note
Air Wales was established in January 1997 with the assistance of property financier Roy Thomas and started operations in January 2000. Initially based at Pembrey Airport in west Wales and operating two aeroplanes, Air Wales expanded to employ over 120 personnel, including 45 flight deck staff, 20 engineers and 20 cabin crew. It revived the name of an airline from the 1970s which was eventually integrated into Air UK.
Operations transferred to Red Dragon House at the grounds of Swansea Airport, Fairwood Common in October 2001. Passenger numbers failed to reach the company's break-even levels and, after three years, Air Wales gave up all its Swansea routes. The airline decided to concentrate on routes out of Cardiff, moving operations to a new headquarters at Cardiff International Airport in October 2004.
In December 2005, bmibaby and Air Wales had a fallout leaving bmibaby to cancel a partnership between the two airlines. The partnership that was dropped will be the routes Belfast and Glasgow which are operated by Air Wales.
During February 2006 Air Wales gave up all routes from Plymouth to focus on more popular routes and international routes.
On 23 April 2006, the airline ceased all scheduled services with a loss of 80 jobs to focus on charter and cargo operations
founded - demised (age)
January 1997 - April 23 2006 (9)
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