Blue Islands
 

Cancellations
Bound to be many disgruntled pax today with a lot of cancelled flights at Jersey. Two a/c appear to be unavailable (ATR42 G-ISLH and ATR72 G-ISLL), all services being operated by ATR72s G-ISLI and -ISLK. Meanwhile ATR42 G-ISLF appears to be doing multiple charters. Is this how the airline plans to make money, cancelling schedules and giving priority to charter work which is probably more lucrative?

"Make Money". Why change a habit of a lifetime ?

I remember the Blue Islands MD always used to spout the 'we always have a spare aircraft available in times of delay' line - not anymore it seems.

I remember a certain Mr Branston spouting "4 Engines For Long Haul" ... Not anymore it seems!

When you have a fleet of 5 aircraft, and 2 of them are out of service. It's difficult for the 1 spare aircraft to cover both!

Can you elaborate on "a lot of cancelled flights"? How many exactly? If 2 aircraft were still running the schedule, it can't have been that many given their schedule. Also I would've thought there would've been rebooking options to later flights given their network.

If the aircraft was assigned to a charter, then it should do a charter. It's likely for a sports team this time of year. Should they have cancelled the charter and the result being a game being cancelled?

They are a business...

It's called operational decisions, they aren't picking on you...

Operational decisions....
Yes, always a handy excuse. Perhaps I should have said "a lot of inconvenience" rather than "a lot of cancelled flights" but if some flights were cancelled, others were 2-3 hours late - obviously for "operational reasons". This morning's GCI-SOU-GCI were cancelled as no aircraft was available.
This is an airline supposedly committed to the Channel Islands. Those who have been inconvenienced with cancelled flights will not take kindly to the news that one aircraft was happily engaged in transporting a football team from Manchester to Southampton on Friday as well as doing other charters - whether or not G-ISLF was earmarked in advance for these trips. If two aircraft were out of service, were any efforts made to obtain a replacement? The point is that we have an airline which is not committed to maintaining reliable scheduled services.

But did he get himself in a pickle? :}

Getting coat....

On one day?

And Flybe are better?
Try catching a train in the UK....

Any airline is a commercial business, at the start of each day they have X amount of passengers to shift and by the end of each day it is nice if they have managed to achieve that.

But it doesn't always go so easily and the one thing an airline should not do is become personally involved, I have no idea of Blue Islands business but perhaps the football charters are luctrative business and/or there is such a penalty clause in the contract in the event that they should fail to deliver, on the other hand the Channel Islands are their core business although many of these passengers will be tourists who have no plans to visit the islands or utilise Blue Islands ever again.

A commercial decision was made by people employed to make such decisions ... end of!

As I intimated, somewhat tongue in cheek, in my previous comment; Blue Island don’t make money - &, to my knowledge, never have. All that they are doing, somewhat haphazardly, is trying to raise their revenue. Unfortunately for them, they are a predominantly Channel Island based carrier - see Aurigny’s rather dismal performance for a further illustration of the associated problems of this. I wish them well, but they will never find it easy !

[QUOTE=

on the other hand the Channel Islands are their core business although many of these passengers will be tourists who have no plans to visit the islands or utilise Blue Islands ever again.
QUOTE]

Channel Islands.. many tourists.. November? :=
The majority of SI passengers all year round are islanders who need & should get a reliable service.

Well ain't life a bitch!

But are not willing to pay the fares that would mean it would be more reliable.

Any operator in the CI has to sink way way more cancelled flights compared to other areas due wx.

Even though the punters get their cash back and don't get compensation (they wouldn't on the mainland either) the crew and aircraft and all the fixed costs still have to be paid.

All hell would be let loose if a realistic ticket price was given.

The fiasco that is blue Islands on a weekend has to be addressed. If the rumours of taking aircraft from the scheduled service and using them on lucrative charters is true, what does Flybe have to say about it, after all they are franchised to flybe operating in their colours and website. A colleague of mine was travelling via Southampton to Scotland on business, the flight was nearly 2 hours late, she missed her connection and the meeting she was due to attend. Not too impressed.
Hint when booking on Flybe website from the CI look for flight numbers with 3 digits as they are the Flybe aircraft not the 4 digit flight number, who are blue Islands.

They won't be taking them from the schedule more likely they will be taking them away from the engineers.

Which will mean they will go tech later on usually at the most inconvenient time for all.

like it or not Flybe won't care, lets face it before the BCI thing they shut all the bases down in the CI.

The only reason before the service was as good/poor as it was, was their hands were tied getting crew back to base. Mainland crews and fog in CI the flights will be getting cancelled and the aircraft used to cover other routes with tech issues. Its a small market in the CI and your a captive market with very little choice.

I suppose there is always the ferry :)

You should try the Isles of Scilly mate :)

Yep and any of the other island services. Loganair get exactly the same bitching about thier service levels and prices.

