Jersey-2

[akerosid]

Great news if the JER-CDG route goes ahead.

Presumably given BE's past (present?) relationship with AF, they will time their flights to feed into the Air France's intercontinental departures?

There are more intercontinental destinations from CDG with AF than there are with BA from LHR.

At last, a break from that %&$!££! coach from LGW-LHR.

[Trihandle]

Wouldn't it make sense for VLM to use the Fokker 50 on a Mon to Fri service to Zurich as they have an aircraft sitting at Jersey airport for most of the day.

[GBALU53]

Blueislands third Jetstream arrived in the Channel Islands this morning.

The aircraft positioned over the pond via Prestwick and arrived in Guernsey at 0825utc this morning.

The reason for going to Guernsey is for Import paper work when completed the aircraft will position to Biggin Hill as per the first two.

The aircraft will be there for approx 5 weeks for radio work as the first two before the aircraft will arrive in Jersey for its last checks and airworthyness approval.

The aircraft was lucky to arrive in Guernsey as thirty minutes before Guernsey was in fog and below landing minima.

I understand that the registration G-ISLD has been reserved for this aircraft.

From information picked up by the end of the month the Jetstreams will be operating there charter programe at week ends mean other U.K. visits by these aircraft.

Good luck to them with this ambitios challange.:ok:

[LegsUpLucy]

Anymore info on the flybe CDG service,will it be q400 or 146?how many times a day?
Good to see sensible routes being annouced into europe at last..........:ok:

[Capt. J. Upgrade]

I think the Island is now very luck to have the Stansted route back into/out of the island. This route is connecting islanders to 150 destinations from Reykjavik to Malaga, from Budapest to New York!
There is such a variety thanks to our low cost friends Ryanair & easyJet.
I think Atlantic Express are using a good aircraft for the route as Aurigny's S340 just didn't suit the route.

[fredtheanorak]

Heard they'd shipped the ATR back up North and were doing flights with the flying cigar?? Good luck to them anyway- just don't stand up inside.

[GBALU53]

fredtheanorak and Atlantic

One ATR 42 is based Jersey, normally it is G-DRFC

The only time we have had a differant aircraft to operate the Stansted was over the world cup period when an Highlands Jetstream was based in Jersey for a little over a weekor so.

The story of the ATR moving back north looks like it has been misunderstood.

The Metro was due to come to Jersey a couple of weeks ago to operate a weekend charter to St Nazaire, due to unservicabilty of this aircraft, Jersey had a second ATR and after the charter i understand it went to Guernsey for a check of some kind and fitted well into the charter.:ok:

Things do get twisted as they pass through rumour control and sometimes people get it wrong big time.:ok: :ok:

[fredtheanorak]

Thanks GB53 always happy to stand corrected by a superior force. Did they have a problem getting Stanstead slots or were they able to pick-up the old GR ones?

[GBALU53]

fredtheanorak.

I donot think it would have been the slots that Aurigny gave up as there was a long period of time between Aurigny giving uo and Atlantic starting.

The Aurigny flights were at differant times as well.

When Air UK operated the route it took a little time to start to see good returns but the route was starting to show good figures before the company did some restructing and dropped the same thing with Aurigny as the aircraft and crew were based in Guernsey.

[LegsUpLucy]

Bear in mind when air uk did the STN service there was not the amount of flights from stansted that there are today so i'm sure if the fares are right it has great potential as a route for Atlantic.
The schedule times are good too,although air uk where carrying low pax numbers throughout the winter,maybe they just pitched the fares too high at the time.

[J-Guy]

For anyone that is interested, in tonight's JEP (24th July) there is a Flybe. supplement that states that talks are on-going with regards to the new Paris CDG route, however, Flybe. is optimistic that flights will begin in October with an announcement expected within the next few weeks. The flights will be from Jersey and Guernsey, 1x Daily, 6x Weekly. Further southern routes were hinted at as well for the future.

Looking at the Flybe. timetable my reckoning is that the service will be flown with the Guernsey based DH4. The winter timetable shows that the mid-morning Southampton flight switches from the GCI based Dash to an SOU based one, hence freeing up a period of 6 hours when the aircraft is free to fly to CDG.

All good news!

[akerosid]

Certainly, good and welcome news, but I'd be a lot happier if BE were to go the whole way and offer through check in (and fares) with Froggy-Baby to various worldwide destinations; the real importance of the new CDG route is that it gives JER intercontinental travellers the opportunity to interline directly onto worldwide routes without having to go via LGW/LHR and that awful coach service. Although it's outside their current operating method, the transiting/connecting pax could provide sufficient extra traffic to sustain the flights and build frequency - why throw that business away?

Don't they still have interline agreements with CO,VS etc. via LGW anyway?

[jerboy]

Hi guys, don't post much on here but has anyone noticed that today's EMA-JER-EMA flt arrived and departed via BHX. Thought maybe it'd be something up with teletext, but it all ties in with the live flight information on baby's website.

Anyone have any news on why?:confused:

[OltonPete]

Jerboy

I can't help with the reason other than the Jersey is usually the CDG-EMA
aircraft which was showing 5 hours late when I looked at midday.

The BHX based fleet have a couple of long turnaround times built in and it
is usually fairly easy to pull the BHX-NOC aircraft to cover any Mid-morning delays elsewhere (it has happened at least once this summer).

It usually involves delaying the Knock by 30-60 minutes waiting for the
PMI-BHX to come in. The Palma flight normally does the mid afternoon
Amsterdam and they can normally get the flights fairly well back on
sched by late afternoon. However the Knock is mainly a 733 and the Palma a 735 and if loads
are 131+ on the Knock it does not work.

It did not work in this instance if you check the Knock to BHX flight, as
it is about 3 hours late :{

At least the East Mids - Jersey pax didn't have to wait until the
Paris returned. I don't think I would have been too pleased if I was
on the BHX-NOC though.

[J-Guy]

Akerosid,
I don't believe that Flybe has any interlining agreements still in existence. There is still a code-share agreement with Continental at Belfast, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester for flights to Newark, which is of little help to Channel Islanders.

I understand what you are saying about the lack of any inter-lining agreement with other airlines at CDG, specifically Air France, and it is somewhat inconvenient; the result of this will be that the majority of connecting traffic will still operate through London for British Airways flights or for other airlines. But Flybe will still be offering the islands' only service to a major international hub (Gatwick is limited in its choice of destinations) which is a whole lot more convenient than the bus or taxi from Gatwick to Heathrow. It is not perfect but I still think that there will be considerable connecting traffic using Flybe’s CDG service for this reason alone.

The tourist market is going to help sustain the flights as well, both from the islands to Paris and vise versa. Jersey Tourism does concentrate heavily on the French market, as does Guernsey, so the new route should be of benefit. Interestingly, I do wonder what the effect of the new CDG flight will have on the small Twin Jet operation to Orly. I’d imagine that this is primarily is a business niche route (looking at the prices) that Flybe will possibly undermine being a much cheaper and better marketed airline in comparison?

[GBALU53]

Atlantic Airlines has applied to the CAA to wet lease five Ming Airlines Fokker 27s TC-MBA to TC-MBE.

This is due the late arrival of more ATPs.

Will we see them replace the Farnair ATR42?? which operate the mail flights from Coventry to Jersey and Guernsey.

Some of you will remeber two of these F27s TC-MBA is ex G-CEXE and TC-MBB is ex G-CEXF the ex Channel Express ones coming back to haunt the Channel Islands??

The application is for at least a year.

Who knows the Fokker 27 will be around for a year or two yet and every one looks forward to see differant operators aroud,:ok:

[GBALU53]

One of Flybes EMB195s should be in Jersey on September 15th.

The aircraft is booked into Jersey for handling trials and any other airport user to see the aircraft.

Only a week late for the Air Display what a shame as it could have been a star with the Arrows??

Could have been a good promotion oppertunity to have some air to air shoots but it is Flybes loss???

This is another big step for the company compared to twenty five years ago with Islands,Twin Otters and the little Bandi.

[five zero by ortac]

Does anyone have any news on Flybe's proposed Jersey to Paris CDG route.
Is it going ahead? When from? Times?
Seems to have gone very quiet.

[J-Guy]

Where does Jersey go after the loss of bmibaby flights to Durham Tees Valley? A big shock there; the summer flights have been a relative success and are popular with holiday-makers especially. It is definitely a route Jersey cannot afford to lose if they want to help revive tourism.

What other possibilities are there? Flybe could possibly restore regular flights to Newcastle again? Is Thomsonfly to Durham a possibility?

Just when there was a bit of optimism over the future of air services we get a blow like this. :confused: Hopefully the new Airport Director will be proactive in helping to restore frequent flights to the North East.

[OltonPete]

J-Guy

I would not be too surprised to see WW go BHX-JER if BHX get 2 new
based aircraft (not so sure if they get one), as it is a quick gap
filler if they want 8 sectors in a day.

Flybe have not really done much on the route other than re-direct
the early morning BHX - EDI for 8 weeks during the summer. Also
in the past it used to be 146's and I think it is now mainly Dash 8's.

[tilewood]

Hopefully the new Airport Director will be proactive in helping to restore frequent flights to the North East.


It's not the Airport Director who has the power to do this, it is the fact
that Jersey is not a loco destination. When pax can flog off to Spain Eastern Europe and the Med. for peanuts why should they fly to the CI paying pricey fares, and with no weather guarantee?

Wonderful though the Islands are, they still live in the past, in the fares
hotel amenities and costs that are prepared to offer.

In my opinion either Jersey becomes very upmarket and targets the premium traveller,
it goes loco and increases the numbers, or it paddles around in the middle and watches
its tourist market dwindle away!

The Jersey Deputies need to get a grip of this, something they have failed
to do since the 1980s.

[GBALU53]

J-GUY

Has BMI Baby confirmed that they Durham-Tees flight are stoped all together?

Over the years it has always been summer only.

Since it is not on the winter timetable 06/07 it could well start again for summer 2007????

With Flybe,s EMB comming into service shortly, big changes will be happining with the company reguarding aircraft and routes.

Companies are constantly reviewing routes and aircraft so it is not only Jersey but alround the world routes are stopping after only short periods and changes in aircraft.

Looking at the bigger picture for 2007 even Jersey can look forward not backwards as some people think they are still in the dark ages (politications) you cannot turn the clocks back to the seventies.

New routes are in the pipeline and with some changes in direction things are going to happen.

[jerboy]

OltonPete

Word is that CWL, MAN, EMA and CWL are getting an extra aircraft each, two of which from MME and another two joining the fleet (presumabley G-TOYI/J although I'm not sure where they are coming from.) It would be good to see a bit of competition on the JER-BHX, giving us something other than Flybe :D But whether baby could take a good enough market share is somewhat doubtful.

On another note, after speaking to a couple of WW staff (who are good sources) does anyone know about baby acquiring some 734's? Seems as if they've looked at quite a few but are struggling to get a deal on them.

[GBALU53]

It is offical that BMI are pulling out of Durham-Tees Valley due to poor loads.

This would release aircraft to go to other bases as commented by jerboy.

Jersey has had a long connection with EGNV and after the summer the only regular flight would be by the colaborator.

Whould FLYbe or Atlantic Express look at keeping a connection with up north?

Does any one know if the Cardiff service by Tompson operated by aer arran may operate through this comming winter?

[s_insania]

I don't see how their reason can be poor loads, there has to be more to it than that! The spanish flights were averaging around 80% full per flight. And with Baby about to start a new flight to
Amsterdam this winter plus the Geneva returning, I think that bmiBaby's reason is complete
and utter :mad:

[OltonPete]

Jerboy

It was rumoured on the Birmingham thread that they were looking at
734's only because of the lack of decent 733's.

It was also rumoured on a BHX forum but of course it could all be from the
same source.

Baby Jersey - BHX was rumoured I think on this thread for summer 2006
and there was a "spare" aircraft at BHX until 10.00 each Monday through Friday, which I thought was odd in the busiest period of the year.

However it never happened and aircraft sat on the ground for 12 hours
each night/morning - very useful for tech cover.

[J-Guy]

Looking at the CAA website, bmibaby was operating at around an 80% average load factor and showing 30/40% growth in passenger numbers on the previous year from Durham Tees Valley. I don’t know how profitable the flight was but the figures seem promising, showing that there is definately a gap that could be filled.

As for bmibaby to Birmingham, is there not too much capacity already? Flybe. operate the route 2x daily and there are daily Thomsonfly services from Coventry. I don't know what sort of impact another operator would have?
Does any one know if the Cardiff service by Tompson operated by aer arran may operate through this comming winter?
Dropped for the winter according to Thomsonfly's website, should return next summer with a 737 I guess.

[akerosid]

Yes, but Flybe are pretty expensive on this route; Bmibaby would certainly give them some much needed competition. A new operator would make the route more attractive (dare I say, considerably more attractive) and increase traffic on the route.

I also wonder if Aer Arann might be tempted to come in year-round; with Aer Lingus leaving for the Winter in a few weeks, surely RE could make a go of some routes from Jersey; even if it were just ORK, pax could connect there and on to various other destinations - Dublin, Belfast, Galway. It's taking delivery of a batch of '72s next year and looking for places to fly them ...

As for continental Europe, surely there's some potential there, besides CDG. As much as I welcome BE on this route, what a business destination like JER really needs is access to a major European hub; could a route to AMS be made to work, for example - a daily F50 service, connecting to/from KLM's worldwide network. If BE won't do it ...

[GBALU53]

With the loss of some more routes i would have at a guess any one looking at restarting will not do so until the start of summer 2007.

Not many compaies if any have spare capicity to just start something without have to reschedule a winter programme which starts in six weeks give or take a day.

On another note with all the problems Flybe has experienced this week and airtraffic delays due staffing levels at Swanick will the airport have to look at there opperating hours to help the airlines when the last aircraft are scheduled in with only ten minutes or so before close providing they are opperating to time.

The airport and the airlines in my oppinion should be working a lot closer to make things work and not have some of the barriers that crop up on a regular bassis.

The airport ,tourism,all bussineess need the airlines every one needs them the whole island needs to hang on to as much as possible.

[J-Guy]

Has anybody logged on to Coconut7 recently? Well the new website is up selling the ski charters but they are also offering a flight direct from Jersey to Dubai. Flight departs on 18th February with a 737-800. Really quite surprised with that news!

