Blue Islands

[bmaviscount]

Notice BI have finally allowed booking from GCI to LCY on there booking portal; would be great if timings allowed twice daily access. Anyone know how the route is doing?
Also noticed last Sunday 4 Jetstreams lying idle on stands when flying through both GCI and JER. Low utilisation?

[GAMPY]

Three out of four JS fly all day Mon to Fri. Weekends are less busy but 2 JS fly Sat am and 3 fly Sun pm. Certainly not underutilised!!!!

[tin canary]

They do hardly anything at the w/e - the Trislander doesn't fly at all on a Saturday and you will see most a/c parked up for a large proportion of the w/e. You only have to look at the Departures board to see that they ARE grossly underutilised for 2 days out of 7.

Maybe it saves money? Although a/c don't make money sitting on the ground, i suppose if the flight was fairly empty, it would lose more.

[delta154]

Daily flights to Manchester from Jersey Via Guernsey now bookable on blue islands website.

New direct route to Manchester - Jersey News from ITV Channel Television - channelonline.tv (http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_jerseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=495967)

[Jerbourg]

I think I would rather fly in a modern Flybe Dash than that ancient ATR G-DRFC that will no doubt operate the service (G-ISLF is fully utilsed on the Swiss & LCY routes).

[Samalot1]

After receiving the news - in form of an e-mail - I checked out the new routes - MAN - JER-GCI and vv and they were not loaded into their booking engine , and before you comment :) I did check the flights in November , so I guess that potential customers will be a happy at the news , and then a tad annoyed at no opportunity to take advantage of the GBP 49 per segment !

[VOM1T]

The routes are loaded now and showing £49 fares.. I'll be using it from Manchester this winter for one and hope its a great success ! Good Luck to Blue Islands.

[Yak97]

As its a 09:25 dep ex GCI and I can't see how there will be an ATR in position, can we assume this is a Jetstream flight, unless they are going back to the good old D0328? 1:30 from JER to MAN would presume something a little quicker than the jetstream

[adfly]

Did a mock booking and it is down as an ATR, so I assume that will be their Old ATR42 300, as the newer 500 is on the LCY and Swiss flights and the 300 just operates a few inter-island flights and the odd SOU run when the demand is higher.

[putneyuk]

Not sure if its an addition to the fleet or covering maintainance but understand G-FARA J31 left Cranfield on a Blue Island call sign yesterday

[Yak97]

Or are they getting rid of G-JIBO?

[Jerbourg]

GISLB is going for major check & poss repaint so I guess G-FARA is to cover it's absence

[Bournemouth Air]

Well done to all at Blue Island for returning back to Bournemouth airport

Please do some advertising at the airport as theres currently 60 people sat in arrivals and nothing advertising anything.

Bournemouth Airport has not even announced it on there facebook page

[GAMPY]

It'll last only as long a the incentives offered by BOH's owners last!

[Yak97]

From the UK CAA Official Record Series 2 no. 2020

LICENCE REVOKED

Reference Item

GTB 102 Issued to Blue Islands Limited to operate a scheduled passenger service between Guernsey and Alderney

Aurigny 1 Blue Island 0?

[bean]

"Aurigny 1 Blue Islands 0"

I don't really think so as Blue Islands are a commercial enterprise and "Aurignyflot" are the state airline of the Poilitbureau sorry States of Guernsey.

It would take a lot of explainiing if one of the few remaining State owned Airlines in Europe stopped providing a socially essential air service

[GAMPY]

Just wait till Aurigny goes tits up as it surely must. Try explaining why schools and hospital wards must close in GCI whilst Malcolm Hart continues to squander millions of taxpayers' money! There won't be queues of airlines vying to operate the ACI services then either. Derek Coates threw bucket loads of money at ACI but the resident ingrates threw it back in his face hence the two fingers. Aurigny is a dead duck beyond repair in its current form and the routes should be left to profitable carriers. The GCI States could save squillions by ceasing to act like an African republic with an un-neccessary national flag carrier.

