On hearing that Border Air is now officially known as Rogers Aviation, having been acquired by Rogers Aviation in 2020, Travel News asked Lu Dowell, well-known to the trade and previously the owner of Border Air, to tell us the story of the aviation company.
“Border Air was originally established by my father, Jack Rance, in 1969 as a small local air charter service in East London (Ed’s note: The eastern half of the Eastern Cape Province has always been known as Border). Taking the gap with the petrol price increase (Avgas was cheaper), the business started a scheduled service with a Cessna 402 and a Beechcraft Baron on the routes East London-Bloemfontein and East London-Umtata. By popular demand a special shuttle service to the Wild Coast resorts was provided; Kob Inn, Mazeppa Bay, Wavecrest, Trennerys and Seagulls were serviced on weekends using a Norman Islander. Trennerys and Seagulls shared the local golf course as a landing strip.
My involvement began around 1982 with marketing and sales, later to become a shareholder and Director. I remember Uniworld Tours and Summertime Tours, amongst others, providing regular pax.
No ‘open skies’ existed at that time, so competition for routes was intense and airlines could only operate routes under licence. Hence Border Air was made up of two companies; Border Aircraft Finance Co, which owned the licences, and the operating company Border Air, which provided the services. Border Air was a fledgling airline compared with the likes of Comair and Magnum, in those days, but nevertheless it merged with Magnum and Citi Air to form Link Airways in the mid-1980s, by selling Border Aircraft Finance company with its licensed routes.
At the end of it all, Link Airways was bought by Rodger Foster, who formed Airlink. The operating company and the name, Border Air was retained by me and became the GSA/airline management company taking over the airline contracts from Lu Dowell Representations in 2009.
Our first airline GSA contract, Mexicana Airlines, was acquired in 1995. Aero Peru followed in 1997 (later the airline was liquidated) and AeroMexico in 1998. In 1999 we were awarded the GSA contract for LAN (Chile).
The airlines we represented were all off-line operations until July 2007 when we acquired the GSA contract for Air Seychelles, our first on-line representation, followed by Air Austral in August 2008. We also managed the ORTIA airport operation for Air Seychelles until 2012 when Etihad formed a partnership with Air Seychelles and Etihad took over the airport management. In August 2019 Air Seychelles increased the frequency to daily flights and introduced the A320neo on the route, the first in Africa.
As the LAN airlines group grew, we acquired representation for LAN Argentina, LAN Peru, LAN Ecuador and LAN Colombia. When LAN and TAM joined forces, we were appointed the GSA for TAM and in 2016 these airlines were all merged into LATAM. In October that year, LATAM commenced three flights a week between São Paulo and Johannesburg.
An addition to the Border Air portfolio was Air Madagascar, commencing flights to Johannesburg in 2019.
Border Air was sold to Rogers Aviation in March 2020.”
Lu Dowell
