Trek Airways

Trek Airways was established on 23 September 1953 in Pretoria with the aim of running non-schedule, low-cost flights between South Africa and Europe. The first service from Rand Airport to Amsterdam was flown by a Douglas DC-3 on 20 December 1953. In 1954, Vickers Vikings were introduced and were followed by DC-4s in 1958.

In 1961, Trek Airways leased two Lockheed L749As from South African Airways to supplement their DC-4, which received LX registration. The first service was to Dusseldorf that same year. During 1962, Trek Airways ran up to eight flights monthly in each direction. The leased Connies flew the route from Johannesburg to Windhoek, Luanda, Kano, Malta, Vienna, and on to Luxembourg under a "Arial Cruise" ticket. They also flew via Entebbe, Cairo, Vienna, or Malta to Luxembourg based on a "Very-Low-Fare" ticket. However, a ban was imposed in August 1963 on South African registered aircraft landing at or overflying certain African countries, forcing Trek Airways to temporarily abandon the routes until longer-range aircraft could be found. The airline chartered DC-6s from UAT Aeromaritime and TAI until the first of two Lockheed Starliners was purchased from World Airways/Lufthansa and put into service. Trek Airways signed a cooperative agreement with Luxair, which allowed the Starliners to receive Luxair colors and LX- registrations. Luxair also provided a connecting Luxembourg-London Gatwick flight with the Super Stars, as they were called.

The first Starliner, fitted with 98 seats, flew the first service from Johannesburg, Luanda, and Cape Verde Island to Luxembourg on March 10, 1964. From May 7, 1964, to September 1965, Trek Airways operated a scheduled service from Johannesburg to Perth, Australia, via Mauritius and Cocos Islands for South African Airways. Trek Airways also received permission for non-scheduled round-the-world charter flights. The Starliners were a perfect fit thanks to their great range of 8000 km. The load factor on the Luxembourg-South African route reached an average of 99.5%.

On June 7, 1968, a leased Transglobe Britannia replaced the Starliners on the weekly Johannesburg-Luxembourg flight. However, Luxair kept one Starliner to operate the London-Luxembourg connecting flight until January 20, 1968. The two remaining Trek Airways L1649s served on charter flights within South Africa until the withdrawal of the final aircraft at the end of 1969. Due to political pressure, Trek Airways operated under a new name called Luxavia, with Boeing 707, and 747SP Jet aircraft until mid of the 1980s, when the airline ceased operations.