Air Southwest, the new airline owned by Sutton Harbours, has been lined up to take over the Plymouth-Newquay-Gatwick service when British Airways abandons the routes in October. The development comes just as anxiety was growing that no successor had yet been identified. This news follows months of negotiations between British Airways and the company that also runs Plymouth Airport.
Air Southwest will retain the present schedule of four flights daily from 26th October, and it is expected that its fares will be lower than British Airways’. The news follows a deal by Sutton Harbours and British Airways to take over the Gatwick landing slots. Two leased Dash 8 aircraft will be used on the route as currently operated.
Head office and main operations base will be at Plymouth and, as a consequence, costs will be significantly lower than those of British Airways CitiExpress.
Routes to the continent and Channel Islands would also be likely in the future with research being taken into additional routes for the future.
By: Saab 2000 - 28th July 2003 at 20:32
I am pretty positive that Jethro’s is wrong, probably just indicating the possible aircraft it might be.
Anyway, with the managing skills of Malcolm Naylor, the former director of Brymon, hopefully Air Southwest will be a success or at least a lot better than how British Airways had ended up down at Plymouth/Newquay. With their objective to serve the Southwest’s economy with local knowledge, costs and aircraft for example, it should be quite a good little regionally focused airline.
By: Mark L - 28th July 2003 at 20:19
Do you know whether or not they will be taking on the whole Citiexpress Dash 8 fleet? jethro’s seems to indicate this, but it seems a bit too many a/c really.
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July 28, 2003 at 12:18 pm