[Bournemouth Air]

I hear there is a possibilty of routing the manchester flight through Bournemouth

[StGermain]

Do you really think they would do that ? I can't help thinking that they wouldn't want to upset the relationship with FlyBe at Southampton with a competing route out of Bournemouth :=

[GAMPY]

You hear wrong! Not even the kids in charge would try that one! LCY and MAN are the nearest thing to grown-up airline stuff that BCI has ever seen! No way they will dare muck that up!

[FLYboh]

When you go to the home page and then click FAQ's, you get an option to book flights at the top of the page and this is showing Alderrney in the menu. Not listed in the timetables yet, but looks as though Bournemouth is getting back all it's former routes.:ok:

[MARKEYD]

If you go back a few threads you will see that blue Islands dont fly to Alderney any more gave the route up a little while ago

[Jerbourg]

They gave up flying to BOH too & are now back.....

[Jerbourg]

Blue seem to be operating a much reduced inter island schedule this week, is this due to lack of demand or some other reason does anyone know?

[jijpc]

Probably something to do with the fact that it is half-term week and there are probably a lot less business travellers

[Jerbourg]

They didn't cut the schedule during the easter/summer holidays so I doubt it's that.

[Mrs Overall]

The reduced shedule is here to stay for the forseeable future, Trislanders will now only fly 2 return inter-island sectors a day - good crew utilisation there!

[tin canary]

Split duty I guess - nice!

[nivsy]

No wonder there is a reduced service. I thought it would be quite nice to pop back to any of the channel islands with a flight from Southampton. They are having a laugh are they not with the prices - either in the short term or well ahead bookings.....heck I can go anywhere in Europe return for the prices quoted..and the channel islands are not that good!

Nivsy

[Nakata77]

Can anyone inform the load factor on todays first Bournemouth services?

[Mrs Overall]

& also on the first JER-MAN too?

[Skipness One Echo]

London City is down to once daily for the winter, was that the plan? Not competitive against BE and BA as there's no day return option.

[Turbo-Prop]

once a day only on Sunday.

[Skipness One Echo]

once a day only on Sunday.

Cool, the LCY page is misleading me! Good news then, thanks.

[Feet on ground]

Rumour today that all Trislander pilots have been made redundant from 4th December.

With the Trislander scheduled to do up to 7 inter island rotations a day, that's a lot of capacity going, or something else (another Jetsream?) coming to replace it. But if you were replacing it wouldn't you keep and retrain the crew?

All Trislander flights still on sale through December.

Anybody know what's happening?

[Turbo-Prop]

Allegedly Blue Islands have listened to their passengers; they have said that they don't want to fly on Tris and therefore BI are selling them off and consequently the crews have been given notice.

It goes on to say that these passengers also don't like single crew on Tris as their competitors practice.

A few months ago the ground crew were told they were to embark on a new adventure or some similar romantic imagery; aka given the boot.

It's all part of the MD's idiom.

Read between the lines......

[Mrs Overall]

Blue took on 2/3 new Tri crew in the last month, it looks as tho they have been thrown on the scrap heap already. The MD certainly knows how to mess with peoples lives, not that he gives a thought to them. Personally I think the reason that Blue have ditched the Tris, are a) the fall in inter island pax due to many pax switching to Gr & b) the continual tech problems with the aircraft. I also believe that one Capt. recently resigned on the spot because he was so fed up with all the continual snags. Also heard today that Blue maybe ditching GCI-SOU, can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Feet on ground]

They've ditched everything else that doesn't originate in Jersey, so GCI-SOU going would just be the last in a long line of Guernsey services dumped. Seems quite logical on that basis. Good news for flybe.

