Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Paper ended most military manned-aircraft development in the UK, and Avro decided to re-enter the civilian market. The Vickers Viscount had the larger end of the short-haul market, and Avro therefore decided to design a smaller regional airliner powered by two Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines, intended to replace the many DC-3 Dakotas that were by then reaching the end of their economic lifespan. Original plans were for a 20–30 seat aircraft with a similar configuration to the Fokker F27, but talks with potential customers soon led to a low-wing 40-seat design being chosen for the 748 project. Avro was not
Airliner delivered to the nascent airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel, which used the first aircraft for pleasure flying, and on 25 August 1919, it inaugurated the first scheduled international airline service from London to Paris. One aircraft was sold to the River Plate Aviation Company in Argentina, to operate a cross-river service between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Meanwhile, the competing Vickers converted its successful WWI bomber, the Vickers Vimy, into a civilian version, the Vimy Commercial. It was redesigned with a larger-diameter fuselage (largely of spruce plywood), and first flew from the Joyce Green airfield in Kent on 13 April 1919.