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On 30 September 1955, Skyways inaugurated the world's first combined coach-air low-fare scheduled service between London and Paris. On that day, a 36-seat Skyways Douglas DC-3 took off from Lympne for a 55-minute cross-Channel flight to Beauvais with fare-paying passengers for the first time. (Two "special inaugural flights" carrying about 50 Government officials, company executives, journalists and other dignitaries preceded the inaugural commercial flight on 21 September 1955.) This air service formed part of a combined coach-air-coach journey between the city centres of London and Paris. For passengers travelling from London to Paris, the journey began on a 32- or 36-seater East Kent Road Car Company coach that took them from London's Victoria Coach Station to Lympne Airport near Hythe where they transferred to a cheap coach saleSkyways DC-3. This aircraft flew them across the Channel to Beauvais Tillé Airport where passengers transferred to a Transportes Renault coach, which took them to République Coach Station in Paris (Hôtel Moderne Palace on Place de la République, Paris 12). At the time of launch, total travelling time was just under seven hours. (In the pre-motorway days, the slow, 70-mile (110 kilometre) coach journey between Central London and Lympne along narrow, winding country roads alone took more than three hours. Following subsequent road improvements, the introduction of faster coaches and aircraft as well as streamlined ground handling procedures, this eventually reduced to about 5½ hours.[7][8]) The initial frequency was one round-trip per day, and the inaugural return fare was £7 14s[nb 1] (£7.70[nb 2]) for off-peak travel while the peak-time fare was £8.75[nb 3]. These not only undercut the direct London Heathrow—Paris Orly/Le Bourget standard tourist class air fares of British European Airways (BEA) and Air France by about 45% but were also cheaper than the corresponding fares of competing surface travel modes.