[Aero Mad]

Trislanders sold as Blue Islands listens to passengers - Business News | businesslife.co (http://www.businesslife.co/BusinessNews.aspx?id=trislanders-sold-as-blue-islands-listens-to-passengers)

[Jerbourg]

I heard a rumour that the contract with the GCI handling agent had been renegotiated down from 12 months to 6, if true this would mean that the contract would end Dec 31. This in turn could/would also signal the end of all GCI services....

[GCI27]

I think they FINALLY realised that it is probably not very cost effective to run 3 different types of aircraft inter-island!

[Feet on ground]

Maybe, but did they drop the right one?

[Mrs Overall]

F.O.G. - Seeing at the Tri was put on the route to make money I think the answer has to be no, the ATR & JS are both expensive a/c to operate on 10 minute sectors.

Blue have to return a profit by year end 2011 or that's it I was told a few months back at the time of them making all the ground staff redundant. Well we are a few weeks away from that deadline now & I am wondering how near (or far) away they are from being profitable.

[Feet on ground]

Does anybody know if the inter island schedule that is now published for 2012 is the finished article? Or are there more flights to be added?

It doesn't look particularly good as is!

[Ayline]

It looks as if the withdrawal of the Trislander is more about cutting the number of inter island seats rather than listening to passengers who apparently prefer to travel on the ATR or J32s. It appears that on weekdays the 7 Trislander flights have been replaced by 2 J32 flights. That equates to the loss of about 67 seats in each direction.

[Feet on ground]

67 seats in each direction is a small fraction of the number of empty seats Blue Islands has, thanks to swamping the market with excess capacity!

[Mrs Overall]

Brake failure on Trislander G-BEDP this evening at GCI, the aircraft left the runway & ended up on the grass according to my Blue Island informant.

[Ayline]

I think it was actually G-LCOC

[Mrs Overall]

Ayline - Just been sent a pic of incident, you are correct it was indeed OC.

[frangatang]

If you think their fares are steep , try Melbourne- King Island(Bass strait), just a couple of weeks ago, £200 return for a 50 min trip in a saab340. Needless to say that was passed up , l like islands but not that much!

[Mrs Overall]

As an ex employee I have to say this is not a surprise & I am amazed it's taken so long.

[Mrs Overall]

All but 2 of the fleet tech yesterday resulting in long delays on the interisland services. It's not good for pax is it, I wonder if the MD would care to comment?

[MARKEYD]

Provisional figures for the new Bournemouth Jersey route starting in November with 3 flights a week was 260 passengers carried making it about 10 per flight which is about a 53 % load factor .

Not bad for a new route in midst November good to see that quite a few flights are full over the Xmas period as well

[five zero by ortac]

Overheard a conversation at the BI check-in last week to say they have ordered another 'new' aircraft. I expect they mean new to BI. Anyone know anything ?

[adfly]

I guess another ATR 42 500, somebody mentioned they may be getting another this year a while ago. Whether its to replace the old 300 they use for some interisland, peak SOU and MAN flights or to expand/upgrade routes is anyone's guess.

[tin canary]

The rumour of a 'new' 42-500 is quite old now, although nothing has appeared yet.
I would find it difficult to understand getting rid of the old 42-300 when it is about to go into maintenance for a big check (or should that be cheque) that is scheduled for a month.
I was told that someone, maybe Denim Air, were going to be wet leased in for that time, although they have used Scot Air previously.
The cabin crew will still be required as a company rep on board, but the flight crew have effectively got a month off, unless they are going to n/stop them in Jersey to fly the 500.

Are there no 42's that they could dry lease in?

[JSCL]

They could dry lease from Air Conractors / ASL. But makes no sense doing a 1 month dry lease.

[Geo73]

Have heard two rumours recently...

1) That a Denim Air Fokker 50 will be covering while one of the ATR's is on maintenance in April.

2) That Jetstream 31 G-LNKS is going to be leased.

Does anybody have any further info?

