Channel Connect Airways
 

Are apparently backed by the American Global Group and will operate 6 ATR, 2 BAe 146's and 2 EMB145, to European destinations as well as a few select UK routes.

This Operation has nothing to do with Blue Islands or Aurigny.

Details are available through Aviation world.

Seems far fetched...........but hey anything can happen !!

Watching from afar, I wondered what Coates's exit strategy would be, I think he's just revealed it.

I don't think a merger would be Coates exit route, as any merger would have to involve Blue Islands purchasing Aurigny not the other way round. Surely the States are not stupid enough to buy another airline. hmmmm :}

New Chanel islands Airline????
 

Does anyone have any further or concrete news regarding this new company? strange in this climate to jump into a market with 3 carriers already fighting it out on the islands. Also are Blue Islands looking to switch to an ATR fleet replacing the Jetstreams etc. :ok:

Anybody know who the American Global Group are?

Amercian Global seem to be a freight shipping company

Question to skiptoit
 

When you say it looks worse from the inside than from the outside, are you talking about the company or the 'new' (very old) ATR42?

The "new" ATR42 is only 23 years old, quite young compared to the average Trislander!

Well yes, but they have all been re-winged and have done less hours! (Just a few more sectors)

A quick look at the "Teen Fakes Airline" thread in the Jet Blast forum should draw a very conclusive line under this "Channel Connect Airways" nonsense!

Blue ATR
 

G-DRFC has now been painted up in Blue Islands colours - looks pretty good for its age!!

G-DRFC ATR-42 arriving at Guernsey for the first time in Blue Islands colours on the 19th July, 2009 - the first ATR42 and the largest Blue Islands aircraft to date. :: G-DRFC ATR42 Blue Islands.jpg

Looking good !! :D First of many I hope :)

Do we know what routes the ATR is going to be operating?

Guernsey-Jersey initially & I expect eventually it will appear on the Southampton route too. London City is on the (distant) horizon so it (or a second machine) will no doubt appear there. Winter ski flights to Geneva are also planned for Foxtrot Charlie. Let's hope the machine is reliable as I don't know what Blue will do for back up if it goes mega tech.

Hmmm, it's similarly aged sistership G-IONA is about to be scrapped, so if this is an indication :{

hmm a 23 year old ATR42 flying many short sectors a day, not so good for the pressure cycle count meethinks.
Also is G-IONA really about to be scrapped?? That was the younger of the two!

That's at least what Jethros is reporting. According to his website, G-IONA ferried CVT-EDI in early June and is to be broken up.

As for it being younger than G-DRFC, it can only be a matter of months, with IONA being c/n 17 and DRFC c/n 7. Some of the oldest ATR42s still around.

On whose AOC is G-DRFC being operated? Apparently Atlantic Express surrendered its AOC earlier in the year.

It will be on the Blue AOC I believe, hence the need for a proving flight with the CAA on board. This will take place in about 10 days time, Guernsey - Lon City.

The LCY bit is interesting, I must say. Although if Blue Islands should really have plans for LCY in store, I wonder why they do not use the smaller Dornier 328. Not sure if GCI can fill an ATR42 if JER has difficulties filling a daily Fokker 50. But maybe the destination for the proving flight does not me anything anyway :eek:

By the way, does the ATR42 need some modifications for LCY ops? Or am I correct in remembering that said aircraft also operated for bmi on LBA-LCY and tuhs should be LCY capable anyway?:confused:

Its called the steep aproach mod to allow for the greater slope. Yes it would have been modifyed as where all the Air Wales fleet. However a one off flight to LCY seams strange as there is considerable training required before ops into LCY especially for a new operator.

DRFC
 

DRFC was used on Euromanx services a few years ago. I believe it may well have operated into LCY from IOM during that time.

Did a quick search - G-DRFC is indeed the aircraft that was used by bmi for its short-lived LBA-LCY route.

Photos: ATR ATR-42-300 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

I don't think it ever operated for Euromanx on a regular basis as the Euromanx ATR42s were Dutch examples operated by TTA. The Euromanx ATRs also left before flights to LCY started (operated with Dash 8s). Maybe it has flown on an ad hoc basis for Euromanx. Let's wait and see what plans Blue Islands has - I don't think GCI-JER is an ideal route to be operated with an ATR42.

G-DRFC did fly for Euromanx on a fairly regular basis during the period when they were expanding too quickly, but had hardly any aircraft or crew of their own. I recall that it had a strange colour scheme at that time, with palm trees on the tail.

G-IONA was used by Euromanx to launch their LCY-IOM route (in 2005?)when they took over from BE and the promised RJ-70's hadn't arrived. It was around for several months.

You are absoultely right. Just had a quick flip through new book on the history of Euromanx by Edwards/Lo Bao and it lists three Atlantic ATR42s and also an ATR72 as being operated for Euromanx at one point or the other. There is a nice picture of G-DRFC taking off from IOM. The "palm tree" livery on G-DRFC was a promotional livery for bmi's Caribbean services from MAN - for sure causing great enthusiasm at LBA where the ATR42 was based.

