Air Southwest
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Once Again Chris, agree with you on your post!
I'm looking forward to a bit of a change, and a positive future.
Who knows what exactly lies in store for us, but can only be good. Some nightstops and more charters would be nice, but I think we've been shouting that at SHH for a couple of years now!
Time for ASW to MOOOOOOOve ahead! (Sorry, but the car is pretty mangled!!!)
I'm looking forward to a bit of a change, and a positive future.
Who knows what exactly lies in store for us, but can only be good. Some nightstops and more charters would be nice, but I think we've been shouting that at SHH for a couple of years now!
Time for ASW to MOOOOOOOve ahead! (Sorry, but the car is pretty mangled!!!)
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fred - if you worked here you'd understand the frustration at having to come in and do your job with your hands tied. SHH board and shareholders need their dividends paying and have lost interest in playing with planes and it's just gone on for too long. Thanks to them for getting us this far but time for all to part ways and move on and revisit the many oportunities that we've missed along the way.
Yeah I know it's remarkable that there are some positive posts on pprune. Rare isn't it?, but Air Southwest is like that - one big happy family that look out for each other. A change is a as good as a rest although maybe not for all unfortunately but we'll cross that bridge.
Several hundred thousand goes to prop up the ever loss making Plymouth Airport. 300k of the loss was down to volcanic ash and refunds. Money we were legally obliged to hand back to passengers and not money we lost due to bad performance, plus we've had to lease in for a length of time covering 'c' checks. The company has been profitable for more years of its life than not.
Yeah I know it's remarkable that there are some positive posts on pprune. Rare isn't it?, but Air Southwest is like that - one big happy family that look out for each other. A change is a as good as a rest although maybe not for all unfortunately but we'll cross that bridge.
Several hundred thousand goes to prop up the ever loss making Plymouth Airport. 300k of the loss was down to volcanic ash and refunds. Money we were legally obliged to hand back to passengers and not money we lost due to bad performance, plus we've had to lease in for a length of time covering 'c' checks. The company has been profitable for more years of its life than not.
Last edited by Dash-7 lover; 6th Jun 2010 at 17:27.
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Knowing some of the ASW 'family' quite well I completely agree. Some of the nicest people I've had the pleasure of dealing with, many of whom really understand the ins and outs of this industry much better than the bean counters at SHH.
Talking of missed opportunities: It always puzzled me why ASW weren't expanding during the 'good times'. When BACON went to Flybe there were loads of Dash 8s going cheap and ASW could have carved a nice niche for itself on the ex BACON routes (especially out of BRS which BE all but abandoned). It seems that SHH were playing things far too safe. Taking on another aircraft or 3 definitely would not have harmed, evidenced by the fact that ASW have only very recently posted a loss.
Unfortunately, it is a precarious position to be in. If BE make the purchase, the outcome is likely to be less than rosy. However if some venture capitalists show an interest, the future will look a lot brighter. If people were stupid enough to finance Air Varsity, surely someone can see sense in investing in a well established airline with a loyal clientele?
Talking of missed opportunities: It always puzzled me why ASW weren't expanding during the 'good times'. When BACON went to Flybe there were loads of Dash 8s going cheap and ASW could have carved a nice niche for itself on the ex BACON routes (especially out of BRS which BE all but abandoned). It seems that SHH were playing things far too safe. Taking on another aircraft or 3 definitely would not have harmed, evidenced by the fact that ASW have only very recently posted a loss.
Unfortunately, it is a precarious position to be in. If BE make the purchase, the outcome is likely to be less than rosy. However if some venture capitalists show an interest, the future will look a lot brighter. If people were stupid enough to finance Air Varsity, surely someone can see sense in investing in a well established airline with a loyal clientele?
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Its possible that flybe could make tracks into PLH via their tie-up with Loganair. The SAAB 340 recently made a few trips into PLH albeit with a reduced payload, but it did get in and out. The allowable payload may just be enough to justify PLH sectors over to NQY where a full load could then be taken to anywhere in the existing network - including a revised LCY sector.
T3 - If eastern where interested they would need to decide on whether to operate ASW as a seperate company or to intergrate it into T3. If they intergrated it into T3 they would then need to decide whether ASW becomes a full service carrier as T3 is currently or whether T3 move towards ASW's business model.
RE - As a low cost regional carrier RE already operate a fleet of ATR42's that can operate into PLH. RE is always looking to expand and the aquisition of ASW could help them to expand in the UK.
NM - An outsider. Manx2 have said they want to expand outside the IOM and purchasing ASW would allow them to do that.
SI or GR - If either carrier was looking to expand into the UK domestic market the purchase of ASW would give them a good basis to start with.
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BAladdy.....is it not sligthly simplistic for the Plymouth paymasters to say Oh! we made a mistake and went into LCY where we lost a small fortune, we are now putting our airline up for sale, maybe one of our nice competitors might come along and buy us. In reality all an airline has to do is to start operating the network, why would they acquire a loss making airline with all the infrastructure it would not want. In my view and having respect for the employees it should have been done privately, that way it is afforded the best chance of surviving as a going concern. It is hard to believe these people head up a listed public company. I hope it works out for a good team!
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Surely it was a reference to Richard Lake of Eastern, who have previously worked closely with ASW, and have been mentioned as a potential suitor earlier in the thread?
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im sure it would be a good purchase for some fairly small change for SRB!
i would of thought that either Virgin or BA would be good contenders to buy ASW and then expand the operation at LGW to provide feeder services onto the Longhaul network
CS
i would of thought that either Virgin or BA would be good contenders to buy ASW and then expand the operation at LGW to provide feeder services onto the Longhaul network
CS