Thanks

Geo

[harriewillem]

Fokker 50 20233 PH-JXK Denim Air at MST 13apr12 with Blue Islands titl prior summer lease ex PT-SLK

Skyliner - aviation news & more (http://skyliner-aviation.de/regdb.main?LC=nav4&page=4)

[Jerbourg]

Will this "antique" be used to launch the rumoured new European route out of JER?

[Geo73]

Apparently it is cover for ATR maintenance.

[Limburg]

Fokker 50 20233 PH-JXK Denim Air at MST 13apr12 with Blue Islands titl prior summer lease ex PT-SLK

The Fokker 50 departed Maastricht to Guernsey this afternoon!

Picture: Photos: Fokker 50 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/2092586/L/)

[nje1md]

and here is the Fokker after arrival at Guernsey this afternoon:

www.Biz-Jets.com: PH-JXK Blue Islands Fokker 50 (http://www.biz-jets.com/2012/04/ph-jxk-blue-islands-fokker-50.html)

although a much older design cannot help but think the old Fokker looks more modern than the ATR behind!

glad to see however that Blue are trying to compete with Classic Flight at Coventry on trying to operate as many classic regional types as possible - maybe next a Blue Islands Bandeirante or a Shorts 360?

[Jerbourg]

Blue I have it on good authority, are thinking about going back to self handling after a less than a year with handling agents at GCI & JER!

[tin canary]

One day they will make their corporate mind up - and then change it again.

Muppets - delete

[HWY4A]

Talking of muppets.....

[harriewillem]

Both airports are using push-back more and more for the bigger aircraft, so this means bigger bills to be paid than when taxi in taxi out, would say this would be main reason.

Noticed in Jersey this morning 2 F50's, anyone info on that?

[PeteAndre]

Can't be entirely the reason as pushback is free at GCI until the runway and apron works are complete.:ok:

Could the other F50 be CityJet on familiarisation. Summer schedules started last Saturday with F50 flying the route.

[welkyboy]

The original FK50 has cooked an engine so the second positioned in late last night to cover

[Geo73]

Heard that it was ATR 42 G-ISLF which had engine troubles?

[mathers_wales_uk]

G-LNKS is being operated by Links Air at the moment and was seen in Cardiff this week operating the Cardiff - Anglesey route.

[Jerbourg]

Jetstream G-EIGG is due to join the fleet to replace G-JIBO

[mathers_wales_uk]

G-EIGG was operating for Links Air at the end of last and early this week. Also seen in Cardiff operating the Anglesey service. It was swapped then with G-LNKS

[GAMPY]

Airliner World is doing a profile on Blue Islands in the June issue. That's usually the kiss of death on a small carrier...........

[Jerbourg]

We can expect to the the MD and his cheesey grin staring out at us then!
If my memory is correct Airliner World did 2/3 page feature on BI about 18 months ago..

[Aero Mad]

Issue now in shops on sale. IIRC, Blue Islands was last featured in AW in September 2006.

[jetstreamtechrecords]

Is the ATR in Jersey a write off?:confused:

[Ayline]

G-JIBO has left the fleet and G-ISLB is for sale.

[Ayline]

G-ISLD in service as is G-ISLC. At least two J32s required, one for GCI-SOU and the other for JER-SOU.

[Jerbourg]

Rumour (I stress the word rumour) -the facts of which I won't divulge here -about the sudden departure of the MD. Does anyone have any further info?

[nero83]

Brilliant Jerbourg. GR lose their MD so why not start a completely unfounded rumour concerning their competitor. Real classy. :=

[Jerbourg]

I haven't started a rumour, I chose to use the word rumour after certain happenings concerning the MD. Watch this space.

[nero83]

Once again Jerbourg, utter :mad:

[Jerbourg]

My info came from a Blue crew member & was until now a trusted source, seems she has an axe to grind.