[GBALU53]

Looking at coconut7 i think it may be a front not an airline.:eek:

I may be wrong but you may find it is a travel agency or a group of agents and will sub in an aircraft as and when.

Looking at the date for Dubai i think this is half term and if the aircraft is a B737-800 i would think it may be opperated by Excel as they opperate the normal half term down to Paphos in Cyprus.

The sking flight by Airbus 321 i would think this to be Monarch as they have done ski trips from Jersey before with the A320.

Keep an eye on this and see what happens.

[LegsUpLucy]

Any news on this new hangar/corporate facility that is rumoured to be awaiting planning permission for the south side?

[akerosid]

BMI baby has announced that it's to expand flights to BHX next Summer with two new 737s; with any luck, JER might see some of them; JER needs a decent (i.e. reasonably priced) BHX service.

[GBALU53]

Legs up lucy

A group of piper owners are getting together and going to have some T hangars on the south west of the airfield when the construction site is finished all being well.

Reference the Boeing 737 800 flghts out of Jersey and you well know when they operate to Cyprus with a good loads as stated before they fuel stop at Beauvais near Paris. If the Dubai flight does happen i would have at a good guess a tech stop on route at a more appropreate on route field.

With reguard a larger hangar i do believe talks are going on at the moment.

One last bit the EMB 195 famil flight to Jersey which got as far as the ILS and then diverted to Exeter tech will be hopefully in on the 28th on Sept.

[OA32]

Just a couple of things, have heard from reliable sources that jer was baby's most profitable route out of mme, and will probably operate as a w route from another base. With regards to coconut7, after looking at the boeing website and performance figures the 737-800 can only just make milan and berlin from dubai (based on 162 pax). Thus tech stop required both ways from jer. Assuming there is enough take up to warrant running the service. Also looks likely that there will be no links to brittany after october due to contractual issues on st. brieuc route.

[LegsUpLucy]

GBALU53 thanks for info,nice to keep updated....

Always good to see development and encouragement for growth in aviation at jersey airport!

[GBALU53]

With the Heron G-AORG back flying could the aircraft be used to operate some of the old Jersey routes.

With the possible demise of the St Brieuc connection could this be a route or even the Dinard ,Aurigny droped a number of years ago.:{

Maybe some of the other airfields the aircraft would be at home operating in and out like Granville or Caen to name one or two.

If only the CAA would give there 100 per cent support and the insurance companies giving there support some of these good old aircraft of British origin would possible be still operating on a commercial basis now but it is all commercial pressure that take the strain?

If only we all had a endless pot of the good old cash fund,

[GBALU53]

Any one heard what the outcome of the Flybe Paris service?

This route was going to be discussed today and an annoucement if Jersey was going to support Gurnsey to get the route up and running.

With the annoucement of Blueislands stopping the St Brieuc due to the French not allowing a small increase on fares making it not possible to operate so the Islands loose another link with the French.

The Paris route looks a stronger bet but needs a lot of local support to get it up and running.

The Islands have not had much success over a number of years trying to keep hold of european flights especially links with France.

With Flybe bringing in the EMB195 on the 28th at 1315 local time this aircraft could do a lot For Jersey if the local government helps to support new routes.

If and when Jersey receives the EMB195 as there Gatwick Jet service it could be a good aircraft to offer half term direct flight although at late departure times and early returns at alot less than then one at the moment as aircraft have to come from the U.k of some times in from France to opperate with dead legs on some of the sectors so the Island needs waking up and looking at the future and give as much support as possible.

[akerosid]

Unfortunately, the Flybe Paris service is not now going ahead; disappointing, BUT there may be a silver lining, particularly if the authorities can get one of the AF regional partners to fly here and INTERLINE. The negotiations with the authorities fell down because BE was not willing to guarantee continuity beyond 2 years. See today's JEP for more details.

18 destinations have been mentioned as having possibilities; frankly surprised that DUB isn't one; yes, we already have EI flying to DUB, but only for Summer and there is certainly enough demand for the likes of Aer Arann to fly in, particularly given their domestic feed ex-DUB - Cork, Galway, Kerry, etc etc.

As for the different routes mentioned by the JEP, I think the chances of any but one or two actually being sustainable is low and this is what the authorities need to focus on: one or two continental European routes, to a major hub with feed across Europe and beyond, at a decent frequency would be far better than a one weekly service to 15 secondary destinations. Remember the business connection; business travel, not tourism, will sustain these routes, so interconnectivity and frequency will be what sustains these routes. AMS, CDG and possibly FRA or MUC are where efforts should be focused.

[J-Guy]

The article does give reason to be cautiously optimistic that Jersey will regain routes to Europe. The wish list seems rather inflated but I’m sure a number of those routes could work on a regular or seasonal basis.

With regards to Blue Islands; the loss of the airlink to St Brieuc is disappointing but not altogether surprising. The ferries make Bretagne and northern France so much more accessible that flights have a very limited appeal. However, if I remember correctly, Friday’s JEP suggested that Blue Islands was potentially interested in operating two new flights to France so is there possibly a bit of good news there? Certainly a flight to somewhere like Rennes or Nantes might work.

[fudpucker]

It's all wishful thinking Guys. The truth is, taking the C.I. as a whole there are simply not enough people wanting to travel on a regular basis to make European routes viable. I used to fly the BRS-PLH-JER-CDG route. It only worked because it was multi-stop and we picked up CDG pax en-route (also picked up CI pax en-route as well, of course). Multi-leg routes have their own problems in terms of duty hours and plain old economics so it's unlikely that anybody would start one up again. If you use a small a/c then you have to charge high fares to have any chance of making a profit and if you use a large a/c then you pretty much have to fill it if you want to charge low fares. There is also the problem of what do you do with an a/c when it's finished the one-round trip per week on a low-demand route? Sitting on the ground is not an option, as a sweeping generalisation an a/c on short haul ops needs to be flying about 9-10 hours PER DAY.
Pleasant though all the islands are, tourism is on the wain so as far as a plethora of routes is concerned, these may well be 'the good old days'. No operator is in the game for altruistic reasons, they're in it for the money!

[airhumberside]

From UK Airport News

Last ditch talks took place yesterday between Flybe and the Jersey authorities over a Channel Islands - Paris air link.

The airline wants £750,000 over two years to launch the route. Guernsey have agreed to a subsidy, but Jersey was prepared to only offer £150,000, however they are now willing to increase the amount to £180,000.

Jersey's Assistant Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean, who has responsibility for its airport said: 'Flybe has agreed in principle to our counter-proposal.' He said that Jersey would offer marketing assistance and a subsidy based on the number of inbound passengers. It would also offer reduced landing charges.

Maclean added that Flybe accepted the principle behind the performance-related incentive and also had given assurances about its commitment to the route.

Flybe Chief Commercial Officer Mike Rutter confirmed the meeting had been very positive. He said: 'The 'Jersey' States were only prepared to offer £150,000 which is not enough to cover the projected £1.5m losses in the first year.'

At the outset Flybe asked for £800,000 subsidy from the two islands, but that has reduced to £750,000 because the price of oil had fallen. It is normal for a low-cost airline to ask for support.

Rutter added: 'We are looking for a 50:50 share. We have decided to work within the political structure set by Jersey and in return they will have another look at the total funds available and get back to us within 48 hours.'

[airhumberside]

CDG isn't hapenning. From UK Airport News
Flybe's proposed Channel Islands to Paris route has been scrapped. After talks last week, Jersey has decided not to increase its offer of funding of the new route.
Flybe wanted £800,000 from each island to subsidise a link to Charles de Gaulle Airport, later reducing the sum to £750,000 as the price of oil had fallen. Initailly Jersey offered only £150,000, but increased the sum slightly with incentives including marketing assistance and reduced landing fees.
Both islands agreed that whatever the subsidy, it needed to be proportional to the number of incoming passengers. It was predicted the route would lose £1.5m in the first year of opertion.
An airline spokesman has said: 'Flybe would like to express disappointment that, despite the Paris route being identified by politicians in both islands as a vital transport link, it has not been able to come to fruition.'
---
This saga wont help JER attract airlines in the future if it cant even sort out funding for a route like CDG

[virginblue]

For the sums Guernsey and Jersey are obviously willing to fork out, wouldn't Aurigny be interested ? Certainly a 30seater would be more appropriate than a Q400 and require less funding.

[GBALU53]

Could be route route for one of the white tail ATR 42s.


The shed would take to long, and the shed has been to CDG before now with the old Flybe (Jersey European).:D :D

[ICING AOA]

Certainly a 30seater would be more appropriate than a Q400 and require less funding.


the less seats you have in an aircraft, the more expensive will cost the ticket.

[virginblue]

Sure a 30/40 seater (forgot that Aurigny have dumped the Saab 340, so it would be down to an ATR42) is more expensive, but I do not think that GCI and JER exactly need a 0.00 GBP*-fare type operation to CDG that flyBE offers (and needs to have subsidized with a rather hefty sum obviously). Why are the islands after a low cost operation for a route that, me thinks, is more important for the business clientele that needs access to an international hub ? Charge more realistic fares that require less funding - and also save business travellers from having to pay for putting stuff in the hold, checking in at all (soon to come), having a cup of tea etc.

FlyBE wanted 1.6m GBP for the route. Over here in Germany, you get a twice-daily route with a 34/36seater for a subsidy in the range of 500.000 GBP - 900.000 GBP, depending on the conditions of the contract (numbers quoted are for the routes KEL-MUC and RLG-MUC which are much longer than JER-CDG). The islands should put out the route to tender.

[noflybywire]

TBH Who cares about a link to CDG etc!!. A few business types might use it but not many tourists coming to the island. What has always been missing from the island is a decent low fare airline as Jsy has become a very expensive destination to potential visitors and residents trying to get off the Rock!!!. If Ryanair can serve Newquay!!!! they can also serve Jsy and if Flybe or BA don't like it thats TOUGH as heat and kitchens spring to mind. Anyhow when the dreaded GST comes in tourism will never be the same as visitor numbers plummet,

[GBALU53]

You seem to be new to all this??

If you are an anorak yes would be differant to see the odd harp tail wingleted Boeing poping in on the odd occasion if you like that sort of thing.

Commercially people like Ryanair are not good for the Island if you have not read in the aviation world articles Jersey is not that type of market you open the door to them on an area of forty five square miles and the only flights you have in a couple of years time will be Ryanair and nobody else.

The island needs to look after the all the other connections they have at the moment before they lose any more.

[akerosid]

To be honest, I'm just as happy that Flybe didn't do it; what is needed, as I've said before, is interlining. There were a few AF partner airlines with 30-50 seat commuter aircraft - Britair (CRJ) and Regional (Emb 135/145), for example. They could plug into AF's network at CDG; OK, one can't build a route on connection traffic alone, but there are increasing business links with France and as a tourism destination, people always love Paris (not only in the Springtime!) and furthermore, in AF, you have an airline with the incentive to market Jersey right around the world.

AF has a huge network out of CDG and through CDG, you can access every major European market (much more than can be accessed through LGW, which doesn't even have a CDG link anymore). Given the significant numbers making that bus journey between LGW and LHR every day, the attractiveness of a straight through, interline at CDG must be high indeed.

OK, the route may well lose money, but I think this goes beyond mere profitability; this is something the states should be financing and facilitating. If a particularly destination is difficult and inefficient to access (as Jersey is now), that automatically undermines its competitiveness and its attractiveness as a business destination; a route by an AF partner would be a significant boost for the economy and I am sure, in due course, it would become very popular with islanders.

[virginblue]

I guess the problem with subsidised routes is pretty much that those who pay the piper tell what tune has to beplayed. So usually they expect to have an aircraft based that operates to the most desirable schedule etc. Not sure if Air France would be that co-operative. As the potential customers would probably mostly have rather deep pockets, maybe some interlining would be sufficient. Works quite okay over here with some of the subsidised route which serve MUC; they are all not operated by the Lufthansa group, but by independent regional carriers that are quite willing to base an aircraft if the subsidy is big enough.

One other thought - if Air France isn't interested, couldn't Atlantic Express offer something subsidised ? Like JER 0630 - 0830 CDG 0900 - 0900 JER 0920 - 1020 STN 1050 - 1150 JER 1540 - 1640 STN 1710 - 1810 JER 1830 - 2030 CDG 2100 - JER 2100.

As we just at it - how about the ZRH link ?

[noflybywire]

GBALU53

I have been in the Aviation game for 32 years and hold a CPL/IR with 9k+ hours so if that makes me an anorak then so be it. The states of Jersey have far better things to do with their!!! money then waste it on a route that has never been a success and IMO never will be. In fact if it's such a money spinner why haven't VLM applied for it,

[virginblue]

By the way, isn't there a French outfit that operates to Paris with a Beech 1900 ? What's the problem with them - only suitable for inbound traffic ?

[airhumberside]

Twinjet. They fly Cherbourg-ORY in the morning then ORY-Cherbourg-JER. The plane spends the day in JER and then does to the reverse to night stop in Cherbourg

[J-Guy]

Yes, Twin Jet has been operating for a number of years now. It is not a substantial operation, carrying fewer than 200 passengers a month. I would imagine that it is supported mainly by business passengers, hence the high fares.

On a separate note, there are some summer 2007 schedules available. Atlantic Express has some schedule changes as follows:

AEX21 JER STN 07:30 08:40
AEX22 STN JER 09:10 10:20

AEX23 JER STN 12:20 13:30
AEX24 STN JER 14:00 15:10

AEX25 JER STN 17:00 18:10
AEX26 STN JER 18:40 19:50

The midday flight seems to be operating only on Su.M.F.Sa, but changing the morning and evening flights by 30 minutes/1 hour does make Atlantic Express a more convenient option.

Moreover, Aer Lingus will be operating 3x weekly from the end of May - the schedule normally begins at the end of March.

[akerosid]

I've heard from another source that EI will only be operating 2 weekly flights next Summer - Tues and Sat, obviously with A320s. The flights will stop in September, so a significantly shorter season.

Perhaps Aer Arann would consider the route; there's certainly demand, given the significant Irish population in Jersey. Having to fly through the UK is becoming increasingly tiresome, what with the extra security, additional taxes etc; with more ATR72s coming in the near future, perhaps it's an option RE could look at. ORK could prove a useful mini-hub for such a route, with onward connections to Belfast, Galway and Dublin?

