AB Airlines was an airline with its head office in the Enterprise House,
Stansted Airport
Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London.
As London's third-busiest airport, Stan ...
low-cost airline
A low-cost carrier (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...
s 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 airlin ...
,
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...
Brymon Airways
Brymon Airways was a British 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 City Ai ...
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
Belfast International Airport is an international airport northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and is the main airport for the city of Belfast. Until 1983, it was known as Aldergrove Airport, after the nearby village of Aldergrove, Cou ...
and London Stansted. Aircraft and crew were based at Belfast International Airport, Stansted 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 Henbury Loop Line, former ...
. A base was opened in 1994 at
Shannon Airport
Shannon Airport () is an international airport located in County Clare in Ireland. It is adjacent to the Shannon Estuary and lies halfway between Ennis and Limerick. With almost 2 million passengers in 2023, the airport is the third busiest ...
to operate flights to
London Gatwick
Gatwick Airport , also known as London Gatwick Airport (), is the secondary international airport serving London, West Sussex and Surrey. It is located near Crawley in West Sussex, south of Central London. In 2024, Gatwick was the second-bu ...
. 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 to Shannon,
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
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 London Gatwick to
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionShannon in Ireland were taken over by
British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
.
AB Airlines chairman Brian Beal later went on to start another low-cost airline, Fly Europa.
BAC One-Eleven
The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...
s. In May 1998
Boeing
The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
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
British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...