Blue Islands-2
 

It looks as though Blue Islands may need to source or lease in another ATR in order to operate their planned S21 schedule as it is currently, with the new bases in Southampton and Exeter starting. They currently have 4x ATR72-500's and a single ATR42-300. The following is planned from each base:

Exeter (1 a/c)

Manchester - 14 weekly
Jersey - 7 weekly

Guernsey (1 a/c)

Southampton - 29 weekly

Jersey (3 a/c)

Birmingham - 11 weekly
Bristol - 12 weekly
East Midlands - 7 weekly
Guernsey - 25 weekly
Newquay - 3 weekly
Southampton - 23 weekly
Zurich - 1 weekly (with what appears to be a fuel stop on the outbound!)

Southampton (1 a/c)

Dublin - 7 weekly
Manchester - 19 weekly

One suspects that the additional a/c will need to be based in JER, as 1 of the 3 will be the ageing ATR42 that (in normal times) would operate the inter-island hops to GCI?

The outbound Zurich flight routes via Guernsey in order to collect pax. The return to Jersey is direct with pax for Guernsey continuing on to Guernsey on a scheduled Jersey to Guernsey flight.

So will Blue Islands have to recruit more staff for the exeter and southampton bases, or will they just have the same amount of crew and make the current crews nightstop at the
new exeter and southampton bases, or has this not been decided yet.........

Well in both locations there will be no shortage of ex Flybe crew, most who will presumably be quite willing to get back into the skies. Hopefully a small number will be recruited in each location.

One other thought, I wonder how much longer the ATR42 will last them, the internet seems to indicate it is around 30 years old - it must be one of the earliest ones still in the air!

Let's not get too carried away yet...

Recruitment at Exeter had already been carried out with contract start dates being offered from August 2020... obviously this was deferred till October 2020 in light of current affairs and then again till summer 2021.