[GBALU53]

With some of the Fybe summer schedules not being released yet what do they have up the sleave.

From information received there may be a second Bristol for the summer, it might not be every day but a second rotation is on the possibley on the cards??

[J-Guy]

Yes, I’m quite eager to see the full Flybe. summer schedule. The routes have been slowly released but there are still quite a few extra routes and frequencies to be added like Bristol, Edinburgh and the Saturday tourist flights. Also, maybe there will be some new services?

If the rumour about an increase in the frequency of the Bristol flight is true then where would the aircraft come from? The current schedule with the based aircraft is quite full and there is little space for extra rotations.

[J-Guy]

Well, the Flybe. Bristol flights went on sale today and are still 1x daily.

The other news I have is that there will be yet another addition to the German charter destinations for summer 2007. Along with Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hannover and Stuttgart, Wolters Reisen, the German tour operator, will be offering Saturday flights from Munich. The flight will be operated with Lufthansa Cityline.

Good to see Jersey expanding its European tourist market. :)

[GBALU53]

With the take over of BA Connect how is this going to benefit the Island how??

The only thing so far quoted was a second rotation on the Manchester meaning three flighst a day, 2 by Flybe and the Baby flight.

Going back to when British Airways operated the route there was a morning and afternoon flight with the ATP but it routed via Guernsey so how long will this last if they think the route can support the best part of three hundered seats a day by the two carriers.

[GBALU53]

There has been and may still be talks of British Airways bringing the Heathrow back, the reasons could be a number of them.

!. With the Boeing 737 fleet slowly being dispossed of no suitable aircraft at Gatwick to operate the Jersey flight.

2. With B.A. having a 15 per cent of Flybe would they carry on in competition on the Gatwick or give it all to them and open up the Heathrow??.

3. Aurigny could be in a position to operate a Jersey Gatwick in competion as per the Guernsey Gatwick flights.

4. With B.A. selling Connect due not making money will W.W. be looking at cutting routes that are not producing the revenue, but to keep the valuable Heathrow slots, operate a bus down to Jersey just to keep them.

The Paris route from what i can make out is not dead yet.

The main concentration over the last few months has been the talks and planning for the take over.

Now this major hurdle is over, Flybe quoted two dates for more things to happen the first of January and then the twenty seventh of March this must be the end of the winter timetable when Connect will be fully gone.

From what i understand the Connect fleet of Dashs and Embs were on a lease bases so they will not be able to trade them in for more 400s and 195s shame:sad: .

Once Flybe start operating the Jersey Manchester in there own right there will be two a day and the fare structure will be a lot less than the B.A.Connect fares good for the travelling public.:ok:

Interesting year ahead for what flybe have up there sleeve

Jeresy and Guensey will be the last places for the BAE146 to be based before they leave the company, Jersey will have there EMB195 but i think things dont look good at the moment for a Guernsey EMB195 unless they can sort out there runway length, if they can't then it would look like a two Dash 400s based in Guernsey.

[J-Guy]

Really good news here; Jersey will be regaining its scheduled route with Durham Tees Valley. Flyglobespan are to launch Saturday flights as of 30th June 2007. Flights are as followed:

GSM047 MME JER 14:05 15:30
GSM048 JER MME 16:00 17:25

Great to see a new low cost airline for the airport. The flight operates 1x weekly (compared to baby’s 3x) but that is more than sufficient for tourists. The loss of bmibaby was unfortunate considering that the route performed well so hopefully Flyglobespan can make a success of it.

[akerosid]

Good news - and always welcome to see a new airline; possibly 737-600s? I'm surprised that they'd operate from MME; wasn't sure they had a base there. If they start with MME, they might try EDI and/or GLA direct?

As for LHR, as much as I'd love to see it, I still have my doubts - particularly as far as BA is concerned. OK, the 737s aren't getting any younger, but the -500s operating to JER always seem to be in pretty good condition, but more to the point, there's no way (as far as I can see) BA would use a slot for short haul when they could use it on long haul. Any available slots will be used for this purpose and if/when Open Skies comes about, BA will need every last slot it can get it hands on. Indeed, at that stage, I can see a lot of mainland domestic routes losing access.

Similarly for Bmi; even though they don't seem to be getting things quite right at the moment, they too will be waiting for O/S and the opportunities that will bring (assuming VS hasn't bought them out before); I see BD being a better chance than BA, but that's really not saying much. While access to LHR should remain a long term goal, I believe that other hubs such as CDG provide a better opportunity for plugging into worldwide networks.

[airhumberside]

I'm surprised that they'd operate from MME; wasn't sure they had a base there.
New base opening next summer

[GBALU53]

Good news to see GSM moving into operate down from Teeside or what ever one likes to call it now Durham Tees Valley or the good old days of Middle St George down to Jersey it might only be once a week at least it is a start.

Would the next move be operating once a week from Glasgow as this must need some support looking back many years ago British Midland operated a big programme in the summer months especially the months of July and August many a DC9 would be seen trucking its way down the airways to Jersey:ok: :ok: .

[jerboy]

Good to hear Flyglobespan are going to operate the MME service, its true that with baby these flights were almost always full. (and had the nicest crews lol).

As far as BA goes, I've heard on good account that JER is one of BA shorthaul's most profitable routes (and with regularly 30+ in club on a 100 seat A/C its understandable why), so if LHR takes on one JER is a likely candidate.

I, however do agree that it is fairly unlikely over the next few years but as GBALU states it isn't impossible that BA could leave BE to take over LGW and for BA to take LHR, and would give JER back its 'real' link to London which would be great to see.

Good luck to flybe and all BACON crews for the future, I will miss the daily Dash 8 300 we see here, but understand that its for the best of the business as a whole.

[J-Guy]

However great it would be to re-establish the Heathrow link, I agree it is still very unlikely. Jersey’s efforts to gain new access to European hubs are of increased significance nowadays and are more viable, long term options.

The entrance of Flybe on to the Manchester route is welcome. Along with bmibaby, Flybe should be able to reduce fares further and generate passenger growth. The amount of seats available to Manchester will, of course, be an issue, especially out of season. Nevertheless, Flybe’s schedule is likely to be more accommodating for day returns, which I have always thought was needed to a major city like Manchester.

But again, really looking forward to seeing Flyglobespan. Hopefully one of a few more routes to be announced for the summer!

[J-Guy]

And the good news keeps on coming...

British Airways will launch an additional service between Jersey and London Gatwick for the beginning of the summer season following successful negotiations with Jersey Airport. The extra afternoon flight will bring flights up to 6x a day during the week and 7x at the weekend. Flights are as followed:

BA8045 LGW JER 12:55 13:55
BA8046 JER LGW 14:30 15:30

[virginblue]

By the way, I noted the other day that BACON had applied for slots for a saturday flight to FRA between 05MAY07 and 08SEP07.

[GBALU53]

Good to see another rotation to and from Gatwick for the summer 2007 although not a new route, there must be the passengers or is it to protect a slot or two?:ok: :ok:

With Flyglobespan starting the Durham-Tees to Jersey from the end of June due not having an aircraft until the second aircraft is based a Durham they will be able to see the public demand for some route before they start and might have to add a second rotation a week on some route hopefully the Jersey sectors:ok: :ok: .

From what i understand the loads when Baby operated were good so you would think there must be the demand.

With the application of Bacon applying for a German slot on Saturdays, this must just be an end use chater type opperation ,which i think Eurowings operated on behalf of Lufthansa last year so it might be a smaller aircraft on the German weekend charters for all of them?????:sad: :sad:

[frostbite]

Would this explain why the Jersey-Southend service has (apparently) been ditched for 2007?

[dublinamg]

Always wondered why Jersey doesn't get alot of passengers looking to make duty free savings.

I know for example that say on flights from Ireland you can save about €45 each way for 200 cigarettes because of duty free - so if you smoke you're €90 up if you use your allowance each way - more if you save on drinks or whatever. Does the same apply on flights from England - presume it does.

With that alone there should be a good demand for flights as long as the frequencies are OK.

[J-Guy]

The extra British Airways Gatwick flight is certainly good and a success for the airport authorities and their attempts to build partnerships and offer incentives to airlines.

According to an earlier JEP article, airlines that add additional flights on existing routes will receive a 50% decrease in landing charges, so no doubt BA must have received a good offer. Certainly, this is the first major signal that the new strategy is working and hopefully there will be more developments in the future and cause for more optimism.


With the application of Bacon applying for a German slot on Saturdays, this must just be an end use chater type opperation ,which i think Eurowings operated on behalf of Lufthansa last year so it might be a smaller aircraft on the German weekend charters for all of them?????:sad: :sad:

Would the slot application not have to mention Guernsey as well considering all German charters operate to both islands? Also, the tour operator dates conflict with those mentioned in the slot application. Wolters Reisen states that flights begin on 28th April and end on 22nd September, whereas the slot application suggests that flights begin on 5th May and end on 9th September. It is still early but there are some conflicts in the information.

[virginblue]

With the application of Bacon applying for a German slot on Saturdays, this must just be an end use chater type opperation ,which i think Eurowings operated on behalf of Lufthansa last year so it might be a smaller aircraft on the German weekend charters for all of them?????:sad: :sad:

Last year was FRA was offered for the first time by TUI Wolters with a Contactair aircraft. Don't know if the BACOn application was a replacement for that, but I doubt it as TUI Wolters is quite keen to sell all their flights to the C.I. as "Lufthansa" flights (it is Eurowings and Contactair).

In 2007 there will be a bunch of saturday charters operated by Cityline for TUI Wolters. A new addition to the destination list is MUC, this on top of FRA, DUS, STR and HAJ. in the past, there have been BA flights to Germany, I remember a regular saturday service to DUS in the 1990s with Dash 7s or ATPs.

[GBALU53]

Virgin Blue

If we go back a bit further British Airways operated a German Flight in the summer a long time ago.

Could we be seeing a bigger return to German traffic for the summer of 2007???:ok: :ok:

The are plenty of towels available.

[J-Guy]

Sorry, I just keep on posting the news :ok:

New for summer 2007, daily Thomsonfly flights to Luton operating a 'W' pattern from Doncaster, except Wednesdays when the flight seems to be on a Luton based aircraft. Flights are as followed:

TOM 4134 JER LTN 09:20 10:20
TOM 4133 LTN JER 11:00 11:55

Also, Cardiff operates 5x weekly, Coventry daily, Doncaster daily.

This is turning out to be a bumper summer for Jersey. I had a suspicion that Thomsonfly would launch Luton; the Airport Director sort of hinted it in a radio interview a few weeks back.

[akerosid]

Great news, BE's once weekly service (for the past few years) has never really been enough; hopefully we'll see a few more developments in the near future.

Perhaps RE might increase the ORK frequency and (given EI's reduction on the DUB route) consider that too; there really should be a year round Irish route.

[SeamusCVT]

If I may add to J-Guy's comments, the CWL flight not only operates on an extra day in Summer 2007 (4x weekly Summer 06, 5x weekly Summer 2007), but the aircraft operating the route is a Thomsonfly Boeing 737, compared to the Aer Arran ATR-72...therefore well over double the capacity on the route.

[GBALU53]

Good news does Jersey have enough beds if all these flight are full??

What else is up Jersey Airports sleave for this comming summer 2007.

With only four and a half months before the summer schedules come into play it is look a lot better for 2007 so far, as they say, bring it on ,it is good for Joe and his public?:ok: :ok:

[LGS6753]

Will FlyBe retain the Luton route in competition with Thomsonfly?

[airhumberside]

From Travel Mole - have to hope this attempt works out better than the Flybe CDG route
Jersey is attempting to encourage new airlines to serve the island with a special pricing arrangement.
As part of a broader market development plan, Jersey Airport is reviewing its aeronautical pricing structure with a view to making air services more commercially attractive and sustainable, according to a statement.
The airport and the States of Jersey Economic Development Department are willing to enter into commercial partnerships to support the establishment of new air services.
Expressions of interest are being sought for seasonal or year-round scheduled air services between Jersey and the following European countries:
Belgium - Brussels
France - Nice, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Paris, Nantes
Germany - Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt
Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam
Poland - Warsaw & Environs
Portugal - Faro, Lisbon
Spain - Alicante and other coastal resorts
Sweden - Stockholm
Switzerland - Zurich, Geneva
The aim of the campaign is to stimulate interest from airlines in operating new routes into Jersey from the specified destinations, as well as new business development opportunities for the airport to maximise air transport links, without migrating traffic from existing routes.

[virginblue]

Expressions of interest are being sought for seasonal or year-round scheduled air services between Jersey and the following European countries:
Germany - Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt

Surprised that they are not after an airport that serves the main agglomeration in Germany, CGN or DUS. BER certainly does not offer a lot of orignating traffic to the Channel Islands and no connections from there either.

[Expressflight]

Would this explain why the Jersey-Southend service has (apparently) been ditched for 2007?

Travelsmith say that SEN-JER flights by Flybe will recommence in May 2007 and holidays using that service are in their new brochure.
Whether or not this is to be operated as a charter or a scheduled route seems unclear. But certainly Flybe will need to allocate an aircraft to the route in any event so I cannot see why they would not operate it as a schedule. Perhaps it simply has not appeared on their website as yet for summer 2007, as also seems to be the case for some other existing routes.

[frostbite]

Thanks for that info!

[J-Guy]

Deduced from the Flybe. timetable, it looks as if the aircraft allocated for Southend is coming down from Edinburgh and will operate at the exact same times as last year. I don't know whether it will be scheduled or charter, however, there are a number of flights not yet released for Jersey and so we'll probably have a better idea in the coming weeks.

[thorpey]

It`s a shame Flybe have anything to do at all in Jersey. Today, eleven of us walked off the aircraft, after being messed around for over three hours and we weren`t the only ones. The company display nothing but arrogance and a VERY poor service to Channel Islanders.

