Oh for the really old days when Jersey was second only to Heathrow for aircraft movements. I was lucky enough to be employed during the summers of 1963/4 as a ship’s papers runner for Jersey Airlines and then as a Traffic Officer for BUA(CI) for 10 months in 1965. During these times there were a constant stream of aircraft arriving and departing especially the weekends. I remember well some of the more memorable days with for example six Eagle Vikings arriving from Blackbush for a large company’s (Colgate?) staff outing at 5 minute intervals, appearing at high power, climbing up over the 09 threshold having let down over the sea to get under the surface level cloud or days with gales necessitating the use of runways 31/13 with the traffic lights by the BEA maintenance hangers or very occasionally the north/south runway which was (just) usable by the Dakota. Then there were days when an anxious watch was kept on the steeple of St. Peters church – if the top was visible then there was a good chance of aircraft arriving.
All this was done within the confines of the old airport building with a small side extension where the present departures hall stands where BEA had their check-in area. Many was the time when there were several hundred people sleeping on the terminal floor when flying was canceled for the day.
There were three handling companies in those days, BEA, Jersey Airlines (BUA(CI)) and Channel Airways, the busiest being BUA. We worked with a shift of around 6 traffic officers and a slightly larger number of loaders and seldom got the chance of more than a 5 minute break in an 8 hour shift which was often extended considerably. There were many great characters who I subsequently saw for many years after when I had become a BEA pilot and was on turn-round there.
Of course the aircraft capacities were much smaller then the majority being Heralds, Daks and Vikings and a few Viscounts. Some were considerably smaller such as the Dove, Heron and Marathon. The largest aircraft we handled were the Argonauts of British Midland with 70+ seats although BEA used the 100+ Vanguard from Heathrow. A rare sight was a PanAm DC-6 which did ad hoc cattle charters to the USA via Shannon.
In those days the popular beaches like St. Brelade's were crowded like anthills with standing room only at high tide. Then came the era of cheap package holidays to the Med. with guaranteed weather and little chance of a night on the terminal floor and the movement numbers have been on the decline ever since.