Air UK was the name of the new airline resulting from the merger of BIA and Air Anglia. (BIA had already absorbed Exeter-based Air Westward in March 1979). Cardiff-based Air Wales had become part of Air Anglia in June of that year.) It was incorporated on 1 January 1980. Operations commenced on 16 January 1980. At the time of its inception, Air UK was the largest regional airline in the UK and the country's third-largest scheduled carrier. It had a staff of 1,700, carried more than 1m, mainly scheduled, passengers annually and had a fleet of 40 aircraft, consisting of six jets (four ex-BIA BAC One-Eleven 400s and two ex-Air Anglia F-28 4000 series Fellowships) and 34 turboprops (including eighteen ex-BIA Handley Page Dart Heralds, ten ex-Air Anglia Fokker F-27 100/200 series Friendships and six Embraer 110 Bandeirantes originally part of the BIA, Air Wales and Air Westward fleets). Apart from the four One-Eleven 400s, which were predominantly operated on charter flights, all the other aircraft were part of Air UK's scheduled service fleet.