Guernsey
 

In the mid 60's Guernsey was a very popular destination for UK holiday makers as this was before package holidays took off. During the Summer the island was serviced by a number of airlines from various destinations.
How things have changed with only 2 airlines now offering regular sevices.
In those we days we had the following airlines and destinations:
Aurigny - JER-ACI and Granville
BEA - JER-LHR-LGW-BHX-MAN-GLA
BKS - LBA
BMA - EMA(CDD) then-LTN and STV (Gloucester Staverton)
BUA - JER-SOU-LGW-EXT and Cherbourg (Car ferry)
Cambrian - CWL-BRS-LPL
Channel - SEN -BOH -STN (ZSD) then and PME (Portsmouth)
Rousseau- DND and St Brieuc

Hi v812, is the DND the old code for Dinard, or Dundee as it currently is? Not being a smart-arse - I know there are some on here who like to point out mistakes in codes - just wondering if Dundee had service to Guernsey. As you say Guernsey was a very popular holiday destination back in the day (and still one of my personal favourites now :) )

Don’t forget Morton Air Services from Gatwick with Doves & Herons. Guernsey has never had a service from Dundee. We also had an infrequent service, from Birmingham, I think, operated by Don Everall with DC3s. Channel also operated, at least occasionally, from Rochester & Ipswich.

I have a memory of a short lived Dublin route on Manx Airlines in the early 1990s, do I have that right? I recall a Saturday flight one Shorts 360.
Hope to visit one day, been to Jersey a few times but not Guernsey.

Air UK used to operate a summer service from. BFS in the 90s

Here Here...lovely island

I used Blue Islands new servcice from GCI to LPL last year, was great, hope it returns some day soon. Going back a bit Air Corbiere did the route stopping at Coventry or Staverton en route.

They did a Stansted service too

At weekends Mortons took the newspapers in and came back with flowers in DC3s.

Yes should have been DNR for Dinard.
I remember Transair doing the newspapers with DC-3 and Viscount. First aircraft I ever went on to help offload newspapers as my dad was a newsagent.
Also remember regular BEA Argosy bringing in equipment for Tektronix

Thanks v812, I had a suspicion it was although if Staverton had a service then Dundee was a possibility! I know that Aurigny only relatively recently ceased their Guernsey-Dinard service, which was a long-running route.

Don't forget that Aurigny re-connected Guernsey with Cherbourg after the BUAF Bristol Freighter service ended. Also it might be worth including Haywards Aviation with regular flights to Shoreham using PA27s around 1970. When there were more passengers a Dove was used, later an Islander.

The also did CWL, LBA, NWI, & I remember the 146 departing GCI on summer Saturdays to ZRH.
KLM uk did AMS


I recall that for a veryshort period Air UK's Channel Island flights were branded Air UK Channelhopper

EI-BUD, yes, your memory is good. Manx operated a Guernsey-Dublin-Guernsey Saturday service in their Summer 1994 timetable from 18 June to 17 September. The timetable indicates that the scheduled aircraft was a J41.

My previous post seems to have disappeared, so I’ll try again. I am pretty certain that the a/c used was a SH36, with possibly a FK50 (although this may have been Cork to Jersey). I never saw a Jetstream on the route . I have photos of some Sheds in EIN c/s. My memory is of the service lasting for two seasons, but would happily concede that it might have only been one.

Going back to Rousseau from Dinard; the early services (in the 60s) we’re operated by Dragon Rapide & Jodel D140. Surely one of the last Rapide services anywhere ?

Was there not an airline called Guernsey Airlines? which amongst other places flew to NCL

Yes indeed that was bought out by ILG Air Europe - eventually to become Air Europe express - In turn became CityFlyer after AE's demise

Just had a quick rummage through my box of old timetables and found Aer Lingus, Summer 1986. Dublin to Guernsey Sundays from 1 June to 30 September. No aircraft listed but "Commuter Service" shown in italics. The Aer Lingus F50s didn't enter service until early 1989 so no doubt operated by S360. Flight time shown as 1 hr 55 mins!! No sign of this service in any other year around that time.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....849e70697c.jpg
Following on with a rummage through some old slides - BEA (remember them?) Argosy on the apron pre-new tower, ILS, and lots of other "improvements". Taken from the old tower, aka the top floor of the terminal building.

