head office of dart group and subsidiary jet2.com dart group plc lse dtg is a holding company based in west yorkshire england for an airline company historically linked with the channel islands and a distribution company based in lincolnshire . its head office is located in the low fare finder house on the grounds of leeds bradford airport yeadon city of leeds england . 1 subsidiary jet2.com has its head office in the same building . 2 its name derives from the type of aircraft named after its engines that it first flew . contents 1 history 1.1 leased aircraft 1.2 purchase of aircraft 1.3 purchase by philip meeson 1.4 flotation 1.5 fowler welch 1.6 jet2.com 2 operations 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit leased aircraft edit the company s operations originated in 1971 when art carpenter formed two companies carpenter s air services ltd to fly flowers using contracted aircraft to the uk mainland from guernsey ; and carpenter s transport to distribute the flowers on the uk mainland to wholesale markets . in 1975 these two companies became express air freight . purchase of aircraft edit in 1978 purchased handley page dart herald aircraft to fly flowers and fresh produce from the channel islands to bournemouth airport and consumer goods from the uk via bournemouth to the channel islands . in 1979 the company became express air services and flew contracts for the royal mail to the channel islands from bournemouth bristol and liverpool from 1980 . purchase by philip meeson edit in 1983 the company changed its name to identify with its regional route becoming three companies under the channel express name which had the air freight running of the two dart herald aircraft and the distribution within the uk as separate operations . it was purchased in 1983 by philip meeson becoming channel express group . it was split into aviation services and distribution divisions . in 1985 a third dart herald aircraft was bought which flew an overnight parcels service from birmingham international airport to nuremberg and hanover . flotation edit channel express group ltd floated on the uk s unlisted securities market usm and had seven super dart herald aircraft . in 1989 it bought the first of three lockheed electra aircraft as well as having nine super dart herald aircraft . in 1991 the company changed its name to dart group plc and floated on the london stock exchange . fowler welch edit in 1994 it purchased the spalding based company fowler welch a temperature controlled distribution company . the first of seven fokker f27 aircraft was purchased in 1994 . its airline group channel express air services bought its first 257 seater airbus a 300b4 in 1996 . it was converted to become a freighter at bae systems in filton . a southern distribution centre was built in portsmouth in 1999 under the channel express name . the coolchain distribution company in kent was bought in 1999 . by 2000 the company had 1 500 employees and two divisions air and freight distribution . in 2001 two boeing 737 aircraft were purchased with a quick change facility allowing a freight aircraft to transform into a passenger aircraft in only 30 minutes . jet2.com edit in 2002 four boeing 737 aircraft were purchased with two becoming 737 qc quick change aircraft and two as passenger aircraft . from february 2003 the jet2 low cost airline began flying from leeds bradford airport to mainland europe destinations . fowler welch and coolchain merged to become fowler welch coolchain ltd in 2003 . eight boeing 737 300 aircraft of which five were passenger aircraft were purchased in 2003 to bring the total to 14 . in 2004 six more boeing 737 300 passenger aircraft were purchased and routes from belfast international airport started in april and from manchester airport in december . in 2005 routes began from newcastle airport in october and two boeing 757 200 aircraft were purchased . in 2006 six more boeing 757 200 passenger aircraft were bought and the channel express portsmouth distribution base was sold to ferryspeed c.i. ltd in june . a package holiday company jet2holidays.com was formed in january 2007 . operations edit the company has the jet2.com low cost airline that flies from leeds bradford airport and the fowler welch coolchain chilled food distribution company that is based in spalding . see also edit yorkshire portal companies portal aviation portal jet2.com destinations references edit contacts . dart group . retrieved on 31 december 2011 . registered office dart group plc low fare finder house leeds bradford international airport leeds ls19 7tu united kingdom jet2.com terms of use . jet2.com . retrieved on 31 december 2011 . registered office low fare finder house leeds bradford airport leeds ls19 7tu . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dart group & oldid 686279022 categories companies based in leedscompanies based in lincolnshireholding companies established in 1991defunct shipping companies of the united kingdomcompanies listed on the london stock exchangelogistics companies of the united kingdomtransport in guernsey1991 establishments in englandhidden categories use dmy dates from february 2014use british english from february 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 18 october 2015 at 04 56 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you 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