BAC 111-510ED One-Eleven, Air Bristol (European Aircharter - EAL) AN0215792

AB Airlines was an airline with its head office in the Enterprise House on the property of

London Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations ac ...

Uttlesford Uttlesford is a local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the market town of Saffron Walden. At the 2011 Census, the population of the district was 79,443. Other notable settlements include Great Dunmow, Elmdon, S ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

.An Introduction to AB Airlines
" AB Airlines. 30 January 1998. Retrieved on 7 February 2011. "AB Airlines - Internet Enquiry Office Enterprise House, Stansted Airport Essex. CM24 1QW" AB was one of the first 'low-cost airlines' in England, preceding others such as

EasyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

, Ryanair, and

Go Fly Go Fly (styled and trading as Go) was the name of a British low-cost airline, founded by British Airways in 1998. It operated flights between London Stansted Airport and destinations in Europe. The airline was purchased from BA in a management ...

. It was created in 1993 by former

Brymon Airways Brymon Airways is a British former airline with its head office in the Brymon House on the property of Plymouth City Airport in Plymouth, Devon."World Airline Directory." ''Flight International''. 24–30 March 199961 "Brymon House, Plymouth Cit ...

executives. AB Airlines was formerly known as Air Bristol. Initially the airline marketed itself as Air Belfast, reflecting its then principal route between Belfast International Airport and London Stansted. Aircraft and crew were based at Belfast International Airport,

and

Bristol Filton Airport Filton Airport or Filton Aerodrome was a private airport in Filton and Patchway, within South Gloucestershire, north of Bristol, England. Description The airfield was bounded by the A38 road to the east, and the former London to Avonmouth ...

. A base was opened in 1994 at

Shannon Airport Shannon Airport ( ga, Aerfort na Sionainne) is an international airport located in County Clare in the Republic of Ireland. It is adjacent to the Shannon Estuary and lies halfway between Ennis and Limerick. The airport is the third busiest ai ...

to operate flights to London Gatwick Airport. This operation was marketed as AB Shannon. When a base was set up at London Gatwick the name was changed to AB Airlines as its network covered more destinations than just Shannon. It mainly flew scheduled services from

London Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

to Shannon, Lisbon and Berlin Schönefeld, and also from

London Stansted London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acros ...

and

Birmingham International Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Boroug ...

to Shannon. It also offered charter flights to holiday destinations in Europe. After heavy financial losses, a large number of dropped schedules, and major restructuring within the company, AB Airlines went into administration in August 1999. Its last remaining scheduled services from

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

in France and Shannon in Ireland were taken over by

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

. AB Airlines chairman Brian Beal later went on to start another low-cost airline, Fly Europa.

Fleet

AB Airlines fleet consisted of

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

s, a single Boeing 737-400 and

BAC 1-11 The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC-111/BAC 1-11) was an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-se ...

s. In May 1998

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

announced that AB Airlines had placed orders for six Boeing 737-700 aircraft, making it the first airline in Europe to do so. However, with the financial problems of the company followed by insolvency the following year, AB Airlines went into administration and its remaining services have since been taken over by

References

External links

*
News story about staff reaction

* ttp://www.aviationdictionary.org/AB_Airlines AB Airlines {{DEFAULTSORT:Ab Airlines Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Airlines established in 1993 Airlines disestablished in 1999 1993 establishments in England 1999 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1993 British companies disestablished in 1999

Fleet

See also

References

External links