[GBALU53]

On Monday the last Gatwick by Flybe was cancelled after the passengers had been waiting after check in to be told at 1930 that the flight is cancelled.
Bring on the EMB 195 A.S.A.P. to a least try and keep the Schedule running to time.
I understand due to tech problems and higher fares they are losing passengers to B.A. not good either.:sad: :sad:

On Wednesday the 22nd there will be a strike of the security personnel first thing.:sad: :sad:
All departures before 0900 will not operate to time the expected departeres for the 0700 flights are approx 0945.:sad:
The strike is over pay and conditions and not good for the airport but the security personnel are employed by a private company so more pay means uping the air fares?? not looking to good as the old saying user pays means joe public the travelling public:sad: :sad:

[J-Guy]

Well the strike has been called off now after a revised offer was accepted. Most flights will operate as normal although there is some disruption to the BA Gatwick and Flybe Southampton flights. At least this will not be common action coming up to the holiday season now that an offer has been agreed.

In other news, the German charter flight schedules have been released. No sign of the BA Connect charter to Frankfurt, which is a mystery. All flights will be operated by Lufthansa Regional. Interesting news is that they’ll be a new Q400 operator to the island since one of the German flights is being operated by LH partner, Augsburg Airlines.

I also believe that Blackpool will be operated on a Saturday this coming summer by Air Southwest replacing BA.

[virginblue]

The Frankfurt "slots" are a mere slot application on the waiting-list, and as such, no slots have been cleared. The airline thus is in no position to release flights and, at this point, will not pursue the original plan.

The details are:

FRA RTA 1315 RTD 1400 TH 4215C/4216C 05MAY-08SEP _____6_ ER4

[GBALU53]

A new type for Jersey?

A new airline for Jersey?

All being well on this comming Monday november the 27th Jersey will be seeing the Qantas 707 that has been at Southend on major overhaul to get it fitfor its flight to the Qantas museum in Australia.

The aircraft is scheduled to do a flight around Jersey with a practice approach and go-around.

Time are unknown at the moment but i would think the media will know of this and hopefully keep all the interested parties informed:ok: :ok:

[LegsUpLucy]

Is that John Travolta's B707?

I also hear Thomsonfly are starting luton services from jersey.what is the frequency?I wonder if that will affect Atlantique and there stansted service???

[Powerjet1]

LegsUpLucy

A daily service starting on 3 May 07 using a DSA based aircraft except on Wed when its a COV based.

[Buster the Bear]

Fares as low as £50 return (or less) all in for the daily flight between Luton and Jersey.

The mid morning departure from Luton is unlikely to have a major appeal to the business community, but with fares that low, who knows?

What it does mean, is more low cost flight choice for the residents of Jersey using Luton's vast onward connections.

[Centre cities]

It`s a shame Flybe have anything to do at all in Jersey. Today, eleven of us walked off the aircraft, after being messed around for over three hours and we weren`t the only ones. The company display nothing but arrogance and a VERY poor service to Channel Islanders.

But at least they do offer a service which at the moment is perhaps a good thing.


Centre cities

[GBALU53]

Heard today that BMI are one step closer to getting the Heathrow service back in operation.:ok: :ok:

How it would work I am not shaw at the moment but it would be with A319 on the route and night stopping.:ok:

So all does not seem dead at the moment if this information is correct it would have some effect on the Tompson Luton flight but I think they are looking at a differant passenger market.

With Flybe still not having there full programme for next summer out, it looks like an interesting time ahead to see what is in the melting pot, does this mean to many carries trying to bite the same cherry????

[akerosid]

That would be terrific; so it would be just one a day? Hopefully, they'll move ahead with this. We really need this very badly; that bloody coach becomes more of a nightmare every day.

If they can get BMI locked in for one flight alone, hopefully in time they can be tempted to go for one more. Two a day would do the job just nicely and bmi has interline agreements with various other carriers out of LHR, so connections and interlining will become a lot easier.

Great news!

[J-Guy]

Obviously I’m hopeful that there is movement on the Heathrow link. The connection to a major hub particularly through a Star Alliance member would be invaluable, much more so than a Flybe. Paris flight. Although the potential to regain flights to Heathrow have always been downplayed because of slot constraints so I’m still a little uncertain.

Even without the prospect of a Heathrow route the capacity to London this summer will be large. There is likely to be 15/16 flights a day to London, which certainly gives a good choice to passengers but overall is it unsustainable?

By the way, the Flybe. Timetable for the summer has been released. The schedule is much the same as last summer with daily flights to Edinburgh and 5x weekly flights to Norwich. There are one or two reductions on the Saturday flights, which is quite understandable...looking forward to seeing what the Manchester schedules will be like.

[GBALU53]

No the aircraft did not arrive for a number of reasons the flight schedule was delayed due to tech problems.

The aircraft departed this morning form Southend on route to Dublin and then down to the Canaries.

There is a critical time element in this to meet up with the John Travolta 707 so the plans have changed a lot in the last two weeks very disappointing to a lot of people but that is aviation??,

[GBALU53]

Things must be happening in Jersey, with old routes being operated again ,heard today that the Jersey-Dinard will be back on the scene.:ok:

With possibilty of British Midland putting on th Heathrow link the Cardiff being operated again by Thompson, Flyglobespan 737 a once aweek summer from Durham Tees Valley, Thompson daily Luton, what else is going to appear before the Summer schedules kick in.:ok:

What the Island needs is more of the Continental conections but a least things are happening with routes, after all the Island is only fourty three square miles so they can only cater for so much.

[Jamesair]

This weeks FLIGHTmagazine carries a full page advert from Jersey States inviting airlines to state an interest in serving the Island.....on the lines of Air Humbersides previous posting.

[akerosid]

Aer Arann will be back next Summer again on the ORK route, although this time on a Saturday afternoon/evening.

I'm a little disappointed that RE isn't doing more, because with flights now available from ORK to DUB, BHD and GWY, it would seem to have some potential as a hub point - and would be especially attractive to Irish travellers (of whom there are quite a few on the island) given the recent increases in air travel taxes through the UK. The lack of interline services means that the new taxes need to be paid on each flight, so it does add quite a bit to the cost of getting home.

[J-Guy]

I, too, was slight disappointed that Aer Arann have not increased flights to Cork. Certainly, demand seems strong enough to add an extra week day service, of which we have not seen since JetMagic’s brief operation.

As for next summer, it looks promising but I think it was to be expected with the current airport changes. It will be interesting to see whether the new destinations and additional capacity can be sustained beyond 2007.

I’m still looking forward to the Flybe. announcement on changes to the Manchester flights… :)

[GBALU53]

Bye Bye Stansted again.

The new owners of the Atlantique group annouced yesterday, as of the middle of January the Jersey-Stansted-Jersey service will be stop.

We might know more later on today the reasons behind the closure.

Atlantic Express only received there own A.O.C. last week and now thay are going to stop.

With the Jersey aurthories trying to attrack new routes,they are not holdling on to what they have.

Over the last thirty years a number of carriers have done the route but now Jersey loses it yet again.

With Air Berlin doing a lot of flights in and out Stansted and do a number of U.K. domestic flights, could they be one of the Airlines that might take it on??

With the New Year only just round the corner how many more Christmas presents will be comming to Jersey Airport

[J-Guy]

Re-establishing flights to Stansted within the next few months will be a good test for the airport authorities. We have had reason for confidence these last few months so hopefully the loss of Atlantic Express is only a minor glitch.

Atlantic Express has shown Stansted can potentially work from Jersey, which may make it easier to find another airline to fill the gap left. Could it be a possible new route for Blue Islands? They have previously expressed interest.

[GBALU53]

Yes i agree with you for someone like Blueislands to take on the Stansted route with a Jetstream and make it pay would be difficult.

There has been talk about them looking into the fifty seater aircraft for a number of routes one was the Guernsey-Southampton.

With the new owners of the Atlantique group stating in the local paper they are looking at leaseing the aircraft out, could this be an avenue where Blueislands might take up an option and look at operating the ATR aircraft on some of there routes??

Could the Atlantique ATR 72 G-HERM be heading for a long life operating with the Aurigny fleet on a long term lease agreement as remour had it that Aurigny were interested in this aircraft and another ATR72 was joining the fleet shortly??:ok:

Could one or two of the Atlanique ATR 42s be heading for a life in the Blueisland operation in the new year??:ok:

[J-Guy]

Just a bit of news for S07...

Swiss will once again return to Jersey operating the Zurich charter in replacement of Darwin Airline. Instead of the usual Saab 2000 equipment the route will operate with an RJ100 on Sundays.

Another change is that the flight will include passengers travelling on to Newquay so the routing will be ZRH-JER-NQY-ZRH.

I guess it will be nice to see the Swiss Jumbolino :)

[GBALU53]

From information receive the Mail and Paper contract to the Islands will be done by Atlantic Airlines with an Electra and an ATP.

I do not know yet but it might be the Electra to Jersey with the mail and papers and the same operation to Guernsey with the ATP.

This is how i see it might work but do not quote me until we get confirmation.

Aurigny must be very dissapointed by losing out, they have done the mail contract for some time know but at the end of the day it is all down to cost.

With the Shorts stopping flying with the company where does this leave the Shed crews.

I understood they were about to embark on the ATR course but with the news if all is true might change there plans some what.

What else is in store for the ever changing world of aviation in the Islands is there going to be some good news to come out in the NEW YEAR lets all hope so.

[GCIJ32]

GBALU53

From rumours which are floating all over the place could the end be nigh for Aurigny, could the Yellow Perils be finished?

I imagine the only routes that prove profitable (when the ATR's aren't tech and they're chatering a titan 737 or 146) because i doubt interisland is doing that well at all especially with BlueIslands standing right in their way and possibly FlyBE too if they get a full proper interisland licence!

[Jerbourg]

GCIJ32

I haven just been talking to a member of Aurigny staff who tell me that they (the staff) were told that if the mail contract was ever lost it would be very serious for the company. Obviously the revenue that this contract generated kept the rest of the company's operations going. It is high time the management of Aurigny were sacked. Such a shame that a once successful CI airline has been let to get to such a position. MH you are a disgrace!

[GBALU53]

If all this information is correct I agree with you.

If we look back at some ones track record (M.H.) and we all know who that is, does this not tell a story or two.

Air Ecosse.

Gill Air.

To name some there may be others.

There was a chap who worked for Intra who was fixated by mail contracts even if they did not fit in with the rest of the airline schedules, may be he was an uncle or some relative to M.H.??

Some of us have seen a number of stories over the last forty years in the Islands what is around the next corner?

[J-Guy]

I see that Coconut7 are offering a new charter on March 7th to Milan with a 757 for the Celtic Champions League match. Something a bit different, I guess. It will be interesting which destinations they will sell for the summer, should bring a bit of variety to the airport for us spotters. :ok:

Also, their Zurich charter will be operated by a CRJ according to the website, which airline will it be with? Compared to the normal ski flights from Jersey, this year there seems to be quite a few new flights during February. Salzburg, Altenirhein, Chambery, Zurich and Geneva are all available with Coconut7 and the other Jersey travel agents.

[GBALU53]

A sad weekend ahead.

At 0640 this morning the Aurigny ATR72 departed to Geurnsey after the mail run is this the last time this will happen with all the speculation going on>

Monday see the last of the Atlantic Express ATR sevice to Stansted departing northbound at 0800ish what is next in stall>

The charters J-GUY quoted are as follows.

These are all one off sking charters

BEE8307 Feb 16 JER-1200-ACH Dash 8 for one of the local schools

BEE8309 Feb 16 JER-1740-SZG Dash 8 for one of the local schools

Both these flight returning a week later on the 23rd

BIE9741 Feb 17 JER-0545-GVA/CMF A321 Skiers

FPO1127 Feb 17 JER-0750-ZRH B733

FPO1127 Feb 17 JER-1235-GVA B733

These flight returnng a week later

From what I can make out these would have been the ones operated by Swiss/Crossair every year as this times in with the February half term I think.

The last thing as quoted is Coconut 7 Boeing 757 trip to Milan in March will this happen??

Judging by the Dubai flights that are not going to operate are they being to keen to find flights to unusal places? if so go luck but by the look of things some might be cancelled a short period before they are due to operate.

With so much being talked about by the avation minister and getting lots of routes from here, there and ever where, they do not seem to be heading in Jerseys direction at the moment.

There does seem to be some thing going on between British Midland and the airport over a Heathrow link, if it does happen they need to get the ball rolling quick if they want to make it work it is now the middle of January and only 10 week before the summer schedules start.:ok:

[GBALU53]

British Midland are due to make an annocment tomorrow tuesday on routes out of LHR that they are cutting back on.

If this is the case some slots will be made available for other routes so Jersey might know by this time tomorrow if there will be a Heathrow route to and from Jersey and what type might be operating.

If so I would have at a guess an Airbus 319.

As they saying goes bring it on, Jersey needs more routes as the Stansted is now dead again with the last departure at 0802 this morning.:ok:

[akerosid]

According to a thread running on A.net, LHR-CDG is for the chop - with five flights a day. We only need two. Come on, BMI, you know you want to ...

[GROUNDHOG]

ZRH-JER-NQY ..... would someone like to tell the population of Cornwall if that is happening please?????

[J-Guy]

Really hoping that the Heathrow service comes off, what a major coup that would be for the island. It would help the finance industry immensely, make connections much easier and be good for tourism. Hopefully we'll hear something soon!

ZRH-JER-NQY ..... would someone like to tell the population of Cornwall if that is happening please?????

No, it is a charter on behalf of Swiss tour operator, Falcon Travel. I believe they have been operating holiday flights during the summer to Cornwall for a number of years, as well as Jersey. Last year it was operated by Darwin Airline directly. Apologies if my earlier post was slightly unclear.

[LBIA]

The Summer 07 charter flight from Zurich by Swiss tour operator Falcon Travel will be operated by a Avro RJ100 and Operates between 13/05/07 Till 09/09/07 on a weekly basis every Saturday.

Flight times as follows
LX9040 - Zurich = 11:10, Jersey - 12:00
LX9041 – Jersey = 12:40, Newquay 13:25
LX9041 – Newquay = 14:05, Zurich 17:00

[GBALU53]

Good to see Bleuislands is getting stronger are they trying to take over the inter island traffic fully.


Any news yet on the Southampton front as that has gone a bit quite, with only ten weeks or so to go before the clocks change and the summer schedules kick in there must be some more news to follow?

[GCIJ32]

Good to see Bleuislands is getting stronger are they trying to take over the inter island traffic fully.


Any news yet on the Southampton front as that has gone a bit quite, with only ten weeks or so to go before the clocks change and the summer schedules kick in there must be some more news to follow?

