The airline was established and started operations in 1987. It was formed by Andy Janes and his wife Hilary as
Janes Aviation at
Southend airport. The company was renamed Emerald in 1992, in recognition of the large amount of business across the
Irish Sea and established its base in Liverpool. In October 2002, Emerald bought
Exeter based
Streamline Aviation. The airline was wholly owned by AS Janes and HJ Janes. In June 2005,
EuroManx successfully bought the passenger service of Emerald Airways, which was operating low cost services from
Liverpool John Lennon Airport to the
Isle of Man, using BAe ATPs. Following the takeover these services were then operated under the EuroManx name and booking system, but often the cabin crew employed and the planes used were those of Emerald Airways. Following the suspension of Emerald's AOC and the company subsequently calling in administrators, one of the ATPs was impounded by the
Isle of Man Government at
Ronaldsway Airport. The new Irish start-up airline,
Emerald Airlines, founded in November 2020 is unrelated to Emerald Airways. ==AOC Suspension==