After the announcement last year that British Airways will be selling all its Dash 8-300 aircraft, a new regional airline could soon be launched in Plymouth, UK.
Sutton Harbour, owners of the city airport, has confirmed they are in talks with British Airways to purchase some of its aircraft. Neither company will say any more about what the talks involve, but it is thought Sutton Harbour will take over the running of BA’s Dash-8 planes and launch a new service later this year.
This news comes after much uncertainty about the future of the Southwest’s regional links after BA’s re-organisation on its regional network, which could mean that they would be pulling out of its service from Plymouth and Newquay. BA has said it will be keeping the existing services, at least until 2005, however, reports say that the new airline could be called Air Southwest.
Local businesses have welcomed the move as it guarantees the success of the local economy, which depends heavily on the airlinks due to the Southwest’s poor infrastructure in terms of communications.
By: Saab 2000 - 11th March 2003 at 19:49
Yup retaining the Gatwick slots is a necessity for the Southwest with many local businessmen expressing this view because the region undoubtedly needs its links with the capital to retain its healthy economy plus the well being of the regions people.
I think a new carrier is definitely needed because if you compare other regions of the UK to the Southwest then you really do see how poorly served the area is. So a new carrier will provide a totally regional outlook and will create new jobs and opportunities in the area.
By: mongu - 10th March 2003 at 19:03
I would guess there is a market for this airline, provided they can keep the LGW slots or maybe transfer to LHR (as if!) or LCY.
I actually flew LGW-PLH return, just under 12 months ago on a Dash 8-Q300.
The runway at PLH is tiny – well under 1,000m I should say and certainly shorter than LCY.
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March 10, 2003 at 6:50 pm