Air Wales

Air Wales (Awyr Cymru) was a Welsh airline based at Cardiff International Airport in Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan. It operated scheduled regional services within the United Kingdom, as well as to Ireland, Belgium and France. On 23 April 2006, Air Wales ceased all operations, citing "spiralling costs" and "aggressive competition" from larger low-cost airlines.

History
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 Dornier 228 aircraft, Air Wales expanded to employ over 120 personnel, including 45 flight deck staff, 20 engineers and 20 cabin crew.

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 covered the routes Belfast and Glasgow which were operated by Air Wales.

During February 2006, Air Wales gave up all routes from Plymouth Airport 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, however these operations never materialised and the aircraft were all sold to other airlines.

Destinations
Air Wales served 20 destinations across Europe.

Partnership with bmibaby
Air Wales had a partnership with bmibaby to operate on the following routes:


 * Paris, France
 * Cork, Ireland
 * Belfast, Northern Ireland [suspended in March 2006]
 * Jersey
 * Glasgow, Scotland [suspended in March 2006]

Fleet
Air Wales originally operated Dornier 228 aircraft. These were replaced by a fleet of ATR-42-300 aircraft:

In March 2006, Air Wales fleet average age was 13.4 years.