Well, there have been rumours that they have the route, but as of yet there has been no official confirmation.

However just checking on their website, it seems the Isle of Man is to continue as a once daily triangular route, I had heard rumours that it was to go up to twice daily...! Also there doesn't seem to be any increase in frequency for the JER-BOH or JER-ACI, this route is only direct twice a day on a Monday and Friday and once ono a Sunday, the rest is all via GCI.

[five zero by ortac]

Sorry guys, but why on earth would you want an LHR service ?
Or, do you enjoy LHR for the dirty terminals, cr@p links, three hour queue for security, megga-APD tax and guaranteed lost bags ???? :yuk: No thank you.
What we need is JER - CDG or ZRH.

[jerboy]

five zero by ortac

LHR is quicker than LGW to the city center (Jersey's main business link), many people also take the bus from LGW to LHR to connect on from there, surely providing a direct service would serve these people better??

LHR may not be the prettiest airport on the planet, but it is what the majority of people want and I'm sure with the correct advertising, marketing and fares the route would make a very tidy profit as LGW does now.

[Trihandle]

FPO1127 Feb 17 JER-0750-ZRH B733
FPO1127 Feb 17 JER-1235-GVA B733
These flight returnng a week later
:
Seems that Coconut7 dont know what aircraft will be doing this flight as
their website now states that this flight will be done by a Canadair CRJ on the outwards leg and a Saab 2000 on the return.:ugh:
Also has a Zurich-Jersey on 31st Dec 2007 again Saab 2000

[pilot999]

who has voted for :"LHR may not be the prettiest airport on the planet, but it is what the majority of people want and I'm sure with the correct advertising, marketing and fares the route would make a very tidy profit "


Who are the vast majority??? long haul pax, how come no one is doing it already??

[bluerumour]

Well if current rumours are anything to go by, BlueIslands are due to commence a ZRH flight, albeit via GCI. However going via GCI is still better than going via LGW etc....

Why rumourswhy not facts, that would make everyone happy:)

[Hangar_9]

I agree. It keeps us happy if we only hear the good things.:)

[GBALU53]

Are there any good things.

its about time the men in there pin stripes woke up and come out with some really good and forward thinking news and not pie in the clods or is the sky.

Lost one passenger schedule this week the Stansted

Lost another movement with the mail as well, due to papers and mail are on the one aircraft instead of two whats around the corner.

All very well the men in the states saying about getting routes from here there and every where what about keeping what little there is at the moment.

[J-Guy]

Just a slight update on the usual summer Saturday charters;

Obviously there is a bit of change for the summer because of the loss of BA Citiexpress on a number of charter routes. Edinburgh and Glasgow, previously operated by the ERJ 145, have been dropped and now operate through Flybe.

*Aberdeen, Belfast Int., Dundee, Humberside, Leeds Bradford and Manchester will be operated by VLM. To operate these routes, one aircraft will come down from Manchester, two from Rotterdam, and one from London City.

*Air Southwest will fly Leeds Bradford and Stansted.

Whilst there may be a few other changes, i.e. there is no news on Blackpool yet, this seems to make up the core of the summer charters. Interesting to note that Leeds receives an extra Saturday flight.

[GBALU53]

Guernsey is moving up in the world of aviation and Jersey is going backwards.

New routes to start in the news to day by the boys with a blue hangar hopefully with start dates and aircraft types.

Good for Guernsey Jersey losing routes and still not news on the Heathrow although the big gun ha ha had talks a Donington hall a cpouple days ago this could be another non starter.

Could be a big summer of dissapointment for Jersey if the States cant get a good act together.

There seems to be lots of talk and no action or very little the lateest is there tourism advert which is aimed at short stay who want to go to Jersey with gale force fog low cloud and only the pub and resteraunts to go to.

JERSEY WAKE UP OR BE LEFT BEHIND.

[J-Guy]

Guernsey is moving up in the world of aviation and Jersey is going backwards.

But the strategy that Jersey has adopted is to be achieved over a number of years and has only been in existence since late last year. It seems premature to suggest that Jersey authorities are failing. ‘Action’ includes diversifying commercial activity at the airport, improving passenger facilities and changing the pricing structure. These won’t produce immediate results but long term they make the airport more economically viable and less dependent on airport charges as a source of revenue, which is beneficial to airlines.

Acquiring new routes is difficult, the population of Jersey and its limited demand means we must be realistic about what the airport can achieve, however, there have been numerous successes already and I have every confidence that Jersey Airport, along with Economic Development, are working towards expansion of destinations.

Guernsey is fortunate that it has a committed airline in Blue Islands. Considering the interest that Blue Islands has in serving the Channel Islands and how vocal Jersey authorities have been in their attempts to gain European connections, there will be prospects here for Jersey, I am sure.

[GCIJ32]

J-Guy

With BlueIslands having their operations base and the managing director based in Jersey should mean that there are possibilities with Jersey having access to the new Guernsey routes.

Nice to see that Guernsey is getting the new routes though, Jersey may have very few continental routes its domestic network of routes exceeds Guernseys by probably 60-70% with all the Thomsonfly, BmiBaby, BA and BMI flights that Guernsey doesnt have. Guernsey only has three airlines, Flybe, Aurigny and BlueIslands with the last two being relatively unheard of in the UK

[GBALU53]

Well GCIJ32

Some of what you say is correct but where is the money comming froif if m not mistaken Guernsey

Where does Mr C live and what else is envolved in this company may be a health tablet or two.??

[GLIDERMAN]

I am not supprised at the loss of Jersey Stansted, it was not the best advertised of routes. I need to travel to Jersey fairly often, live one hours drive from stansted, & only found out about the route by accident!

[GBALU53]

Gliderman

You are correct that seem a barrier that was talked about within the company that they need to go out and advertise.

In Jersey it is easy to advertise cheap it is called word of mouth.

With an area of forty five square miles it doesn,t take long to get around.

In the U.K. it is differant big wide open space so you have to go out and spend on adertising as you quoted you only came accross by accident.

A large amout of the travelling public are not geograpically orianted where the nearest airport might be to where they would like to end up.

If you booked with a travel agent they might be able to read a map and find the nearest one but with the internet now and more and more people are booking this way the nearest airport might not be the one they are leaving from as they don,t know it is even there.

We can only hope in the not to distant there might be someone out there that will bring it back from the ashes.

From some of the talk going around the load figures were stating to look healthy so it does take time to build up a route and possible to lose money before you can reap the benefits it all depends on how long.:ok:

[GBALU53]

Heard earlier the route is on.

[akerosid]

Friday will see the big announcement. :D :ok:

After six long years of that &*^%$%£!! :mad: coach (which gets less comfortable, less efficient and of course, more expensive, every time), we're going to be getting our link back. Flights are expected to start on the 26th March.

I've heard varying reports as to the frequency, with one report saying it's just an overnight and another, 3 daily, but whatever it is, it's welcome. Let's just hope it's back to stay ...

[Capt. J. Upgrade]

five zero by ortac

LHR is quicker than LGW to the city center (Jersey's main business link),

I'm sorry, but purely on a distance thing and depending on where you're going in London, LCY can be just as good if not better to get into the business heart of our gloreous capital!! :ok:

[Capt. J. Upgrade]

I am not supprised at the loss of Jersey Stansted, it was not the best advertised of routes. I need to travel to Jersey fairly often, live one hours drive from stansted, & only found out about the route by accident!

I'm supprised you didn't think they were well advertised. Plenty of advertising was performed in Jersey, and I'm lead to believe that several UK papers had adverts, one of them being the Evening Standard (I think!)

:ok:

[J-Guy]

Officially announced in the island's media...

The deal is to be signed tomorrow between Jersey Airport and bmi for the Heathrow route. There will be twice daily flights apparently, with services beginning at the end of March. The route will be reviewed after three years.

Absolutely fantastic news!

[Hudson Bay]

Great news for Jersey after all these years. Well done to all those that made the route possible.

[GBALU53]

The deal to be signed with BMI tomorrow

It looks like Flybe might object in some ways, the States weren,t prepared to help them when they were trying to put the Paris service together with Guernsey.

So what deal has BMI done to secure a Heathrow service for which Flybe could not do for a Paris service.

There are rumours going around at the moment about the Aurigny Jersey-Guernsey-Jersey route might be terminated, if thats the case Blueislands would have done a fine job in removing them after so many years we will have to wait and hear more on this one though.

[akerosid]

There is to be an announcement at the airport at around lunchtime tomorrow.

I can't begin to say how thrilled I am at this news. It's not only a huge economic boost to the island, but also a major psychological and morale boost. Jersey now plugs into one of the biggest range of intercontinental air links around the world and while we may have some misgivings about LHR as an airport, it's still a hugely important intercontinental hub and having access to it will greatly enhance Jersey's attractiveness as a business destination, tourism centre, not to mention facilitating the travel plans of Jersey residents.

Wonderful, wonderful news. :D :D :ok:

[J-Guy]

As I said earlier, it is exceptional news. After 7 years without the route I didn’t think we would be gaining Heathrow back any time soon. When bmi were first approached back in 2000 they were not prepared to take on the route, so I think it says a lot about the new policies and mentality in place at the airport and government.

Looking at the flights, the timings are good. There isn’t normally an early arrival into the island from London before 9.45, which is not the best the best option for business passengers. One issue, however, how do we think this will impact upon Gatwick passenger numbers?

The first big news from this drive to get new routes... hopefully Heathrow will be succeed and hopefully more to routes come in the future! :ok:

[jerboy]

I think the LGW numbers will continue to hold their own, although there obviously will be an effect (and we may lose a rotation or two) I believe that BA in particular has a strong enough customer base in the Island to ensure things don't go too far downhill.

BA announced recently that they would increase the number of rotations per day to LGW would increase from 5 to 6, so there is obviously the market there.

All the best to bmi... and good luck!

[J-Guy]

I see that flights to Heathrow are now available to on-line and are quite reasonably priced. A trip to London may be in order :ok:

One think that caught my attention, however, is that Saturday evening flights and Sunday morning flights are to be operated by bmi regional, this would suggest that flights would be flown by an ERJ 145?

Not that this is a problem, demand will be lower during these periods, but if this is correct then the first flight would not be with the A319.

[GBALU53]

Well J-Guy

Interesting one that you have quoted that British Midland Regional will be doing the Sat Pm and the Sun AM flight.

Interesting to know how you found that one as all the information points to the Airbus 319 and no mension of any regional connection.

Was this going to be part of the package being signed for today or were they keeping this bit quite.

How much more is hiden in getting all this up and running?

There seems to be the odd smelly rat hidden amoung all of this

[Riverboat]

A bit surprising that BMI should use some very valuable morning and evening LHR slots for Jersey flights. Well done to them, and well done to Julian Green and Alan Maclean in Jersey for no doubt doing everything they could to get the service.

BMI are really adding some credibility to Jersey, and if you add Thomsonfly's new LUT-JER operation, on top of CVT-JER and DSA-JER, they too are doing a good job for Jersey. Makes GBALU's postings about Guernsey getting the better of Jersey seem a tad out of date. (But I recognise that G-BALU seems to have the inside track on most things Jersey).

Whether a carrier will want to pick up the STN operation, now there are daily flights to/from both LUT and LHR, which were not there last year when Atlantic Express started the service, is surely doubtful.

[GBALU53]

Riverboat

The Guernsey States going forward with routes are routes that have never been there in the first place.

With Jersey is a differant story when you look back into the past

You quoted Heathrow
Luton
Coventry
Stansted
Cardiff
All these routes are ones that stopped for a number of reasons the only new route is the Doncaster.

A new route means never tried before but the States don,t get the picture.

The Heathrow and the Paris that Flybe wanted to start again are routes that were dropped.

In the past Flybe was the last operator on the Luton with one a day in the summer with a BAE146 300 which equaled 110 seats each way Thomson will be 20 or 30 seats more but will the route work?

It didn,t work for Flybe due to a number of reason so why should it work for Thomson?.

The Stansted route was better suited for connecting flights that have built up over the years, if the timeings are good it can work, the only reason AEX stopped was due to company restructing with the sale, from what I can make out has not happened.

The whole culture has changed for flights to the Islands and you can,t turn the clock back the only way new routes or trying to restart old one are with small aircraft like ATR and Dash 300 aircraft but they only have a certain catchment area>

[Brown Bess]

Once all the celebrations have finished, I hope that Alan Maclean can sit back and reflect on what he has done, in getting BMI to operate from Heathrow.

The two flights per day are probably just enough to take the profit away from the existing two carriers to LGW, BA and Flybe.

BMI are not even using an Airbus at the weekend, hardly a lifeline service, no this service is aimed at business travel only, and slot protecting?

I agree with Flybe's comments, giving BMI a subsidy on the route doesn't give competition on a level playing field. By all means the States should encourage other Airlines to come to Jersey , however Heathrow is a London Airport like STN, LGW and LCY, so the 'new route' is in direct competition with the existing carriers. Surely a reduction in landing fees for all operators is a far better route to take.

I do hope we are not about to see what happened on the St Malo route, and see the original operators move away forever.

[akerosid]

Frankly, I don't think Flybe is in much of a position to complain, given that it was more than happy, not just to accept a subsidy, but to demand a greater subsidy than the States was willing to give. LHR, as Flybe knows well (let's not forget that before it sold the slots to QF, it tried to sell them to the States), is not "just any old airport", but the world's busiest international airport and it is a hugely important economic boost to the island. The reality is that there are only so many flights a place like JER can get, so it's important that those it chooses are going to deliver the greatest possible economic boost. In other words, it's not so much a subsidy as an investment.

What is comes down to is a realisation that free market economics is great if you're London, New York, Singapore or Hong Kong, but for the likes of Jersey, it needs to hustle and it needs to provide incentives. Flybe can bleat as much as it wants, but it must know the importance of LHR to Jersey.

As for slot sitting, bmi has committed to operating the new route for three years and since the timings for the JER flights are hardly conducive to use on long haul flights (7.10am departure to New York or Mumbai ... anyone?), it should be relatively safe. As long as people use it - and really, that's up to the Jersey punters. If you don't use it, you lose it ...

