had links in Hong Kong since its inception and flew to the Far East regularly. During the mid-1960s, the airline began re-equipping its fleet with Bristol Britannia and Canadair CL-44 turboprops, all of which featured large cargo doors and palletised freight systems. Long-range Boeing 707 jets joined the Lloyd International fleet during the early 1970s for use on affinity group passenger and freight charters to North America and the Far East. Lloyd International ceased operations in June 1972. History In 1960, Brian Lloyd and Alastair Macleod, two experienced shipping managers and shipbroking partners, joined up with chartered accountant John Louis Mingaye Crick and began formulating plans to take over an existing airline as part of a diversification strategy into the airline business. After months of unsuccessfully trying to raise capital for their planned acquisition, financial backing was finally obtained the following year from Bolivian tin magnate J. Ortiz-Patiño and Greek shipping magnate Nicholas Mavroleon to set up a new airline from scratch. This airline was to specialise in Far East "tramping", concentrating on ships' crews and freight. The founders chose the name Lloyd for their new venture. J. Ortiz-Patiño and Nicholas Mavroleon became the respective chairmen of the airline and of Hong Kong-incorporated Far East Aviation Company Ltd, a group holding company. Lloyd International Airways commenced operations in 1961 with a Douglas DC-4 acquired from Icelandic airline Loftleiðir. Its first engagement was a series of charter flights carrying ship crews between the United Kingdom and several destinations in the Far East. It soon found other charter work for the aircraft, which led to the acquisition of two more DC-4s in 1962. Lloyd International's first two years of operations were unprofitable, mainly as a result of uneconomic charter rates caused by excess capacity. Other contributing factors included an expensive emergency lease of a replacement aircraft for a DC-4 destroyed in a refuelling fire and high overheads due to a top-heavy administrative structure. Budgeting and cost control, introduced in 1963, ensured that charterers were only quoted profitable rates. This resulted in a partial withdrawal from the cut-throat British inclusive tour (IT) market and the opening of