[1] The airline employed 145 people and was headed by managing director Peter Davies[2] and Deputy chief executive Mike Coombes.

The company held a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.

[3] Air Southwest was established in May 2003 by Sutton Harbour Holdings[4] to fill the void left by the withdrawal of British Airways from South West England.

Its first hub was set up at Plymouth City Airport and operations began on 26 October 2003, the day after British Airways withdrew from the market.

[citation needed] On 24 June 2007 Air Southwest operated its last flights from Cardiff to Newquay and Manchester due to low passenger numbers.

The flights started on 20 April,[10] but the service failed to attract enough passengers and ceased in May 2010[11] In May 2009 the airline underwent a rebrand to broaden their target audience and increase their market presence.

A new slogan of "Fly Britain's Local Airline" was adopted and supported by a television commercial on regional channels, a revamped website [1] Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine and a nationwide advertising campaign.

This has created a number of opportunities for future development such as the introduction of interline agreements/codeshare with other airlines and the possibility of using third parties such as travel agents for ticket sales.

As a result of the alliance Air Southwest joined a Global Distribution System (GDS) enabled them to sell tickets through a number of external sources like travel agents and increase their market presence.

[25] An Air Southwest Bombardier Dash 8-311 was featured in season 1 episode 1 of British comedy show Doc Martin.