Now I’ve dealt with the annoyance that is the BA Strike, it’s time to look at the problems at Air Southwest
No. Not Southwest Airlines of USA fame, but a small little carrier in the South west of the United Kingdom.
But little Air Southwest is to be sold after operating profits drops by £600,00 in 2009.
In turn, this now brings the question the pull of Newquay Airport which Air Southwest provides 50% of the flights there.
Air Southwest has been through a bit of a bad time, with the rescission and of course the ash causing the London City service to be pulled.
Air Southwest was formed to fill in the hole that BA created when it pulled out originally from Newquay airport and a connection to London. Since then its gone on to create a regional network hubbing out of Newquay and Plymouth Airports, operated by five Dash8 300 series aircraft.
However, no companies have been mentioned in who might take over Air Southwest.
It seems the smaller carriers are being squeezed further and further, no matter where they are in the world.
It should be mentioned that Air Southwest is owned by the Sutton Harbour Group who are essentially property developers. They plan to keep control of Plymouth airport and its valuable surplus land after last year selling 22 acres for £11.8million which is to be turned into housing.
Ahh yes. Nothing like developers to louse up a good thing. In business terms, they're seperating the "bad asset l" from the "good asset"Charming really…