Brymon Airways

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Brymon Airways is a former British airline which was co-founded in 1972 by journalist Bill Bryce and racing driver Chris Amon.

[edit] History

The company was incorporated on 26 January 1970 as Brymon Aviation Limited which operated as Brymon Airways.

Its name derived from its creator's surnames: Bryce and Amon. It quickly built up a network of routes from its bases at Plymouth and Newquay, to various UK airports, including The Channel Islands, The Isles of Scilly, and London (Heathrow and Gatwick), and some foreign destinations such as France.

In October 1992, Brymon Airways merged with Birmingham European Airways, to form Brymon European Airways. This was bought jointly by British Airways and Maersk Air, in 1993. British Airways acquired Brymon Airways, whilst Maersk Air bought the Birmingham European Airways section. Maersk Air renamed Birmingham European Airways to Maersk Air UK, but British Airways allowed Brymon to keep its name. Having said this, Brymon's Aircraft were repainted in British Airways Express colours. Around this time they initiated a service from Newcastle to Paris.

On 30 July 1993 the company was renamed Brymon Airways Limited to reflect the operating name.

In 1996, Brymon expanded even further, establishing a hub at Bristol, with services to Paris, Cork, The Channel Islands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Plymouth, and a service to Newcastle and Aberdeen. Further expansion occurred in 1998, when it took over British Airways Regional services from Aberdeen to Birmingham and Manchester. They also introduced routes from Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In 1999 routes were introduced from Newcastle to Belfast and Copenhagen, and from Aberdeen to Oslo.

On 28 March 2002 the airline was merged with British Regional Airlines and was renamed British Airways Citiexpress Limited operating as British Airways Citiexpress. On 1 February 2006 the airline was renamed BA Connect Limited operating as BA Connect

[edit] Fleet

Brymon Airways operated a number of different types of aircraft:

1 De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter

6 De Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7

2 De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8-100

17 De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8-300 (Plus one leased from Tyrolean Airways)

1 Handley Page Dart Herald

A number of Embraer ERJ-145 Regional Jets were also on order.