BWA staff axed as airline grounded

A UK airline which specialised in providing back-up planes to other carriers has gone into receivership with the loss of 320 jobs.

British World Airlines, which was based at Southend airport in Essex, said it had failed to find a solution to financial problems exacerbated by the terrorist attacks in the US.

Fifty of the lost jobs are at Aberdeen, from where the airline operated flights to the North Sea oil rigs. The end for the 10-plane carrier came when lessors said the airline's leased aircraft would have to be returned.

The airline began life as Silver City Airways in 1946 and also operated for a time as British Air Ferries.

It operated six 68-seat BAe ATP planes, three Boeing 737s and one Boeing 757.

Among carriers for whom British World Airlines supplied aircraft were British Airways and low-cost airlines easyJet and Go.