Air Southwest is an airline based at Plymouth City Airport, Plymouth, England. It operates regional scheduled passenger services from the south-west of England. The airline was established in May 2003 to fill the void left by the withdrawal of British Airways (BA) from the region. It began operations on 26 October 2003, 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. The expansion was accompanied by the addition of a second crew base at Newquay (the first being Plymouth, comprising five cabin crew and ten pilots, where one aircraft is now based overnight. Air Southwest de Havilland Canada Dash 8 landing at Bristol International Airport, EnglandDuring the summer a weekly charter flight is operated on Saturdays between Jersey and Humberside Airport. The airline also operates charter flights on behalf of Plymouth Argyle F.C., transporting players and supporters to away games. The airline uses the popular low fares, web-based format for bookings - over 90% of all reservations are made online. In its first eighteen months of operations Air Southwest carried over 200,000 passengers, increasing the number of passengers flying between Plymouth/Newquay and London Gatwick Airport by 22%. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Plymouth-based regeneration and transport group Sutton Harbour Holdings Plc, which also owns and operates Plymouth City Airport.The airline employs 72 people and is headed by Malcolm Naylor (previously chief executive of Brymon Airways, a Plymouth-based carrier integrated into British Airways in the 1990s). As of April 2006 Air Southwest will operate new services from Cardiff to Newquay and Manchester and Bristol to Norwich, in addition to openning a new crew and aircraft base at Bristol. BBC Radio 4's factual programme for the visually impaired, In Touch, reported that Air Southwest are only willing to carry 2 disabled people per flight. A family booked a flight to Cornwall using the company's website. They phoned to make the company aware that 3 of the members of the family were blind and were told if they were to be able to travel blind people must be in a wheelchair, but they would not be able to fly because they exceeded the 2 per flight limit. The justification for the limit is given as safety. The family was given a full refund and were warned that in future they and other disabled passengers should book by phone at extra cost. Air Southwest operates scheduled services as follows (at November 2005): Plymouth to Bristol, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, London Gatwick and Manchester Newquay to Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin, Leeds/Bradford, London Gatwick and Manchester Bristol to Dublin, Jersey, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Norwich and Plymouth Cardiff to Manchester and Newquay Este artículo esta bajo la licencia de documentación libre GNU. Se usa material del artículo Wikipedia "Air Southwest". |