[QUOTE=rog747;10651333]I was Ops D/O until 1986 at LHR for BMA and we handled Brymon Airways who's spiritual home was PLH.
They had a twice daily HP Herald from/to LHR-NQY taken over from BMA in 1977 with morning and evening peak slots, upgraded to x 3 daily with a lunchtime one via EXT and/or PLH when the 50 seat Dash 7's came along in 1981.
There was the Twin Otter LHR-PLH service (3 or 4 times a day IIRC some via EXT) with interline pax connecting onwards to the ISC St Marys especially during the summer (also some pax went via NQY)
The Dash 7 was also was put on the LHR-PLH route (LGW too?) - but when? can someone help.
/QUOTE]
I believe the Dash 7 went onto the twice-daily PLH-LHR route, then a new service, in March 1982, and from that autumn of 1982 the hitherto separate twice-daily NQY-LHR route was combined with PLH, this marking the retirement of the Herald ex NQY. Frequency of the combined Dash 7 service was subsequently upped to 3 a day in 1983, and 4 a day by 1984. As far as I'm aware the only regular EXT call enroute from PLH to LHR was a temporary arrangement during a rail strike in July 1982?
The Twin Otter was scheduled to LGW, not LHR. Twice-daily PLH-LGW began from October 1978 onwards, and EXT was added as an ongoing regular call from Jan 1984, after Air UK ditched their Bandeirante service between EXT & LGW. Dash 7 took over from the Twin Otter c.1988.