24Right, I quite agree wth your comment. The amount of Class A airspace around the Channel Islands is disproportionate to the amount of traffic. It seems like you have flown half the way to America when you fly from GUR to skery, and there is rarely any other traffic around. It is about 40 miles of totally unnecessary Class A airspace.
The reason is political. Technically from 50N (southwards) the airspace is French, but historically the Channel Islands have had possession of it. I don't pretend to know whether it is "leased" , but I do know that the Island authorities are concerned that if they don't have Class A airspace from 49N to 50N, the French will grab it back, and the Islands, particularly Jersey, will lose out financially, as they currently receive a lot of money from Eurocontrol.
So it looks like we are stuck with this chunk of airspace, but surely they could make it all Class D under FL100,and just leave it lass A from FL100 to FL 195?
Fortunately, the Jersey ATC are excellent and very helpful, so no one should ever fear flying to Jersey just because there is this controlled airspace.