An opening display was held for the public on 2 July 1932 with an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy airliner and other civil and military aircraft being present.

moved to the airport in 1932 (having previously been based on the Isle of Wight under the name Inland Flying Services) and operated the first air ferry service in the South of England, flying passengers from Portsmouth Airport to Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

The company continued to expand and were using a range of small aircraft including an eight-seat three-engined Westland Wessex G-ABVB by 1936.

PSIOWA planes and pilots (including famous aviator Amy Johnson) were sent to serve as part of the National Air Communications Scheme while the site and skills at the Portsmouth Airport site were used to repair and modify several thousand military aircraft for return to service.

[3] Airspeed converted over 150 Oxfords postwar to civil aviation standards as the Consul (see heading photo) and these were flown until the mid-1950s by small charter and other operators.

During the 1950s Airspeed manufactured parts and sub-assemblies at Portsmouth for their new aircraft designs, but in 1960 the firm moved all its remaining operations to their Christchurch Hampshire factory.

Registered G-ALYA, the sole example was an ultra-light aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage and was powered by a 40 hp Aeronca-JAP J-99 engine.