LONDON – As demand for intra-island increases, so as the need for Blue Islands to increase extra flights in the month of November. Blue Islands airline is a regional airline based out of Jersey and Guernsey to destinations all over the United Kingdom. The airline operates a fleet of 5 ATR-72-500s.
Rob Veron, CEO of Blue Islands stated, “We’re all now enjoying the value of face-to-face meetings once again, as such we have seen demand for inter-island travel steadily returning.”
“We currently operate up to six flights per day. It’s great to also be welcoming local sporting teams onboard again too, as important inter-island fixtures return – we’ve added several additional services for recent group fixtures. Increasing the frequency of inter-island flights during November enables us to build back better, sustainably.”
Current Itinerary
The quirky blue-themed Blue Islands airline will fly up to six inter-islands flights per day with three taking off from Guernsey and three taking off from Jersey. Blue Islands will also fly additional morning and evening flights on Wednesday throughout the month of November, which by default add an additional 1,300 seats.
The airline’s CEO furthered: “Blue Islands is here to provide year-round sustainable air connectivity to and from the Channel Islands, keeping Jersey and Guernsey connected is a vital part of this role.”
Better than boat service
The distance between Jersey and Guernsey Island is approximately 41 kilometres or 27 miles and this is approximately a 1 hours boat ride from Condor Voyageur services and 2 hours for a conventional ferry. The Blue island flight will fly for approximately 20 minutes on the ATR.
It appears that the target market for Blue Islands may not be for tourists but for locals and business travellers. As business travellers can bear the cost of the airfare of Blue Islands. It looks like Blue Islands airlines are taking aim at business travellers who have limited time and have to be in both places at the same time in a day.
Tourists may be put off by the relatively higher prices of the airfare compared to the ferry services. Ferry services can also be enjoyed by tourists as they could soak in the scenery and the relaxing ambience whereas on an aeroplane this could not be experienced.
Will this service last?
Like any other regional short-stopper route, to answer whether this service will last long is still yet to be known. Looking at the destinations flown by Logan Air in Scottland where flights are no longer than 15 minutes have been essential to the Scottish isles for decades.
For Blue Island, this is a different case as the public has alternative means of transportation between the two islands, whereas, in routes flown by Logan Air in Scotland, air travel is the only option.
Unless Blue Island can maintain strong relationships with business travellers, this route is deemed to last longer than many will anticipate.
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