The Isle of Man Air Services was originally registered on January 21st 1935 as a subsidiary of Olley Air Services., but it was inactive. Olley owned Blackpool and West Coast Airways which was locked in a fierce battle with the RAS for passengers to the Isle of Man it became clear that there just wasn’t enough demand for two air services to the Isle of Man. There needed to be a rationalisation and on 1st September 1937 a new company Isle of Man Air Services was formed. This was owned three ways, by LMS who ran the RAS Manx Airways service, Olley Air Services who owned West Coast Air Services and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. The harmonised routes comprised IOM-Blackpool-Liverpool-Manchester (Barton) and Liverpool-IOM-Belfast. When the new Winter schedule started on 26th September 1937 all mail services were taken over by the new company. RAS and West Coast services withdrew all air services to the Isle of Man. Although Isle of Man Air Services has its own livery timetables were still advertised as RAS incorporating Isle of Man Air Services. For the 1938 summer season flights to Yeadon (For Leeds/Bradford), Carlisle and Glasgow were added and by Mid-September more than 21,000 passengers and 217 tonnes of freight and mail had been carried with a load factor of 60%. It restarted operations after WW2 in 1946 but it was nationalised in February 1947.

Isle of Man Air Services. Take over of Mail Contract from Isle of Man to Liverpool.

Isle of Man services with a name or cachet are quite scarce. As can be seen from the second cover, the West Coast Air Services cachet was still used on Isle of Man Air services envelopes. The Ronaldsway cachet (first cover) was always on the rear of the envelope.