As to what aircraft bmi is using, who cares? If it's a 50 seater Embraer, I can live with that, as can most business travellers. Given that the 50 seater we've been taking to LHR for the past 7 years takes longer to get to LHR from LGW than the EMB-145 will take to fly from JER, I'm not pushed.

[EI-BUD]

Aeroskid, I agree with most of what you say re: a subsidy to bmi from Jersey, and the whole issue of Flybe complaining. It will be interesting to look back in say six months and see how the overall passenger numbers have changed. Ie will the market grow, or will it simply be a transfer of numbers from one route to another.

It was most unfair that JER lost the LHR route before and I remember the whole debate at the time and the fears that the Jersey business community had. AS was the case in the IOM. I hope that the business grows .

Flybe have been slow to grow their JER business and the island has been quite dependant on them for new business, I would have expected BE to be taking iniatives on the Island for growth as it or certainly was a very important airport for them as its name use to reflect. JEA.

[GBALU53]

Flybe lost the plot for the Channel Islands when J.F came on the scene.:ugh: :ugh:

The big question is does Flybe Channel Islands fit in well with the rest of the network?

[Brown Bess]

Quite agree, complaining is what Flybe do best. They haven't really been interested in the Channel Islands since they moved to Exeter in 1985, and subsequently changed the name to remove 'Jersey'.

I was more worried about BA disappearing. They seem to be , yet again, stopping various domestic routes around the country, and unless it continues to be well supported like it is at present, I think they will just disappear.

Could we do without BA? Guernsey have, do you think they are served well by existing carriers?

[akerosid]

I think the real question is BA's future at LGW; we know that Willie Walsh has given them about a year to shape up - or else; my expectation is that the airline will ultimately decide to up stakes and leave, particularly if an Open Skies deal is done. Then, BA will be allowed to move most of its LGW long haul flights to LHR (and no doubt shaft a few short haul, including domestic). At that stage, short haul flights won't be of much interest as connecting flights, so they'll gradually wind it down.

Let's be honest, although (in my experience) the BA 735s are perfectly nice aircraft, they're not getting any younger and I simply can't see the airline investing billions in new Airbuses for what are essentially "surplus to requirement " routes. On top of that, you have the issue of BA's GB Airways franchise. WW is apparently against franchises and there have been various rumours about the future of this.

What it comes down to is that ultimately, BA will not be flying JER-LGW. It may not be this year or next year, but it will happen. And thank goodness, for once, we've preempted what could have been a serious blow to our air links by getting back the LHR route.

[JobsaGoodun]

As an outsider looking in I have to say that i'm somewhat suprised by the comments of some on here. Whilst I am pleased that JER has its LHR route back, this is being supplied by an airline that would appear to have lost its way over the recent years.
BMI are slot sitting and nothing more, as soon as a viable long haul route comes along they will ditch JER as BA did some 7yrs ago. You don't use 49seat aircraft on expensive LHR slots unless you have to!
BA will stay in JER if the sums work, and whilst the route may be profitable for them, if the entire LGW business isn't then it may only be a matter of time before they go!
Flybe have provided regional routes to JER for years now, LGW/BHX/EXT have all been in existance for well over 10yrs so I am baffled by comments claiming that
Flybe lost the plot for the Channel Islands when J.F came on the scene.....how exactly???
Equally,
Flybe have been slow to grow their JER business
Not only have Flybe provided consistency on routes to LGW/BHX and EXT but they have also enhanced the network with direct flights to EDI, SOU and BRS but also seasonal flights to LTN,NWI,NCL,SEN,GLA,LPL and BHD.
I would hazzard a guess that if the Jersey licensing authorities allowed an open skies policy in line with the rest of the UK, providing a platform and opportunity for growth rather than the antiquated licensing system in place then Flybe would have expanded onto some routes faster than they have in the past.
JER does not have limitless numbers of people wishing to travel and a fixed population will always dictate growth. The catchment area is the same now as it always has been and only an increase in the local porpulation will feed more growth. Unless JER begins to attract vistors in a new way, changes and additions in air services will always be slow to come.

[GBALU53]

Well Jobsagoodan

To clear up some Flybe schedules.

The Luton has been dropped due to the new Tompson daily flight all though Flybe was only been doing a saturday flight in the summer for a number of year (Package type flight)?

The Newcastle Southend and Liverpool are saturday only in the summer is that a real schedule or almost a package type flight.

I might be incorrect but there was talk of if it has not already the dropping of the Southend

I understand some of your comments with Flybe losing there way was partly to do with the local aurthorities and having to look else where.

People must look back and understand some of the managment in there past life on there performances to make your own picture.

It might show you a thing or two on how well or not so well companies are performing.

[EI-BUD]

True for you Aeroskid. LGW cant have a big future with Ba if we consider the rationale that WW has used to axe BAConnect. He said that the routes were more conducive to LCCs, as obviously many many of same routes were in competition with LCC rivals .So the same would be true for LGW with EZY being so big there! Time will tell.

[EI-BUD]

I agree with a lot of what you said in your post. However, although not frequently on the Island of Jer i do keep up to speed on the latest happenings via the forum, various websites and media and timetables etc. From what I can take from the forum, Flybe sound like they are calling the shots. the noise that I heard about there reaction to possible competition from Blue Islands etc, does not sound great. They are very successful. IF they were so true to Jer why did they give up the LHR slots originally. They never expected a new entrant.

As for the LHR route glad to see it but I am doubtful that the market will grow overall. What they do need is LCCs to stimulate inbound traffic IMO. LHR will offer the existing customer base another option. Its not technically new business as London is well served at the moment.

Flybe have to deliver profits and JER is probably a regular earner. I dont think anything exciting will come from BE in Jer anytime soon, Why dont they go for the CDG route when JER is offering incentives, afterall if there low fares policy is working why could it not work on CDG JER?

[jerboy]

afterall if there low fares policy is working why could it not work on CDG JER?
BE are not low fares... they have very clever marketing which makes people believe they are. I travel between LON and JER a lot and the vast majority of the time BA are cheaper. BA will look after you in a delay, and you get a complementary refreshment service even on a 35min flight (OK its gone downhill slightly but it's still a far cry from BE).
The real problem, concering CDG lies within the general travelling public, if the majority booked through a travel agent JER-CDG may work, as travel agents value CDG on a similar level to LHR with the number of connections available and ease of those connections. However with more and more people booking their flights online people do not view CDG in the same way as LHR (most of us here know a thing or two about aviation and can tell you that CDG is as good, or better, than LHR - but try telling that to Joe Public). There are also far more business links with London than there are with Paris. I think, and hope, Julian Green and the States have realised this and decided not to give BE the money they were asking for, especially as it was way more than the original publicised amount.
I may be slightly biased against BE as I have had a few bad experiences with them, but I think that (re)introducing a new major carrier into the island with *A connections is far more valuable than a BE service to CDG with extremely limited connections.
Again, only time will tell, but as bmi have agreed to operate the route for three years we will gain a true picture as to how valuable LHR is to JER, and whether we can cope with a 9-10 x daily LGW service.

[akerosid]

I agree with what you say Jerboy; I booked a flight with bmi for the new LHR route and it was very straightforward: select flights, book ticket. Done, full stop. No extra for this, more for that, as Flybe does; kind of reminds me of the innkeeper in Les Miserables -
Two per cent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice, there a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut
When it comes to fixing prices
There are a lot of tricks he knows
How it all increases, all them bits and pieces
Jesus! It's amazing how it grows!
With regard to CDG, if the States absolutely has to give subsidies for a particular route, I would like them to ensure that it "ticks all the boxes" and ensures that the payback for the local economy is maximised; sure, local tourist traffic is important, as is the business traffic, but BE wasn't willing to interline, which would have enabled direct connections to AF's worldwide network; an operation with one of AF's partner airlines could have (may eventually?) achieve that.

[GBALU53]

With the staes trying to get new routes do freight operators come into this area as well.

With a freight route the Airport should support new income?

Two large freight forwarders are in the Island shorlty to sign from what I understand a new contract.:O :O

The contract is for a Boeing 737 from Cologne via Rennes to Jersey daystop and return in the evening I am lead to beleive five days a week starting the end of March.

The main reason to bring this up is the way the states like to annoce a new route all be it freight,could it be at the loss of one of the freighters that operate at the moment.:ugh: :ugh:

SO is this an additional freight flights into Jersey?:ok:

As we have seen in the past the true pictures are not told, with Jersey trying to get more routes it is all very well but at what cost to some one and it will not be to the Airline who is trying to do new routes but the poor old tax payer.

At the end of the trading year the airport accounts might look very sad:ugh: :ugh: .

With the summer schedules starting in less than eight weeks time the possibilty to get new routes now are dwindling very fast as time is running out for this year to get new routes up and running.

[GBALU53]

From a good source of information the Stansted might be rising up from the ashes in the not to distant.

From what I can make out a deal has been done between the airline and the airport.

This might have come about with British Midland doing a deal over the Heathrow service.

[jerboy]

Do you happen to know which airline BALU??

[GBALU53]

Well jerboy

Try working it out I scratch your back and you scratch mine

What was in the local rag the end of last week one signs a deal and one complains.

Got the plot or shall i carry on

If we give you something you will not go no further rewfering to the article.

Get the idea.

With the summer being around the corner there is more like this going on.

[jerboy]

Ahh should've guessed... been a long few days! Well I've not been on the rock for a good few weeks so haven't been able to see the thrilling rag you refer to :zzz:
But yeah I've seen enough to work out who... guess it doesn't take a genius!
Cheers!

[jerboy]

On a seperate note, just read on the WOW thread that BA are to drop the 6th JER-LGW in the summer... I'm guessing as a response to the LHR.

Is this confirmed or just a rumor? BA are still showing 6/7 rotations online.

[GBALU53]

Well jerboy well done for working the first one out.

As for the second one.

B.A. are fishing at the moment why operate to Jersey on the sixth rotation when we might win going to Newquay, that might have a better Noel Edmonds with operating that one.

Can you work that one out?

Deal Or No Deal.

New route or No route

It is a cruel world and cut throat on what goes on in the background of aviation.

[J-Guy]

Another route with competition...

Birmingham is now available to book on-line with bmibaby from Jersey. Looks like flights will operate on Sa/Su/Tu/Th.

Cardiff also goes 3x weekly up from just the weekend flight last summer.

[GBALU53]

Well what can one say the States can,t say it,s new routes but who will give in first.

It will be interesting what bull the local rag will make of this and how well the Airport Committee and there hench men have scored another success story for Jersey Airport.com

Competition is a good thing but over capicity is some thing differant who brakes first.

What Jersey really needs is routes into Europe not competition that cannot work good for the travelling public but how long for.

[Trihandle]

Had look a BMIbaby website and tried to book seats for August Bank Hols
and only four seat left on Sat 25th the BHX-JER sector.
I take it the up take has been very good as their fare structor will kill FlyBe.
Looking at under £100 return and FlyBe for the same time is compared to FlyBe's over £300
:D :D

[Riverboat]

What aircraft type is bmi going to use on the Heathrow, Birmingham and Cardiff flights?

[J-Guy]

Heathrow is with the A319 except Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings when it is an ERJ 145. The Birmingham/Cardiff flights are probably with the 733.

On the Birmingham route, I agree that there will be excess capacity this summer. Since 2004, with the introduction of Thomsonfly Coventry flights, Flybe passenger numbers have decreased considerably and bmibaby can only exacerbate this.

Nevertheless, the Flybe fares between Birmingham and Jersey are notoriously high thus competition is welcome if it drives down fares and generates new passengers. But with the likelihood of flights going 2x daily, as the bmibaby press release highlights, then something will have to give.

Definitely a make or break summer for Jersey Airport on a number of routes. It will be interesting next year to see what changes there will be as a result.

[jerboy]

Its excellent news that WW are starting a BHX service from JER. Along with the new LHR, LTN, and increases to various other services its a sign that the industry are starting to show an interest in Jersey again, lost many years ago when the number of services from the rock started to decline.
Ok there may not be many routes to Europe but I honestly don't believe these would be that popular. In my experience in dealing with Jersey passengers the majority seem to be going further afield than Europe, and those that do travel to the continent are far too spread out to be served by just one airport. The only routes I do believe could work would be ones from Portugal or Poland... not because a lot of locals want to visit there, but because we have a huge working community from both of those countries.
Whilst Julian Green and the airport committee may be after all these 'flagship' routes to Europe, my belief is that these would not survive without heavy subsidy from the states. Instead we seem to be getting sorted a decent commercial network, with competition, that will ultimately serve islanders better. Let's not forget its not every regional airport's God-given right to be served by major national airlines to LHR and LGW, especially with Jersey's tiny catchment size.
Those of us that live on Jersey are more than used to having to connect at a UK airport to catch our flight to the sun, and in my opinion a better regional service (which would allow pax to connect onto where ever they like) far better serves the island than the few European destinations which would benefit the few, but would be irrelevant to many.
phew... don't know where that came from... just felt like saying it!! :bored:

[Fokker52]

Dear Trihandle,

Zurich Route
Wouldn't it make sense for VLM to use the Fokker 50 on a Mon to Fri service to Zurich as they have an aircraft sitting at Jersey airport for most of the day.




It might be sitting for nearly seven hours though,
The Jer shift either starting from ANR/BRU/RTM or MAN via LCY and same routing back consists of nearly 13.5 duty hours.
So an extra rotation includes 6 landings in total therefore ones goes over the magic 14 hours.

Grtz

Fokker52

[GBALU53]

The Fokker 50 day stops route is Antwerp-City-Jersey-City-Antwerp yes only afour sector day but one need to know on flight time limitations to find out if the crew could fit in another two sectors if they were very short possible.

The idea to operate to somewhere like Zurich a number of commercial thoughts goes into this one where do we fit a second crew into this pattern do we operate to Zurich i think the answer is no so to have one turnaround per day not cost effective enough.

So the idea to operate instead of having a lay over in my opinion will not happen.

[BarTT]

From the 1st March the VLM day stop will be MAN-LCY-JER rtn

[J-Guy]

Flybe have put the full Jersey summer schedule on sale now. Good news is that we will have a 2x daily flights to Manchester and 1x on a Sunday from the end of March. Flights from Jersey to Manchester are not available yet, should be soon, but the booking engine shows that the flights arrive at around 09:25 and 18:20 on weekdays, which gives the possibility for a day return.

