A Brief History of Skybus

In 1982 the Board of the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company first started thinking about operating an air service between the mainland and the Isles of Scilly. It was thought that an air link would be the perfect companion for the well established link by sea with the Scillonian III.   

Trials were done in April 1984, and in August that year the Company took delivery of a Britten-Norman Islander aircraft and started flying between Land’s End and St Mary's.



From 1984 to 1986 Skybus operated as a passenger and freight service for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company.

In August 1985 Skybus came to the rescue of Sir Richard Branson. He was making an attempt at the Transatlantic Blue Ribbon race when the Virgin Atlantic Challenger 1 came unstuck about 100 miles west of Bishop Rock Lighthouse and sank! All passengers and crew were fine and Skybus was chartered by Sir Richard to fly out into the Atlantic to find the wreckage.



The following year, in June 1986, a second, more successful attempt was made and the Virgin Atlantic Challenger 2 went away with the Blue Ribbon Trophy. Skybus then had the honour of being invited to fly Sir Richard and his family back to London, in one aircraft, with a second aircraft taking the crew and support team.

In 1987 the Civil Aviation Authority granted Skybus a full scheduled service operating licence.

During the first year of operating the full schedule, 15,850 passengers travelled between the mainland and the Isles of Scilly.  Passenger numbers grew steadily over time and demand increased.

As Land’s End Airport was becoming very busy and travel to the Isles of Scilly became ever more popular, it was decided to look at offering flights to St Mary’s from another UK airport. 



For the 1991 / 1992 season Skybus launched flights from Exeter Airport.

 The following year Newquay and Plymouth flights started, followed by Bristol in 1994 and Southampton in 1997.

Passenger numbers have continued to grow across all routes and Skybus is expecting to carry in the region of 57,000 passengers this year.

Although Skybus is best known as the light aircraft connecting the mainland to the Isles of Scilly, it has provided charter trips to a variety of destinations including Cork, Channel  Islands, London (various Airports, including Heathrow), Brittany and even the French alps to take a Ski Party from Newquay.

In 2008 two new routes were trialed.  Seasonal flights to Cardiff in Wales and St Brieuc in Brittany were launched. And in 2009 the St Brieuc route returned.

From starting 25 years ago with just one aircraft flying from Land’s End, Skybus now has a fleet of six planes; three De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otters and three Britten Norman Islanders and flies from five UK airports.