Virginblue, I think the reason Jersey doed not do to well with its loods on the LCY route is due to timings of the scehdule. I think I am correct in saying it arrives in Jersey approx 1000 & departs at about 1700. This gives any businessman only about 5 hours at his desk allowing for travelling times to/from his office.

Maybe SI have a joint GCI-JER-LCY planned?

VLM generally carry 20-30 pax on the JER-LCY service; not a massive load but their fares aren't overly cheap, especially for last minute bookings which is what the vast majority of bookings are.

Either way I doubt they'll carry on with the service when VLM get completely absorbed into AF/CityJet; I'm sure they won't take too kindly to an a/c sat in Jersey all day with an 'on duty' crew in a hotel.

I think a GCI-JER-LCY rotation would work, especially if VG/AF can the current service. Although not the direct link that Guernsey pax would prefer, it would make the service much more viable.

Is there potential LCY slot availability though to allow the service to operate at sensible times?

VLM initially provided 3 (or even 4) roundtrips JER-LCY with a schedule that more or less was tailored around the requirements of business travellers. The once-daily off-peak flight is the result of this far more impressive schedule being cut back because of poor bookings. So it does not seem to be too likely that things would improve with a better schedule (although the facts that well-timed VLM-flights could now offer connections with other AF/KL flights and that the LHR service has disappeared might make the flights more attractive than in the past).

Flybe have applied to the Guernsey licencing authority to operate:
Guernsey-Belfast
Guernsey-Newcastle
Guernsey-Edinburgh
I wonder if these will be direct routes or triangular via Jersey?

Good to see somebody wanting to open new routes from the island at last.

Go Flybe!

Belfast City (2x weekly) and Edinburgh (3x weekly) are already available on the Flybe booking agent. The schedules are as followed:

BE1211 BHD GCI 09:50 11:25 (W.)
BE1212 GCI BHD 11:50 13:20 (W.)

BE1211 BHD GCI 14:40 16:15 (Sa.)
BE1212 GCI BHD 16:40 18:10 (Sa.)

BE1194 EDI GCI 10:50 12:40 (Tu.)
BE1195 GCI EDI 13:05 14:45 (Tu.)

BE1194 EDI GCI 09:50 11:40 (Th.)
BE1195 GCI EDI 12:05 13:45 (Th.)

BE1194 EDI GCI 14:35 16:25 (Sa.)
BE1195 GCI EDI 16:50 18:30 (Sa.)

Newcastle is yet to be released, but none of the routes appear to be a triangular via Jersey. It is pleasing to see Guernsey finally receive some additional services, and backed by local tour operators, hopefully these routes will be successful. They are untapped markets from the Island so I would imagine that there should be good demand.

Delay on Stansted flight
 

Anyone know why the GR flight Guernsey to STN today, went tech?

Flybe LGW schedules 2010
 

Good to see Flybe reinstituting an evening 20.10 departure to LGW.
Was always a shame when the last chance out of the island was barely tea time!
Evening departures were last seen when BA were around

Airport pavements redevelopment project
 

I notice that the States have recently advertised seeking 'Expressions of Interest' from consultancies, to provide a Project Manager for 'a £50 million+ pavements redevelopment project at Guernsey Airport'.

Presumably this means that decisions have now been taken regarding which of the various options is proposed. Does anyone know whether this includes any extension of runway length, or of the overrun lengths?

Last i heard, they were going to leave the runway length the same, but effectively move it all to the west a bit to increase the safety area at east end.

Thanks. If this is what is eventually done, I feel it should improve safety margins for landings in the prevailing 27 direction, and this is presumably the main reason. I have always felt that La Villiaze Road seemed a liitle close to the threshold, when driving along it underneath incoming aircraft!

Runway Project
 

You can see full details of the proposals on Guernsey Airport website: http://www.guernsey-airport.gov.gg/A...2%20July09.pdf

which gives a copy of the slides used at the public meeting. Option C was chosen, Deputy Kuttelwascher's plan, which displaces the runway to west and planes off mound rather than build it up, with consequent cost saving.

I believe final ratification will be required by the states once tenders have beenn received. Let's hope this doesn't go the same way as the Incinerator!

Pete Andre

Thank you for posting this link, it clarifies the options in sufficient detail to understand what was being considered and assessed. The 1463m runway of Option C looks sensible to me (retired consulting engineer), and it appears that the alternative Option C (1700m runway) with all work at the eastern end, was going to be very unpopular because of its effect on La Villiaze Road! Worth considering, but best forgotten now.

Regarding the Longue Houge incinerator project, the recent vote to drop it was a very close-run thing (21 for, 20 against), but I feel it is the right decision. 'Apples and Oranges', the runway work is crucial, burning rubbish is not.

Summer flights
 

Does anyone have any news on this summers charter flights Cityjet (VLM), Lufthansa etc?

No Lufthansa this year I hear.

CityJet are operating all the charter flights this summer - Rotterdam, Hannover and Frankfurt.

Runway Closures
 

I see there are plans to close Guernsey Airport for a couple of days at a time during vital phases of the runway rebuild.

Just wondering if they might consider a helicopter link over to Jersey during these times to allow passengers to commute. There was a similar arrangement (in reverse) when Jersey rebuilt its runway in the mid-60s.

No, probably too simple a measure for politicians to consider!