Went on a couple of flights on Britannia B737-200 into Guerney when transporting school children on ski trips. On 1 occasion went flight deck LTN-MUC-GCI-MUC-LGW.
Great day out ,had 2 .30 on ground in Guernsey for crew change who arrived on G-BRIT light aircraft. As a result was able to go home and see my parents for Sunday lunch.
We were empty back to MUC but on take off just as we rotated we hit a sea gull just below flight deck window, almighty bang.fortunately all ok except for a very red mess on the fuselage when we inspected it at MUC.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e28319b2bc.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....97e76ebd6e.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5ea43a675d.jpg
V812, I found these pics on the Guernsey Airport of Yesteryear F/book group, maybe you were on one of these machines..?

Thanks Jerbourg. I was on G-BHWF 06 Apr 1986

Aer Lingus operated one season on the Dublin - Guernsey - Dublin route. All flights were operated by Shorts 360s with the callsign EIN462/463.

I remember in the 70s a large number of viscounts and Heralds ; What a great noise they made
BMA could have 3 or four viscounts parked up on a saturday , EMA, BHX LTN and SEN
BIA had heralds from Exeter , Southampton and Gatwick
British Airways viscounts to LHR and MAN
Dan Air HS748s to Bournemouth, Leeds, Bristol
Intra Airways ; DC3 to Gloucester and Cambridge
Aurigny ; Trislander and Islander only to AUR, JER Dinard and Cherbourg

bmaviscount - You might like this image that I also 'nicked' from the above mentioned Facebook group

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....860bd29569.jpg

Remember working one Summer Sunday in Guernsey for Channel Airways normally Guernsey always fogged out before Jersey. On this occasion Guernsey was ok and Jersey fogged.
In the space of 20 minutes we have 4 Channel viscounts divert in from Jersey. After awhile the Station Manager convinced Ops that Jersey wouldn't open so we would take 1 of the Viscounts and clear all our passengers routing it Gci-Boh-Stn-Sen. We then put approx 300 passengers down to the harbour to get the 1800 ferry to Jersey. At about 1830 3 Viscounts ferried empty to Jersey as their weather had now cleared !!! Oh happy days.

Wow transported back to my childhood ; rare for so much BAF!

Around that time there was also JF Airlines to/from Shoreham with their splendid Twin Pioneers !

I remember as a young travel agent in the 80s booking some passengers from Shoreham to Jersey on a Jersey European Twin Otter, they would have normally gone from Gatwick but had left it to the last minute so everything booked up, but the Shoreham route had some seats left and got them to the C I for the weekend.

At about that time, I booked the family to Alderney. Shoreham was full, so booked from SOU. A month before travel, the Grand Hotel on Alderney burned down, so I left it for a couple of weeks and phoned to see if there were any cancellations from Shoreham. No joy, but the lady confirmed that it was an islander on the route. I asked if they could put on a Trislander. One minute, she said, and came back saying that was possible, and changed us. I felt as important as the chairman of BA.

How good is that !

I flew that twin otter route from Shoreham it used to touch down in Alderney on route

(JE even flew a twin otter from Stansted at one point)

Air Sarnia tried the hop via Alderney later with a connection from Bournemouth using trislanders

I seem to remember Aurigny operating GCI-CFR for a short time.

AUR certainly tried Jersey to Caen for a short while, but I don't remember them operating from Guernsey. But, I could be wrong.

There is already a live Guernsey thread on AAR - I imagine mods need to merge or close it.

https://www.pprune.org/airlines-airp...ernsey-21.html

At the risk of straying further into the realms of aviation history, to my knowledge Aurigny never operated GCI - CFR; only from JER. Here's another thread on historic Aurigny routes https://www.pprune.org/aviation-hist...ny-routes.html

kcockayne

Ah, maybe that's what I was thinking about. (The depths of my mind are are bit 'fuddled' these days) :)

Same for a lot of us, Jerbourg ! Your contributions are always valued, though.