Flybe will also begin 1x daily Guernsey flights from Manchester and Norwich goes daily from the islands albeit with a combined flight (except on Saturdays when flights are direct).

There may be a few modifications to this but the above does seem to be the basic gist of the changes for the summer.

[akerosid]

All of a sudden, things look a bit dicey for Flybe ... see FT article on front page (Rumours and News) ... not like them to sensationalise.

Will they conclude BACON purchase tomorrow? If not, where next?

Worst case scenario for JER? Flybe goes belly up. Chances of replacement at short notice? Jet 2? Easy? (Gasp ...) FR. Could be a bit uncomfortable.

As for today's bleating in the JEP over the subsidy for BMI's LHR route, a little hypocritical I think. BE was perfectly willing to take a subsidy for operating Paris route (indeed, more than was being offered); as for "offer" to operate LHR route from JER, complete piffle. They offered slots to JER (in full knowledge that States, or any non-airline couldn't own them), then sold them to QF at a considerable profit.

Hopefully BE can pull through, but I wouldn't like to be Mike French tonight; possibly a very poor night's sleep ahead ...

[tilewood]

Or even Jim (call me James) French!!

[GBALU53]

A lot of people will be on tender hooks untill tomorrow has come and gone but untill the full picture appears on the 1st of March there might be more the Jimmy the French having a sleepless night tonight and tomorrow.

We can only hope they do know what they are doing but look a managements past records and work out for ones self what the out come might be.

Lets hope the 1st of march brings a lot of relief and not dissapointment.

Just as well April the 1st is still a little way away.

[Jamesair]

Applications published by the CAA today are:

Air Southwest...charter service between Leeds/Bradford and Jersey
Air Southwest...charter service between Stansted and Jersey
BMI Baby....scheduled service between Birmingham and Jersey

Application granted

Thomsonfly scheduled service between Luton and Jersey

[GBALU53]

Anyone any information on the following.

Talk about the following routes or is it just the normal wind from high up at the airport.

The following routes Jersey to Paris or near by as in the likes of Ryanair
Jersey to Stansted
Jersey to Geneva or Zurich
Jersey to London City more rotations?

Three of these routes were spoken about in an airport forum update recently
can any one through any light at all on any these or is it hot air from the top and these or some will never happen.

We have heard some of this in the past and still hasn,t come to being.

The last one was the Heathrow which had been talked about for a long time but this is happening and start on the 25th March so some of the above might happen?

[akerosid]

Got a call from bmi today re Sunday's inaugural to LHR. Flight is being moved to 9.25am departure, from 8.40 (or so). Not sure if this is the case with all flights, or just the inaugural; inbound connections would certainly benefit from a slightly later departure from LHR.

Inaugural flight will be operated by A319, not Embraer 145, although future Saturday evening/Sunday morning services will be operated by 145s.

I see Sen. Ben Shenton is moaning about the subsidy, arguing that even though we're not in the EU, we should bear in mind EU law. (We did and it didn't help); pity even some politicians seem not to see the whole picture as far as getting air routes for JER is concerned. :rolleyes:

[GBALU53]

Well akerosid
Is this not good in some ways the tax payer need to know but if Franks and his hench men have over steped there little world could the E.U. fall on this?

Well no as the Channel islands are not in the E.U. so interesting times on this little number I think?

[akerosid]

I may be a little biased, as I've been campaigning for the return of the LHR route for some time and consequently, I want to see it brought back whatever the cost. However, the point I would make is that smaller communities, particularly island communities which obviously have no road/rail links, have to go out into the market and hustle. If airlines like Flybe can change the way they operate to suit the new market, airports and communities should be allowed to do so also. Stopping them from doing so and tying their hands and restricting them is fundamentally unfair.

A sustainable economy for a community like Jersey depends on enticing new carriers and for a small community to do so, it needs to be generous in the incentives it provides. I think this is particularly the case in relation to LHR; the UK govt is wilfully blind to the needs of smaller communities, by considering London as one market and therefore, not understanding the importance of connectivity through LHR (as compared to say LTN or STN); in an Open Skies environment, I see some peripheral UK markets losing their links.

If the govts don't recognise the reality of how important access to major hubs is and if the EU tries to prohibit govt owned airports from offering good deals, then it seems the deck is stacked very much against more peripheral communities - and in favour of wealthier and more profitable destinations. I certainly don't see that as an acceptable or fair situation and I think the Jersey authorities are perfectly right to do whatever they need to do to put on the map and make us more accessible.

[fl dutchman]

We could do with a better service from NCL to Jersey. The current weekly summer Sat only single flight is not enough. I have tried booking for early July for Mon to Fri and it is difficult, even via another airport. We used to have several flights per week at one time, schedule and charter, but its just one 70 seater per week now.

[akerosid]

Jersey will see its first regular Embraer 195 service on Saturdays, BHX-JER-BHX. Return flight from JER at 13.50. :ok:

[J-Guy]

Having experienced the difficulties of getting to Newcastle from Jersey myself, I agree that it would be beneficial to have improved links between the North East and Jersey. It is unfortunate that Durham Tees Valley is reduced to once weekly during the summer because the multiple weekly bmibaby flights were relatively successful.

It will be excellent to see the Embraer 195 in Jersey. I have viewed the aircraft in Exeter on numerous occasions but it will be exciting to see it at home on a busy summer Saturday. :ok: For the first few Saturdays, however, an ERJ 145 will be used.

A few on-line timetables also suggest that the bmi A320 will be used on the weekday evening Heathrow flight. I don’t know if this is correct but I guess there is always the possibility.

Sadly, Wolters Reisen has dropped the Stuttgart flight for the summer although Munich is new (Augsburg Airways Q400).

[pilot999]

At any cost, is a childish way of thinking. and maybe shouyld be funded by yourself,

this route is going to last a few weeks, months and disapear thank god back into obblivion . unfortunately with the tax payers money.

[GBALU53]

J-Guy

I did hear from a good source the morning weekday bus will be the A319 and the evening an A320.

This will change in the morning if Midland start the day with a tech Bus, things will snowball as the Jersey Bus is the last of the morning departures for them, so the Jersey bus will be nicked and will have to wait for a replacement one.

With Flybe putting on an EMB195 on a Saturday for this summer, does it mean without seeing last years Birmingham schedules have they cut back the Saturday services due to competition from the likes of Baby starting this year from Brumm to Jersey?

[J-Guy]

have they cut back the Saturday services due to competition from the likes of Baby

The Flybe schedule to Birmingham is the same as last summer, no cutbacks. It is still 2x weekday, 3x Saturday, 1x Sunday. bmibaby announced flights quite late so I would imagine that any changes would not occur until the winter season.

The summer schedule does not begin until Sunday but already Thomsonfly has released next winter's flights. :eek: Cardiff and Luton are retained with 3x weekly flights, Coventry 5x weekly and Doncaster 4x weekly. The flights work well for the short-break market that Thomsonfly is keen to develop.

And at least there'll be no newspaper reports suggesting Thomsonfly are pulling out as happened with the late release of this summer’s timetable. :ok:

[akerosid]

I checked the EI website and it appears that it will now be operated 3 a week to JER this Summer, which is encouraging. It had been planned to operate just two. I do wish someone - perhaps RE - would operate year-round to DUB; there certainly is the market and it's increasingly inconvenient, not to mention costly, to fly through the UK.

[GBALU53]

I might be wrong from what I can make out,
The summer programme for Aer Lingus to Dublin the start date was a month or so later? the way they were showing the flights might have given the wrong immpression there was only two a week:ok:

[akerosid]

Operated by A319 (G-DBCC); left pretty much bang on time ... good service, good crew - very nice aircraft (and about 60-70% full). Very little fanfare or anything out of the ordinary at the airport.

Interesting story in today's Observer, about the effect of Open Skies on "local" routes. Not very good news, but not surprising. Gist of it seems to be that bmi may look at UK domestic routes (which excludes JER) for the axe, as it seeks to build services to US; 3 A332s soon to be ordered.

[GBALU53]

akersoid
With the takeover of British Mediterranne Airways I understand they have 12 slots at Heathrow, some of these routes at the moment might be choped making way for these BMed slots being used over the pond?:ok:

[manx crab]

I thought i had read that those Bmed slots were going back to BA.

[DONTTELLTHEPAX]

Just heard that WOW will be doing STN-JER from 05May-22Sep
Sat only Flt WOW9302/3 :D

[GBALU53]

manx crab
Just to clear some thing up, the new Heathrow-Jersey operation came out with some of the slots made available due to the Heathrow-Paris route stopping, which was 10 slots. So Jersey has four of them and started the operation yesterday.
The deal to buy BMed was done after the Jersey route was signed sealled and almost delivered.
Now the open skies policy for flights to America have come about Midland will be looking to operate there A330 fleet on some of these to America possible?so where do they get the slots from? well Bmed had 12 so they might take some from there, some of the Bmed routes don,t perform well so they could be dropped, in doing so frees up slots and to keep them they need to operate some where. Well how about accross to America?:ok:

[J-Guy]

Just heard that WOW will be doing STN-JER

Just a charter though, nothing like the 2/3x daily Atlantic Express was offering.

I see that Blue Islands has dropped direct flights from Jersey to Alderney leaving the islands without a link except via Guernsey. It was a marginal loss-making route, however, flights between Jersey and Alderney have a long history and it will impact upon Alderney’s tourism industry and inconvenience residents. A case of 'I told you so' from Aurigny I guess. :rolleyes:

Interestingly, saw the Bluebird 733 freighter on stand today, looked very nice in the sunshine. :ok:

[five zero by ortac]

Yes, no more direct JER-ACI-JER flights, a massive blow to Alderney tourism.
As a frequent user of the route I find this decision, at the start of the summer season, quite unbelieveable. :*

[Jerbourg]

Obviously the yield on the JER-ACI route is very low hence the decision by BCI to pull the plug. Airlines have to make money to survive, too many people seem to forget that! Aurigny whittled this route down to a few flights a week before BCI came on the scene & tried to stimulate new traffic. It would only have been a matter of time before GR dropped it anyway in my opinion. Competition or no competition.

Airline Routes - Use 'em or lose 'em!!

[J-Guy]

I notice an article in the Guernsey Press today quotes the chairman of Blue Islands, Derek Coates, about attempts to develop routes from Guernsey. For Jersey the article mentions that the airline is in the ‘advanced stages of discussion with the States of Jersey about opening new routes’.

I suppose these routes are likely to be the rumoured destinations like Zurich/Paris?

[GBALU53]

J-Guy
Some of these have been in the pipe line for a little while, there will be no surprises as you well know.
With the out come of the Guernsey-Sothampton application which was heard on Monday, as soon as they hear of the out come, I would expect the annocement of the other projects in the pipeline yto be confirmed.
Interesting times ahead within the Islands.

[fredtheanorak]

Rumor here in BLK yesterday of a 3x weekly BLK or LBA-JER with aircraft then on to Paris?:confused: Any vibes youre end?:eek:

[J-Guy]

I see there is now confirmation from Blue Islands that they intend to launch three new European routes this year. According to the news Paris (Beauvais) is hoped to start within six weeks and Zurich and Geneva later in the year with larger aircraft.

I’m pleased to finally see their expansion plans begin to take form. The Swiss routes should be popular with the Island’s business community, but Beauvais I’m not so sure. The lack of an alternative for passengers bound for Paris may be an advantage for Blue Islands, however, Beauvais is still a fair distance from Paris and fares will not be cheap. It surprises me that the Twin Jet's Orly route has not been developed as a credible option for an improved Paris service.

All good for Jersey though. 2007 is definitely a turning point for the Island’s air-links.

[GBALU53]

Things have gone very quite from the Island, with a lot of things bubbling in the back ground but nothing boiling up.

I was led to believe the Paris route would have be annouced by now but nothing as yet, as well as a number of other routes like the following.

Any updates to these routes that have been kicked around?
Jersey to Blackpool or Leeds
Jersey to Zurich
jersey to Geneva
Jersey to Stansted was another route that was going to rise from the ashes with the intro of Thompson an the Daily Luton shortl I think the Stansted might be dead and berried?

[Jamesair]

There is a need for another operator on the Jersey - Newcastle route to compete with Flybe which is now reduced to once weekly.

[J-Guy]

Nothing much at the moment, a few minor changes but not anything particularly note worthy. Come on Blue Islands :zzz:

There is an additional Sunday VLM departure to London City at 11.30 in addition to a 17.00 flight operated by the F50 that comes down on Fridays.

Also, there is an extra Saturday Flybe Manchester flight, which had previously operated as a charter.

Stuttgart is definitely dropped. The tour operator website has been updated and Munich/Frankfurt will operate with a DH4, Hannover/Dusseldorf with an AT7.

Is there anything about a Helsinki charter this summer? The Airport newsletter said there was a possibility of one running after the popularity of last years. Would be nice but not sure if anything has come about?

[GBALU53]

VLM flights
The Friday inbound to Jersey and outbound on Sunday covers some of the VLM charters on the Saturday, this was done last year I think.

Ref the Helsinki this was just a one off charter last year so I do not think there is a series in the pipeline to run this summer so far, but who knows.

With the Summer charters kicking in at the end of this month I would think it is to late to start any new summer charters for 2007 but i could be wrong.

There still are things in the Jerseyairport.com pipe line from what I can make out.

[G-JECL]

Whatever happened to the aircraft and crew base that VLM had in Jersey. The JER-LCY is surely a route that would sustain two return flights a day. It is afterall linking two major financial centres. Why have VLM never even considered incorporating Guernsey into their network. I may be wrong but did VLM not hold the GCI-LCY licence a few years ago, but have simply never operated the route?

[J-Guy]

Ref the Helsinki this was just a one off charter

Shame there will not be a off-one again this year. It’s nice to be reminded of the times when there were charters from Scandinavia. :(

Whatever happened to the aircraft and crew base that VLM had in Jersey

The base in Jersey was closed because it was not profitable. The figure quoted was something like a £1m loss. VLM’s loads were apparently good but competition from British Airways and Flybe meant that yields were poor. The route continues to operate at 1x daily but with even stronger competition between London and Jersey today, whether the route lasts is uncertain.