It's just a fact of life and cost of living on an island

JER -GCI schedules

I remeber the days aurigny used to run regular trislanders between the islands
It always seemed odd putting ATRs on the route
The schedule now seems hopeless on the route especially if you want to connect with JER -UK services from GCI as they dont go at regular intervals

I know they tried to run a survey locally recently on this issue
What do locals think of the service?
Is there simply no demand?

The biggest question is what can you replace the tri with that's any where near costs effective.

Anything that pressurised gets murdered on cycles between the Islands.

Same with the engines if they are turbines.

I presume the capital hit per start and sector is spread over an ATR's worth of punters. Anything smaller and the ticket price would cause outrage.

Anything that shouts it might be ok to use is dead eg Shorts 360.

SOUR GRAPES:
As a result of the 'Open Skies' decision made by the States of Guernsey yesterday, Blue Islands have already announced a cut in their schedules with effect from the winter timetable. As for moving the aircraft to more profitable routes can DC tell us what these routes are? This is a joke, as all it means is that the aircraft will spend longer on the ground - I cannot see that JER to BRS/LCY are big moneyspinners & as they have act Flybe on the JER-SOU route too they are as in such competition with them & DC doesn't like competition. A few months ago Blue were after operating GCI-BRS against Aurigny but were refused a licence, now we have Open Skies what's now stopping them from doing?

It seems to me that the threat of competition (which will never arrive) is a good excuse to start winding down the airline - DC's s ego (and wallet) have until now always kept it afloat, now he has the excuse he needs... Blue have never been that popular with the local community, but sadly there is no other choice if you want to fly to SOU or JER.

https://gsy.bailiwickexpress.com/gsy.../#.W1Ie3dJKjIV

If, (& hopefully they don't) Flybe cease trading would Blue Islands be able to continue flying?
I ask this as they wouldn't have access to a reservations system on which would be all existing bookings &
therefore their revenue stream.

How quickly could an airline set up a new system to handle future bookings?

I'm thinking it could be just the excuse DC is looking for to say 'Thank You & Goodnight?'

ATR72 G-ISLM
Recently delivered, this aircraft has not been painted into Flybe colours. Instead it is mainly white with "Blue Islands" titles. Why is this? (1)Is the uncertain future of Flybe the reason why it does not have Flybe titles? (2)Are Blue Islands looking to exit the franchise? (3)A revised Flybe purple has slowly begun to appear, and -LM could have had this applied - or is this new scheme to be short-lived with a change of ownership in the offing? Any thoughts, anybody? The long-term future of Blue Islands has been raised for a while with DC showing signs of giving it up.

They already have an aircraft in Flybe colours so i don't see why they need more or that it's any indication of a change of relationship.

"An aircraft in Flybe colours"?? Actually three - G-ISLI, -ISLK & -ISLL. The only frame in Blue Islands colours is ATR42 G-ISLH.
My point was that the most recent acquisition has not followed the pattern of the two previous frames - i.e. being painted directly into the Flybe scheme. It is more a case of reverting to what Blue Islands was before the franchise commenced.

Could be because Blue Islands do some charter work for footlball teams etc, that a stipulation of the contract is the ability to offer an unbranded aircraft?

For example, the current Stobart contract from the Isle of Man dictates that should a replacement be used.. Just a thought though but probably more closely linked to the airline still having some control over its identity or a clause in the contract agreeing to a certain number of aircraft in franchise colors.

An interesting thought - thanks. Until recently the airline had very little identity outside of Flybe. I can only think the decision not to slap Flybe across the airframe is somehow connected with the uncertain future of Flybe.

Possibly, although given the delivery of the ATR coincided with the announcement of Flybe's revised livery, they held off until confirmation? Given the aircraft is all white with blue engines, I can only assume that cost played a factor, as a full purple treatment on this sized aircraft is in excess of £25K...

Could be many other reasons - needing to get it in service quickly, lack of an available slot at a suitable painting facility, requirement of owners/lessors, etc

As it happens, Blue Island happily operate football charters in the BE coloured a/c - LL brought Wolves to Newcastle at the weekend.

The 3 existing Blue Island AT72's are in Flybe Purple, only the 1 remaining AT42 isn't (the other was but has I believe left the fleet to make way for the "new" AT72)

Correct. That was G-ISLF.
Can understand the cost of repainting being a factor for not painting -LM in the revised purple scheme.

According to FR24 LM hasn't flown since December 1, is there a major issue with it or is it being painted I wonder?

I was in SOU and GCI yesterday (flying there and back in ISLI) and didn't see ISLM.​​​

The purple AT42 ISLF was ferried to Malta around the end of November I think.

Actually - 3rd October. Time flies!! ;)

I think the ATR's go to Germany for major maintenance, if I'm wrong some one will correct me I hope. :)

I wonder where the takeover will leave the franchise operation?
Interesting times ahead methinks.