Wow, the Scillonian is the same company as Skybus and they won't transfer tickets!

Get some competition in there, BN2 or DHC6 operator from NQY, last I checked Bodmin was a licensed airfield, it doesn't cost GBP100 for one way travel to from the islands to operate and Bodmin, despite it's weather problems, has a mainline rail station

virginblue

pretty much correct -

in the old day of BEA/BA s61's they served both the islands ISC and TSO and not some fat cats who are now having a major
cat fight!

My understanding is that they transfer tickets, but do no longer refund the difference between the much more expensive airfare and the cost of the trip by its passenger ship as they did in the past.

Well as they say weather is an act of god and we can rebook you on the next available service in a day or few from now, technical or similar the we can refund you in full .,.. I'm in a similar business myself and can understand that.

The Tresco Estate have just confirmed that the ISSCo helicopter service will not serve Tresco in 2018. The heliport is Tresco is closed and will not be ready for service until 2019 when hopefully the new Penzance heliport is open.

If that is what Skybus are doing in bad weather then I think they need to have a serious re-read of the EU 261 regulations.

That is their take on it:

http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/tr..._Statement.pdf

The letter as it stands is non-compliant with the EU regulations and it would be interesting if anyone chose to challenge it.

In the event of a cancellation for whatever reason, the carrier is obliged to re-route the passenger to their intended destination under comparable transport conditions - which is held to be by air. Clearly this may not be possible if the next flights with seats available are several days away.

If the carrier is re-routing via transport conditions which are not comparable - an air journey is undertaken by ferry instead - then it has taken the step to fully refund the passenger for their air journey and rebook them. ISSCo should therefore be refunding the difference between the airfare and the ferry fare, less any reasonable costs for transport of customers between the airport and the ferry pier which it may provide.

The current policy is wishful thinking by someone on the basis of what they'd like EU261 to say, not what it actually does say and require.

Rival helicopter link to Isles of Scilly 'cannot land'
 

Rival helicopter link to Isles of Scilly 'cannot land' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-43182903


cs

The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company control all commercial transport to the Scillies, whether it be air or sea, passenger or cargo. They also own Land's End Airport, which makes the possibility of anyone else starting up a service from there unlikely as they can pretty much block it any way they like -hence why the people behind the new heliport scheme were not at all keen on running it from there even before weather considerations were taken into account.

Bodmin may be licensed but not, I think, for airline ops. Newquay is the only viable alternative.

It would be great for someone to start up a BN or DH6 service ex NQY and offer codeshares and onward connections to allow through bookings.

It would open the islands up to much more traffic.

Float plane anyone?

**ahem cough**

Brymon did it from back in the 1970's via NQY or PLH (and EXT too i think) to LHR or LGW using the Herald and Dash 7 (lovely a/c)

I handled BC at LHR 1977-1985 good times
always loved it when pax turned up with a ticket LHR-NQY-ISC and we tagged their bags right through to the island

sometimes we got interliners from ISC to NQY then into LHR on the evening service bound for CPT BKK or SYD - bags tagged through and we would do a tarmac transfer for the pax straight to their SAA or QF jumbo on the T3 stands
happy days

I worked for Brymon 82-85, they operated LHR to PLH & NQY with onward connection and from LGW to EXT & PLH ditto, they also operated from EMA & BHX to LGW to connect with the ex LGW services etc., later they operated BRS/NQY/ISC ... they couldn't do BRS/ISC direct cos no fuel available on ISC. ... Oh back in the old days :)

Brymon
fred taylor and his daughter heather was cabin crew Herald on LHR
CP was harry Gee - saw him do the London Dash 7 Stol landing on the royal docks 1982/3?
keith bastard (he came to us in BD eventually on the viscount)
colin henshall to name a few

also ISSCo used to do direct SOU flights to ISC (did they have to stop at EXT?)

I remember flying as a pax SOH -ISC direct in a Twin Otter it was virtually full and the weather was not that good we were told we were going to nip into Plymouth to pick up a couple of pax that were stranded there but we carried out a missed approach having had no ground contact whatsoever and carried on to ISC breaking cloud at relatively low level I was watching the the DME indicator count up from LND beacon.My wife is a nervous flyer and really did not enjoy the lengthy flight! SOH was a very bad pax experience and they have done well to drop it.Eventually I noticed a change in the experience profile of the Twin Otter fleet and preferring not to be flown by Ray Ban clad teenagers we changed the annual flight to the BIH S61 operation for many happy and safe years.Overall the S61 was the safest and most reliable operator on what is a very challenging route we miss it greatly nowadays generally flying over in the family light aircraft if the weather is suitable.What a superb holiday destination but very expensive!

I recall Skybus operating a SOU route, Skybus do, or they did, have a stock of fuel on ISC whereas Brymon didn't so not sure if SOU was direct or not.

You say the S61 is the safest but not so, Brymon nor Skybus have lost an aircraft and lives on the route whereas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_B...sky_S-61_crash

SOU was via Newquay was never direct, Skybus used to advertise SOU as a quick and easy way of getting to London and the route usually had good loads but was rather long flight in the Twin Otter.

I remember them operating to Glasgow, this was the late 90s I'm sure as I was in the airport with work experience from School and I remember that one of the guys i was with said that it was the only aircraft that can technically push back itself