Air Southwest

Air Southwest Bombardier Dash 8-311 taking off from Bristol Airport, England. (2006)

Air Southwest was established in May 2003 by Sutton Harbour Holdings[4] to fill the void left by the withdrawal of British Airways from South West England. Its first hub was set up at Plymouth City Airport and operations began on 26 October 2003, the day after British Airways withdrew from the market. The initial route was Plymouth-Newquay-London Gatwick.[2] This was soon followed by the introduction of the Plymouth-Bristol-Manchester[5] route which was later extended to Jersey.[6]

On 11 April 2005, the company established a new hub at Newquay, with direct flights to Dublin and flights to Leeds-Bradford via Bristol. At the same time, the airline added a crew base at Newquay, with five cabin crew, ten pilots, and one aircraft.[7]

In April 2006, Air Southwest launched services from Newquay to Manchester via Cardiff, and from Bristol to Norwich (although the airline withdrew from this route in January 2007); in addition a crew and aircraft base was established at Bristol. On 30 October 2006 the airline introduced a fifth daily flight from Newquay to London.

The airline used the low fares, web-based format for bookings with over 90% of all bookings made online. In its first eighteen months of operations Air Southwest carried over 200,000 passengers, increasing the number of passengers flying between Plymouth and Newquay and London Gatwick by 22%. On 25 October 2006, the airline announced that it had carried 750,000 passengers since its launch.

Air Southwest Bombardier Dash 8-311 lands at Bristol Airport, England. (2005)

The Bristol to Norwich service ended on 14 January 2007, the airline's first route discontinuation since inception in 2003. Further consolidation was made with the discontinuation of the direct Newquay to Leeds-Bradford service which was routed via Bristol Airport from 16 January 2007, and an increased frequency on the Plymouth to Manchester service to twice daily, via Bristol, from 15 January 2007.

On 24 June 2007 Air Southwest operated its last flights from Cardiff to Newquay and Manchester due to low passenger numbers.

On 29 October 2007 the airline announced an expansion of routes from Plymouth and Newquay, adding flights from Plymouth to Grenoble, Cork, Dublin, Glasgow and Newcastle, and from Newquay to Grenoble, Glasgow and Newcastle. These new routes commenced on 28 April 2008 with the exception of Grenoble which followed on 20 December 2008.

During the summer of 2009 Air Southwest operated a charter on behalf of C.I. Travel. The operation saw the introduction of commercial flights between Oxford and Jersey every Saturday.[8]

On 2 February 2009 the airline announced an expansion of its services between Plymouth and the Channel Islands with the introduction of a service to Guernsey which started on 8 April 2009.[9]

Consolidation of their services to London came when, on 9 March 2009, Air Southwest announced the launch of flights between Plymouth, Newquay and London City Airport. The flights started on 20 April,[10] but the service failed to attract enough passengers and ceased in May 2010[11]

In May 2009 the airline underwent a rebrand to broaden their target audience and increase their market presence. A new slogan of "Fly Britain's Local Airline" was adopted and supported by a television commercial on regional channels, a revamped website Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine and a nationwide advertising campaign.[12]

Another improvement to the services offered came into effect on 31 May 2009 when the airline adopted the IATA code SZ. This has created a number of opportunities for future development such as the introduction of interline agreements/codeshare with other airlines and the possibility of using third parties such as travel agents for ticket sales.[13]

The airline announced the suspension of services from Newquay and Plymouth to London Gatwick from 1 February 2011.[14]

An alliance with UK regional carrier Eastern Airways was announced on 25 February 2010. As a result of the alliance Air Southwest joined a Global Distribution System (GDS) enabled them to sell tickets through a number of external sources like travel agents and increase their market presence. It also paved the way for the introduction of codeshare agreements between the two airlines.[15]

In May 2010, Sutton Harbour Holdings, the parent company of Air Southwest, announced that the airline was to be sold to enable the company to "resource activities more effectively".[16] Following a drop in profits by £600,000, the airline was sold to Humberside Airport-based Eastern Airways in September 2010.[17] On 1 December 2010, the sale was completed to Eastern Airways.

Air Southwest announced on 14 July 2011 that they would cease operations on 30 September 2011. Air Southwest ceased operations at Plymouth on 28 July 2011.[18] Flights to Glasgow, Guernsey, Jersey and Manchester ended on 14 September whilst the remaining flights to Aberdeen, Bristol, Cork, Dublin and Leeds Bradford ended on 30 September. The airline said the closure was due to low demand on routes making them financially unviable.[19] The leases of Air Southwest's three remaining aircraft were transferred to Eastern Airways on 4 July 2011. This caused Plymouth Airport to close on 23 December 2011.[20]