I suppose we have neglected here on Holiday Props that both Jersey and Guernsey was a HUGE massive market for package holidays.
From the 1950s to the 1980s the British public who had the wherewithal and the money to fly had two destinations at the top of their list.
One was the Dutch bulb fields, with a stream of charter flights operating each year out of Southend airport and the other was the Channel Islands.
With that heady mix of English/French culture this was going abroad but gingerly!
No foreign language to grapple with, British currency so no problem with foreign exchange allowances but you still got duty free, exotic food with place names and road signs in French. Perfect for the conservative British traveller of the time, who had a vast choice of Tour Operators to book their holidays with.
They may also have hired a car with Falles Car Hire.
Jersey and Guernsey were served well from the 1950's by many prop types -
Vikings, Herons, DC-3's then Viscounts, Ambassadors, and of course Vanguards, and then Heralds, F27, and HS748's.
In later years SH330, SH360, Twin Otters, and Dash 7's would join in to serve the routes, many on dedicated holiday charter flights
You would see occasional DC-4, 6 and 7's at Jersey, along with Constellations.
The Islands were still very busy until the end of the 1980's when the drop off in popularity to have a 7 or 14 day holiday to the C.I's sadly fell off the cliff.
Too many airlines to mention all that flew to JER and GCI, but obviously early ones included BEA, Jersey Airlines, Derby/BMA, Channel AW, BUA, British Eagle, Autair, BKS, Cambrian, Dan Air, Air Anglia, BIA, Intra>JEA, Brymon.
In 1948 a new charter airline,
Jersey Airlines - not to be confused with the earlier Jersey Airways - was formed. They saw a business opportunity as BEA could not cope with the high demand for summer flights to the island.
The airline approached BEA in 1951 about becoming an associate airline which would guarantee them more business, BEA agreed and took a stake in the new airline.
Jersey Airlines, by 1960 they were operating Herons, Dakotas and Heralds.
In 1962, BEA lost its monopoly on flights to Jersey, the airline bought back its 25 per cent share from BEA and entered into an agreement with British United. Sadly, the Jersey Airlines name disappeared and changed its trading name to British United (C.I.).
Air Anglia's seasonal Aberdeen—Jersey service was the longest non-stop scheduled operation using a turboprop aircraft in the British Isles at the time; the F27's scheduled flight time on that route was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Brymon's Herald would do SEN and MAN-JER charters at weekends.
JER & GCI airports will however always be fondly remembered for their role in the 1960s to 1980s when all the UK independent airlines and some from Eire & mainland Europe could be seen flying visitors in for a Channel Islands holiday,
British Midland Airways was a regular and mainly seasonal operator into both Jersey and Guernsey, often with multiple Viscount (5 or 6) aircraft on the apron together on summer SATS & SUNS.
Flights were from SEN, LTN, EMA, BHX, CVT, BFS, LPL, GLO, MME, and more...
A Poster here on this thread mentions taking a prop in 1984 from GLA to JER.
I cannot recall if we (at BMA) back then flew direct JER from GLA, but I would have thought it would be a DC-9 by then if we did.
Possibly a Viscount was subbed ? It did happen.
In the early 1980's we still had a load of Viscounts - all very busy, especially to the C.I's at weekends.
G-AZNA to NC (Was to be ZLU to W, but NTU)
G-AZLP to LT ( ZLT was re-reg'd in 1981 as G-BMAT, with the wings taken from G-BAPD)
G-BAPE to PG, G-AYOX and G-BFZL
I have the 1979 book, British Midland Airways, by Bert G Cramp who had been a Captain with the airline almost from the start, and had witnessed the then Derby Aviation progress through Derby Airways to eventually become British Midland Airways.
I think this story is worth relating for several reasons, not least ‘the punch line’ - “Not all flights with the Argonaut were dramatic! -
and one flight ended rather amusingly as Captain Cramp and his crew found out in Jersey on 22nd September 1963.
Flying northbound from Palma to Birmingham, Capt Cramp had just crossed the French coast at Dinard when he heard another company Argonaut, commanded by Captain Eric Lines, flying southbound from BHX to Perpignan.
Knowing that a large part of the U.K. was becoming fog-bound he asked Captain Lines, what the weather was like when he left BHX, to receive the reply that the best thing to do was to divert right now into Jersey.
Thanking Eric Lines for his advice, Bert Cramp immediately called Jersey, to discover to his horror that they had just closed for the day, and in fact it was only by chance that Cramp’s call had just been received.
However, when hearing of the circumstances, Jersey Airport immediately opened up an Air Traffic Control watch and allowed the Argonaut to land.
Having taxied up to the apron and shut down all four engines, the crew were told to stay on board with all passengers as Customs and Immigration officials at Jersey had quite naturally gone home, although requests had gone out for them to return ASAP.
After waiting ten minutes or so and having explained the situation to the passengers, the crew began to get anxious about the aircraft’s battery power as all the lights in the aircraft were still on batteries only, there being no airport ground staff around to connect a GPU to the aircraft.
In the end Captain Cramp and the Engineering Officer, Roy Dethick opened the crew door, threw out an escape rope and slithered down it, then walked across the apron and found some passenger steps which they then proceeded to push to the aircraft to enable the passengers to disembark.
At this point some Customs officers arrived, and the ATC officers, having now officially shut the airfield down, came down to see if they could also help.
The aircraft cabin crew retrieved some dry stores (coffee, tea, milk, and biscuits) from the aircraft, together with an urn of hot water and some blankets, thus enabling all to have a hot drink, and the children to be kept warm as it was midnight now and quite cold.
Having cleared the passengers in, the Customs officials now set to with the ATC officers, the crew and the local Derby Airways staff, who had heard the Argonaut making its low approach whilst on their way home and, realising what had happened, had about-turned and returned to the airport to arrange HOTAC for all the passengers.
After some 2 hours all but four had been accommodated.
At that time of the night transport to hotels was also a problem, but it was overcome by the co-operation of all concerned, not least the passengers themselves, some of whom went in police cars and even a Black Maria to their accommodations.
All in all an exercise in good-humoured co-operation had ended what could have been a most tiresome day all round.
The passengers eventually arrived in Birmingham at 13.25 the following day, all quite content.
I would like to think that today, would we see Customs and Immigration officials plus ATC officers, and off-duty airline staff all muck in to the same extent?
It's what 'we did' back then....