In the Netherlands, airline KLM, keen to restart operations, set about procuring a handful of Rapides even prior to the end of the war, commencing the first of its re-launched services during September 1945. Various British airlines also became prolific users of the type; British European Airways (BEA), formed on 1 January 1946, took order 39 Rapides during February 1947. BEA used many across its fledgling network, later focusing upon services within the Scottish, Scilly, and Channel Islands while gradually selling on displaced and excess aircraft via Airwork. Small independent British airlines that chose to resist pressure from the British government to merge into BEA also commonly operated the Rapide.