[GBALU53]

Jersey will have a connection with Paris shortly as quoted in the local paper today,although it will be to Beauvais it is near enough.:ok:
A deal has been struck between Jersey Airport and Blueislands and the service will start imminently what ever they mean by imminently one or two week or one or two months as we are well into May now.
Good news for Jersey to have another air service to France.:ok:

[jerboy]

So... the new security check point was due to open this morning. How did it go? I see the first LGWs and GCIs were delayed by around 15mins each, was this due to the new security or another problem?
Also what's up with Blue Islands this morning? The 0730 and 0805 flights are still boarding (and tis 0910)!

[lotman1000]

Same ad on two threads...

I thought advertising was not allowed?

[Eff Oh]

What type of aircraft are we talking here??? Wouldn't be a certain DO328 operator would it???? :E

[Capt. J. Upgrade]

I wasn't writing an ad mate!
I was mearly spreading the word of a rumour i'd heard.
If people wanna go they gotta find out some how! :8

[lotman1000]

OK, it's just a rumour you heard in the bar, and you've no interest in promoting the flights. I'm sorry to have been so sceptical.

Pity, isn't it, that all rumours on pprune are not so accurate, detailed, complete and well-informed.

[GBALU53]

lotman1000
Before you comment you should know the story.
You can only comment if it was bar talk which it is not.
Our company who will remain annon has been approached to operate and will fit in with both the Islands, so that could be why it appeared more than once. as this little number will fit in well with our weekend schedule as we have spare capicity.
The crew is looking at having a nice day out in bel France for a change.

Eff oh
No it is not a Dornier 328.

Could this be a tempter to operate a bit closer to Paris than the service due to start on Friday to Beauvais(Paris).
This might not be just for an air show it might lead to other things at least the Islands are trying to get new areas to operate and not stay stagnated like some other areas have in the past.:ok::ok:

[c.r.m what is it]

hey all you spotters in Jersey, not an amazing photo opertunity, but Astraeus will be flying their newly wing-tipped B737-7 into Jersey this evening, arrives 17.00 depart 18.00 to Faro

[GBALU53]

A couple of snippets.
With Scotair putting three of the D328s for sale and Blueislands getting on have Blueislands boughts it could they be in for more as they are going to annoce some more routes within the nest two to three weeks from what I can make out.
British Airways will be putting the Airbus 319 on the Gatwick in the future as the 737 fleet dwindles down, will this be before Flybe puts the EMB195 on the route I wonder?
There has been some mutterings going on that there might be a couple of more carriers interested in operating down to the Island, one of them might be Easyjet, they had talks a number of years ago with the airport but nothing came of it so are they showing an interest again?. Some routes that could be on the cards are Glasgow and Liverpool, we were hearing a few months ago that Stansted might come back, could this be one as well?

[dwlpl]

With flybe ending the LPL/Southampton route at the end of August the airline will only have the LPL/Jersey summer only route left exLPL.

I cannot see that route coming back next summer so its ready to receive EZY on the route whenever they are.

[BarTT]

If EZY do start a daily LPL-JER I will be a regular and they'll be no excuse for my Friends to come and visit! But easyJet don't seem to want to expand at LPL these days, so who knows! And it probably will only be a few times afew if we are lucky!

[GBALU53]

BarTT
From word on the apron floor as they say, the market for Jersey is the short stay which they are talking of a two or three night stay.
So two rotations a week could fit into this stile of short brakes.
As you well know have a few meals, a beer or two, a little bit of Sun and there iit s your three days have gone with a little drive around the Island for good measure.

[J-Guy]

Aer Lingus appear to have released an additional Wednesday flight from Dublin between 8th August and 5th September. It is available to book on-line at £149 one-way. :eek:

It is only operating for a short period but a good sign for tourism nonetheless…and an extra A320 on the Island, of course :ok:

[akerosid]

I just came across this North Atlantic chart and I was wondering what points transatlantic overflights would be heading towards as they pass overhead Jersey? Jersey isn't shown on the chart, but I can see the edge of the Brest FIR; I was guessing the next waypoints might be REGHI or TAKAS?

Just curious !

http://www.planningchart.de/North-Atlantic.gif

[GBALU53]

In a press release today Jersey will have a connection with Staterton Gloucester again, after a brake for a number of years Manx2.com will be starting a service routeing EGNS-EGBJ-EGJJ-EGBJ-EGNS starting from the 8th of September till the end of October on Saturday and Sundays with a lunch time departure from the Isle of Man and a mid afternoon departure from Jersey.:ok:

What will Blueislands make of this as today they did a press release say that on Tuesday and Thursday there will be two rotations to the Isle of Man.

Jersey has woken up again a bit late in the year to starta new route by Manx2 but it is another carrier and Staverton has been served by a number of carriers over the years so good to see some one going to try and make it work who knows what might happen for 2008. :ok:

[J-Guy]

Interesting to have Gloucester back, it was popular with tourists in the past, but a fairly odd announcement at this late stage. It would have been preferable if it had operated all summer rather than the thinner months at the end.

I’m not sure how much of a success the route will be, although I noticed on the Channel website it cited Jersey was Gloucester's most requested destination. Understandable with the Airport's long association with Jersey flights, but it will hopefully produce a small market for Manx2.

Flyglobespan also begin tomorrow from Durham Tees Valley. A new airline to welcome. :ok:

[airhumberside]

When did the summer JER-Gloucester charters stop?

[Trihandle]

The Aurigny charters to GLO finished at the end of 2006 summer season.
I see from Manx2 website that flight go upto December at the moment and fares start at £100 return.

[GBALU53]

Things have gone a little quite from the Islands.
With Blueislands signing a deal so we hear a month or so ago with Scotairways to lease one of the Dornier 328s so why did they do a deal has things changed and the routes they were going to operate on are on hold for the time being.
With the summer into full swing what summer it is half way through is it to late to try and start any route that relates to summer traffic but could they be looking at some of the Xmas Sking traffic or new year sking routes as Frybe are not doing any thing until the Feb half term could this be to late any way.:ok:

[Jerbourg]

I hear from a friend within Flybe that they are to operate JER-GVA starting Feb 2008.

[LGWAlan]

once weekly on a Saturday - on the timetable on their website

[GBALU53]

Jerbourg

Does it take that long to hear about new routes.
The Jersey - Geneva was annonced several weeks ago or does it take that long before the pidgeon arrives or syberspace makes contact?:ok:
This route might only be for the Skiing holidays that take part during Feb and Mar as over the half term in Feb there are normally a number of direct charters to the Skiing places.

[Jerbourg]

Obviously GCI is a few weeks behind the rest of the world! Oops!

[GBALU53]

Things are looking up for 2008:ok:
Flyglobespan has just released in the last 48 hours some of there 2008 flights and Jersey flights are twice a week from the 1st Jult to the 29 Sept.:O
Operating on Tuesday and Fridays instead of just one week on a Saturday.
Flyglobespan must be pleased with how the 2007 flights have been going to introduce a twice weekly for 2008 but this shows it is aimed at the short stay market of three or four night brake.
Well it is good news lets hope this is sign of recovery down in the Island and we will see what else will turn up before the 2008 season kicks off.:ok:

[J-Guy]

Good news even if it is still summer 2007 :) I was disappointed to see the North East region somewhat underserved this summer so any service improvements are welcome.

There has been a considerable amount of success this year in bringing in new airlines, routes and frequencies with the early statistics looking encouraging. I’m hopeful that the authorities can build upon this success for next summer.

Aer Lingus also begin at the end of March for 2008, which is another good bit of news.

[LegsUpLucy]

Word on the street that easyjet are starting lpl-jer-gla-jer from october this year,with the intention of a london route in the summer!!!
Perhaps stansted route;as they are also starting stn-funchal which could be quite a lucrative route for them and a blessing for the islands portuguese communtiy !
Get your boxing gloves out flybe !!:ok:

[GBALU53]

Legs Up Lucy
Funny thing the LPL-JER showed up back on 7th June on the Liverpool Forum. Saying is Easy starting at some stage down to Jer, what does our man up there in LPL land make of this.
He should have his ear close to this one I would have thought?

[BarTT]

Well, a few months ago, I'd have said no way! easyJet seemed dead against expanding from LPL. But this winter we already have Lisbon and Innsbruck starting, so who knows. And if it pops to Glasgow in the middle, could pop over for lunch!! I will be annoyed though, as I've already booked my flights home for Christmas with BA from MAN.
if it's going to happen from October, they'll have to put it on sale soon!

[LegsUpLucy]

Yes but could you imagine how well the jer-stn-fnc connection will do with the easyjet fares!!i think it could see flybe off the lgw route for good,they are already panicking about there drop in pax numbers on this service as they are introducing the embraer195 earlier than planned to claw back customers!Comptetion is good for the island and keeps these companies on thier toes...
I'm afraid flybe have done themselves no favours over the years in the islands and their complacency may bite them on the a**e!
Easyjets marketing power will have a tremendous effect on the tourism industry and is another benefit of the welcome change at the top of the airport management stucture!:ok:

[er82]

too right. the immigration policy is to keep hooligans out! we don't want cheap fares allowing even more of them in!!
and before anyone has a go at me, look in the local paper and you'll notice that most of those attending police court are from oop north.

[ADC2604]

LegsupLucy

With respect, Flybe cannot have done that bad afterall they have operated in the Channel Islands ever since JEA was founded back in the 70s.........

[akerosid]

Wouldn't surprise me if U2 did enter the LGW-JER market; BE doesn't have much of an operation
at LGW - just BHD, GCI and JER ... U2 already competes (albeit
indirectly) on BFS-LGW (and LTN) and now, with EI coming in on BFS-LHR,
competition on that route will increase. On top of that, what's the
future of BA short haul at LGW? Nothing guaranteed, I think. A319s have
been spoken of, but you know what happened to BACON; nothing's written
in stone, so it wouldn't necessarily be wise to rule out U2 because of
current overcapacity; next year could be very different.

As for BE and 195s, I know it is planned to bring these on the JER-LGW
route, but I had understood they were delayed, due to wing construction
issues (Kawasaki don't want to build them anymore, focusing on 787),
hence delays for all 170-195 customers.

[GBALU53]

I think the reason they are having to bring the EMB195 on the Gatwick route is a combinition of things one of them is the decline in numbers which they are trying to claw back by putting the EMB195 on the route.
The aircraft they are baseing in Jersey from what I can make out would have been the second one that was to be based in Exeter.
The aircraft will be crewed by Exeter crews untill ther Jersey crews are on line.
So the BAE146 will finish the summer schedule then the crews will go on the EMB195 course and so this is why the aircraft will have to be crewed from another base.:ok:
Hope this gives a clearer picture in the ever changeing world of aviation down on the Island.:ok:

[Jerbourg]

AEROSKID, You say.... "Wouldn't surprise me if U2 did enter the LGW-JER market; BE doesn't have much of an operation at LGW - just BHD, GCI and JER"



BE also fly to INV & IOM from LGW.

[JobsaGoodun]

i think it could see flybe off the lgw route for good,they are already panicking about there drop in pax numbers on this service as they are introducing the embraer195 earlier than planned to claw back customers!

What a load of rubbish!! Yes Flybe have had some bad press recently following tech issues but they have also reassured their local customers in Jersey by placing a spare 146 there to cover any future technical faults. It'll take more than Easyjet to see Flybe off the LGW route. Gone are the days when Flybe would run scared of the competition!! Bringing in the 195 for the winter only goes to show how serious Flybe are with preserving and developing the LGW service. I think that the islanders will like this.

Aeroskid, as indicated by Jerbourg, Flybe operation ex LGW now consists of IOM, INV, EGC, BHD, GCI and JER. Total weekday operations are up to 40 movements per day. I wouldn't say this was a particularly small operation - they may be smaller aircraft but how many daily movements do the likes of Virgin manage?

[J-Guy]

I would imagine the Flybe 195 flypast at the Air Display will give Islanders a good opportunity to view what they’ll be getting on the Gatwick run. A nice bit of publicity if that goes ahead; I don’t know if it’s confirmed.

I didn’t think we would see a based Embraer down here for a while so it’s excellent to see the investment on the Gatwick route. If only I had known last week when I booked my British Airways flights. :ugh:

Travellers really have not had such a good choice of London destinations and frequencies in years. Ultimately we’ll find out whether the capacity is sustainable next summer and into the future with subsequent changes, but at the moment it is a service that locals, business and tourism have been demanding for years, which can only benefit the Island.

[airbus-commander]

All very well placing a spare 146 at JER but at the same time, you need a crew to operate that said aircraft. In my view it is all publicity but time will tell.

They can barely crew flights at the minute so in my opinion they are parking aircraft and saving face with the public!!!

[GBALU53]

With talk on the apron floor so to speak about Easyjet starting flights this winter into Jersey.
Looking on the latest on Easyjets web site they have annonced a lot more new routes for this comming winter 46 in all, no sign of Jersey in the news.
So does this mean it will not happen? or is there still serveral things like paper work to sign for before they committe to Deal or No Deal as Noel Edmonds would say.:ok:

[ADC2604]

Yet another valid point from Jobsagoodun......listen to this person he/she knows what their talking about.

As for crew airbus-commander, your comments clearly show you know very little about the current Flybe operations. Whilst some snotty BA Connect crew did leave after the acquisition leaving BE in the s**ts, BE have rectified this and have a based a/c and crew at a number of airports including INV, IOM, BHD and JER.

I have to say I wasn't aware that the EXT E195 was going down to JER...will look into this when I return to work and see when the next batch of E195s will be in.

[GBALU53]

ADC2604
Speaking to one of the contract pilots two days ago and the company has nine contract type BAE146 Pilots so with a BAE146 in Jersey, Guernsey and Southampton they needed to put the spare aircraft in one of those places and the only one to have the space is Jersey at the moment.
The aircraft has been called upon a number of times not only to operate out of Jersey but Guernsey and Southampton as well so the place where you have the crews is where the spare aircraft is. The company has been trying to recruit more cabin crew it is easier to keep them currant on several types so when the EMB195 appears the will still be able to change aircraft.
The EMB195 is due to start from what I have heard the start of the winter programme, which means the aircraft will not be routeing via Guernsey at the weekends. From what I can make out the aircraft will be the one that is at Exeter at the moment aircraft number five G-FBEE.
We all await full confirmation on this some of this will be known by the middle of next month as a Flybe EMB195 is down in the display programme.:ok: