Question: AB Airlines was originally marketed as Air Belfast where aircraft and crew were based at this airport in Northern Ireland formerly known as what?

Prime Airlines was formed by HeavyLift Cargo Airlines (HC Airlines) as a passenger charter carrier.  Initially offering its sole aircraft on an ad hoc basis from its base at East Midlands Airport (EMA) near Nottingham.  Originally the airline was to be called Breeze but the company had difficulties in securing the name for operation.  Finally the name Prime Airlines was chosen.  With the assistance of former Transaer managers HC Airlines leased its sole aircraft an A300B4-203 and recruitment began for cabin crew.  As the airline only had one aircraft a total of 27 cabin crew were hired for the start of operations in mid-2001.  The company had no need to recruit flight crew as HC Airlines operated the Airbus A300B4 in cargo configuration and simply cross utilized the crew.  Once the airline obtained its AOC it began operations for a number of British inclusive tour operators and the military flying to destinations around Europe and the Middle East.  After 9/11 the company suffered with lack of contracts and a second blow came when an American Airlines Airbus A300 (Flight 587) crashed in New York City.  Like most airlines at this time Prime had to make redundancies and cut its cabin crew numbers in half.  The start of 2002 looked better for Prime Airlines as once again ad hoc charter contacts came in.  The company started to plan for a brighter future and looked at adding extra aircraft to its fleet. <SEP> The Special Patrol Group (SPG) of the Royal Ulster Constabulary was a tactical reserve of 150 officers which had the role: "to provide backup in civil commotion, to police sensitive areas at times of confrontation, and to show the flag in a disciplined and impressive way to those who wished to break the peace."  Formerly known as the Police Reserve Force, the name was changed to Special Patrol Group in 1970 following the Hunt Report and the reforming of the Royal Ulster Constabularly to bring it more into line with othe U.K. Police Forces i.e .  It became an UNARMED POLICE SERVICE , which was temporarily armed due to the continued murderous campaign waged upon the men and women of the service , whether armed or unarmed and whether on or off duty and also to avoid confusion between the defunct more militarised Reserve Force and the newly formed RUC Reserve which was recommended in the Hunt Report and consisted of a large number of part time , trained officers to help with security and relieve the hard pressed regular officers of some of the more mundane duties as well as a small number of full time Reserve Constables who were more fully integrated into the regular service .  These police reserve officers provided much needed support to the hard pressed regular officers especially in the 1970s when casualties and fatalities among both regular and reserve officers were reaching figures of 2 or 3 officers, on average , being murdered every WEEK .  The Special Patrol Groups were formed as mobile support units originally based around police stations in Belfast and with a section ( Orange Section ) in Armagh and it required a minimum length of service and a rigorous interview process before an officer could be accepted into the ranks . These requirements were later dropped most likely due to the need for greater numbers from what was a small pool as the RUC was greatly undermanned to cope with the terrorist campaigns being waged from various so called Loyalist and Republican organizations .  Officers in the SPG were called upon to deal with major civil unrest as well as numerous , regular bombings , shootings etc sometimes involving multiple bombs in Belfast city centre and other locations on the same day .  In the 1970s the SPG relied heavily on the calibre of its officers as they were poorly equipped , carrying low power Walther pistols and World War 2 , Sterling sub machine guns to defend themselves against terrorists armed with high velocity weapons such as the American Armalite and M1 Carbines as well as RPG Rocket Launchers , various mortar devices and heavy machine guns .  They were so disadvantaged as regarded firepower , that , at one stage in the early 70s , members of the Parachute Regiment were assigned to each long wheel base Land Rover to supplement the meagre firepower of 1 or 2 Sterlings in each crew .  This was a short term exercise as it gave the " wrong " image , not at all in keeping with the aims of the aforementioned Hunt Report .  Members of the Royal Military Police were brought in , after the disastrous folly of them trying to patrol staunchly Republican areas such as the Bogside and Creggan in Londonderry , unarmed and in unarmoured cars which were painted white ( to the delight of PIRA Snipers ) which resulted in a number of them being shot .  .  It was not however until an English Chief Constable , Sir Kenneth Newman , took over that the political correctness was set aside and RUC officers in general and the officers of the Special Patrol Groups in particular , were issued with and trained in the use of more uptodate weapons with which to defend themselves and the law abiding citizens of Northern Ireland .  Prior to that the men and women in the SPG in particular had scored many sucesses against the terrorists mainly by their courage and alertness , including intercepting bombs , and preventing numerous gun attacks as well as standing up to hundreds of rioters with little or no protective riot gear ( compared to what we see today ) <SEP> Belfast International Airport (IATA: BFS, ICAO: EGAA) is an airport 11.5 NM northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland.  Formerly known as Aldergrove Airport, after the nearby village of Aldergrove, Belfast International is Northern Ireland's busiest airport and the second busiest airport on the island of Ireland, second only to Dublin Airport.  In 2016, over 5.1 million passengers travelled through the airport, marking a 17% increase compared with 2015. <SEP> AB Airlines was an airline with its head office in the Enterprise House on the property of London Stansted Airport in Uttlesford, Essex.  AB was one of the first 'low cost airlines' in England, preceding others such as EasyJet, Ryanair, and Go Fly.  AB Airlines was formerly known as Air Bristol.  It was created in 1993 by former Brymon Airways executives.  Initially the airline marketed itself as Air Belfast, reflecting its then principal route between Belfast International Airport and London Stansted.  Aircraft and crew were based at Belfast International Airport, London Stansted Airport and Bristol Filton Airport.  A base was then opened in 1994 at Shannon Airport to operate flights to London Gatwick Airport.  This operation was marketed as AB Shannon.