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The story
The airline was established in March 1984 and started operations in August 1984. Isles of Scilly Skybus originated as an air charter operator at Land's End aerodrome which operated high frequency services to the Isles of Scilly. Following the withdrawal of Brymon Airways routes to and from the islands the operator stepped in, initially operating services to Plymouth. This route was later dropped but with the addition of Twin Otter aircraft the route network expanded to its current make-up. It is wholly owned by the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company which also runs the passenger ferry, Scillonian III, and freight services from Penzance to the Islands.
Skybus celebrated 25 years of service in June 2009, painting the aircraft tails with the 25 years mark. An extra Twin Otter aircraft was sourced for the beginning of the 2013 season following the cessation of helicopter services to and from the islands. Flights to Bristol Airport and Southampton Airport were dropped at the end of the 2012 season to concentrate on services from Exeter, Newquay and Land's End.
In 2025, the airline appointed former Loganair CEO Jonathan Hinkles as its managing director, and subsequently agreed to wet-lease two Twin Otter aircraft to Aurigny for its Alderney operation. The first Skybus-operated flight between Guernsey and Alderney took place on 1 November 2025.
On 7 November 2025, it was announced that Skybus is to take over the Newquay to London Gatwick Public Service Obligation (PSO) route which was previously operated by the now-defunct Eastern Airways. The service was originally due to begin on 23 November using a wet-leased ATR 72-500 from Blue Islands, though that carrier would subsequently suspend trading on 14 November. On 21 November 2025, Skybus confirmed that the route will commence as planned and will be operated by UK-based airline and ACMI specialist Ascend Airways using a Boeing 737 aircraft. From 7 December 2025, Skybus instead began using an Embraer E190 aircraft, wet-leased from Titan Airways, to operate the service.
In January 2026, Universal Air took over the operation of the PSO route on Skybus' behalf using a 78-seat De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400.
From Wikipedia’s article on Isles of Scilly Skybus, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4