My apologies for posting the above "rumour" without waiting for more facts. :O

[Saab2000 Freak]

As reported in the Gatwick thread, Blue Islands are not interested in acquiring any Flybe LGW slots. Should BE sell the slots could we see SI operate a GCI-LCY service to take up some of the GCI-LON slack? Can’t see Easyjet operating out of the Island so who else would take up the demand?

Conx via LGW with Aurigny and Business pax via LCY with Blue Islands?

[GAMPY]

Blue Islands has a couple of MAN slots for sale as from 12 June.......

[Cyrano]

Blue Islands has a couple of MAN slots for sale as from 12 June.......

No real capacity constraints at MAN, according to ACL (http://www.acl-uk.org/UserFiles/File/MAN%20S13%20Start%20of%20Season.pdf), so no reason anyone would pay for BI's slots there.

(Sorry, I realise the original comment was tongue-in-cheek!)

[27thstate]

Looks like Blue Islands are going to be using an ATR72, OY-RUB, as next aircraft leased from DAT. ref Jethros.org

[Jerbourg]

This info came from Skyliners & has now been confirmed as incorrect.
An ATR42 is due for delivery on Friday this week.

[27thstate]

Thanks for update Jerbourg.

[propblade]

Sold to Guyana

Check "GINFO" in due course

[Nakata77]

Blue Islands will lease a 757 from 1st April next year to operate new services between GCI and LGW.

I wish.

[EGTE]

Trislander 8R-GGB (still in Blue Islands titles) taxied from Iscavia to the fuel pumps at Exeter this afternoon.

[putneyuk]

G-ISLH left Bournemouth on delivery Monday to Blue Island another ATR42 and rumours of another 3 to follow

[adfly]

Are these going to be 300's or 500's? Wonder if Blue Islands will finally introduce some regular ATR's onto the GCI/JER-SOU routes?

[Ayline]

I hope not. Give me a Flybe Q400 on Southampton any day over a tatty old ATR42. Also Flybe have great connections out of Southampton. An ATR42 on the Southampton route could force Flybe off the route. We would then have to be pay the high fares charged by Blue Islands. And when Derek Coates gets fed up of playing aeroplanes what comes next?

[Aero Mad]

And when Derek Coates gets fed up of playing aeroplanes what comes next?

Well... Aurigny has the license so I wouldn't complain too much if I were you, Ayline. But ask yourself if the scenario is really likely? Flybe will probably keep GCI-SOU if only for the transfer traffic it generates through SOU.

[adfly]

I doubt Blue Islands would be able to push Flybe off the route, the other way around seems far more likely if anything bad were to happen. And the ATR's, especially if they are newer 500's must be a significant step up from a Jetstream!

[canberra97]

Exactly Adfly!

[Journey Man]

2009...
What happens when Mr. Coates gets fed up of operating an airline and decides to sell out to Flybe.

2013...
And when Derek Coates gets fed up of playing aeroplanes what comes next?

You've been banging that drum for a while now. With that username, you obviously have no ulterior motive...

Back to your navel gazing. :E

[Ayline]

Let me make it clear this has nothing to do with Aurigny. I just want see Flybe remain on the Southampton route. A monopoly is never a good thing. If Flybe were to withdraw from Southampton then they might also consider withdrawing all services from Guernsey and that would be in no ones best interest.

[HWY4A]

Ayline, "a monopoly is never a good thing". So what's going to happen when GR get the Gatwick monopoly as of March then?? Is it in the islands best interests to ring fence all routes to London and deny all licence apps for Stansted, City, Luton, etc?? And why are you banging on about this anyway?? Should really be on your own thread or Flybes. :ok:

[Geo73]

Blue Islands are in the process of acquiring a 5th ATR42 according to an article in today's Guernsey Press.

[VickersVicount]

Will there be a return on the GLA route next year, lots this year gone full / sold out which is great

[bmaviscount]

Will they be brave enough to run a single daily direct rotation LCY to GCI? Ideal year to launch post Flybe!