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About

Air Southwest was a UK-based airline that flew scheduled passenger services throughout Britain and Ireland. The airline was based at Plymouth City Airport (PLH) and had secondary hubs at Newquay Cornwall Airport (NQY) and Bristol Airports (BRS). The airline specialised in linking the north and south of the UK, especially England's popular southern holiday destinations with destinations in the north of England and parts of Scotland.

After British Airways removed itself from flights out of the South West of England, Air Southwest launched in 2003 in order to fill the gap in the market. The airline's first flight was from Plymouth to London Gatwick (LGW) with a stop at Newquay Cornwall Airport. The airline launched its first international flight in 2005 when it began flights to Dublin, however, during the time that it flew, Air Southwest never flew out of the UK and Ireland region.

In 2010, the airline was sold to Eastern Airways and two airlines formed a strategic alliance. In 2011, under a year after its sale to Eastern Airways, Air Southwest ceased operations due to the low demand on its flight routes.

Air Southwest's goal was to become the leading airline in UK domestic travel. The airline even gave itself the nickname of 'Britain's Local Airlines'. In its time, the airline did become one of the leading domestic airlines in the UK and the main airline flying out of South West England. However, unfortunately, the lack of demand for flights connecting South West England with the rest of the UK was eventually its downfall.

Find out more about flights to Cornwall.

Destinations

Air Southwest flew to many destinations across the UK, including Plymouth, Manchester, Newquay, Bristol, Dundee, Guernsey, Jersey, Cardiff, Dublin and many more.

Hub Airport

Plymouth City Airport

Plymouth City Airport (PLH) is an airport in Plymouth, England and was the hub airport for Air Southwest. The airport opened in 1925 and has just the one runway and one terminal building. Air Southwest used the airport as its main hub the entire time it was active (2003–2011). For many years, Air Southwest was the only airline to offer scheduled passenger flights out of the airport. Since Air Southwest stopped flying out of Plymouth, there are no airlines that use the airport.