Hmmm, interesting thread; my involvement started when Jack Walker bought Spacegrand and Jersey European with some of the proceeds of selling Walker Steel to British Steel, and was persuaded - at a memorable meeting in the Horizon Hotel in Jersey - to base the combined operation at Exeter rather than Jersey or Blackpool.
The airline then applied for Exeter - Channel Islands route licence, which Air UK vehemently opposed. They filled 2 rotations a day at very high seat prices, and could have filled at least 2 more. At the CAA hearing, the Air UK Regional Manager argued that demand was so low that if a competitor were to join in, Air UK would be forced to pull out immediately. But although Jim French, for it was he, used a hugely impressive but irrelevant statistical model (predicting demand for truck movements in the USA) the CAA ignored the objection and awarded the route to JEA, who immediately set up 4 rotations daily with F27s, a move that was matched by Air UK, so that the rotations went from 2 - 8 daily. And operated with very good loads. Ironically, Jim French did ultimately manage to destroy the airline with a mixture of hubris and ignorance, but that's another story. Most rotations took in Guernsey as well, of course.