Air Southwest is an airline based at Plymouth City Airport, Plymouth, England. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Plymouth-based regeneration and transport group Sutton Harbour Holdings Plc, which also owns and operates the airport.

Code Data

• ICAO Code: WOW
• Callsign: Swallow

History

The airline was formed in 2003 to fill the void left by the withdrawal of British Airways (BA) from the region. It began operations the day after BA withdrew on the Plymouth-Newquay-London Gatwick Airport route; this was followed shortly after by the Plymouth-Bristol-Manchester route which was later extended to and from Jersey. On April 11th 2005 the company further expanded its operations, establishing a new hub at Newquay, with flights to Dublin(direct) and Leeds/Bradford via Bristol.

During the summer charter flights are operated to Jersey on behalf of tour operators, from regional airports around the UK. The airline also operates charter flights on behalf of Plymouth Argyle F.C., transporting players and supporters to away games in the north of England.

The airline uses the popular low fares, web-based format for bookings - over 90% of all reservations are made online. In its first year of operations Air Southwest carried 170,000 passengers, increasing the number of passengers flying between Plymouth/Newquay and London Gatwick Airport by 22%.

The airline employs 55 people and is headed by Malcolm Naylor (previously chief executive of Brymon Airways, a Plymouth-based carrier integrated into British Airways in the 1990s).

Services

Air Southwest operates scheduled services as follows (at April 2005):

• Plymouth to Bristol, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, London Gatwick and Manchester
• Newquay to Bristol, Dublin, Leeds/Bradford, London Gatwick and Manchester
• Bristol to Dublin, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester and Plymouth

Fleet

The Air Southwest fleet consists of the following aircraft (at April 2005):

• 3 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300

External Links

• Air Southwest
• Air Southwest Passenger Opinions