.jpg){kind=link}
The story
The airline was established in 1994. It was formed by Air Atlantique to specialise in the supply of contract and ad hoc cargo services. Since July 2001 West Atlantic UK has traded independently and continues to broaden its product range and capability through the marketing of its Air Operators Certificate (AOC).
The company Atlantic Airlines Limited was established in March 2001 when the management performed a buy-in to the trading company. A full management buy out was completed on 28 May 2004 when the same management purchased all the assets of the business, including aircraft, spares, and engines.
In January 2006, Atlantic acquired the first of an order for five BAe ATP freighter aircraft. In February 2008, Atlantic Airlines signed an agreement with BAE Systems Regional Aircraft to long-term lease a further six BAe ATP freighters, bringing the total orders to 11.
In October 2008, it was announced that the airline would merge with West Air Sweden to form a new airline called West Atlantic with its headquarters in Sweden.
On 8 December 2009, Atlantic Airlines' biggest base, Coventry Airport, was closed for financial reasons, causing Atlantic Airlines to cease all cargo flights to and from the airport. Atlantic Airlines moved all Coventry flights to Birmingham on a temporary basis as a result. The airline recommenced operations out of Coventry when it reopened after it was bought by Peter Rigby.
On 27 April 2013, Atlantic Airlines retired the last Lockheed L188 Electra from its fleet in cargo service. Atlantic Airlines was the last operator of the type outside of Canada. Subsequently, most of the fleet was sold and transferred to Buffalo Airways in Canada. In 2015 Atlantic Airline transferred its ATP fleet to the West Atlantic group Swedish AOC to focus on further Boeing 737 acquisitions.
In June 2017 West Atlantic announced that it would be the launch customer and first operator of the Boeing 737-800BCF.
In November 2017, following the cease of operations from Coventry Airport, It set up new airline offices to the south of Coventry Airport and relocated its Operational and Line Maintenance Control Centre to East Midlands Airport. The airline leased space inside Hangar 29 at East Midlands Airport to provide maintenance facilities for their aircraft. On 31 October 2017 Atlantic Airlines changed its name to West Atlantic UK Limited.
Read the full text
In November 2020 West Atlantic added its first ATR72 to its fleet from sister airline Swiftair to operate between East Midlands Airport and Guernsey Airport for DHL Air UK.
By September 2022, West Atlantic had phased out the BAe ATP from its UK network, following the addition of more ATR 72s to their fleet. In 2025 West Atlantic phased out the last Boeing 737-300 and began replacing them with Boeing 737 NGs in anticipation of having a fully NG fleet by 2030.
From Wikipedia’s article on West Atlantic UK, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5