Flybe heading for monopoly on Jersey-Guernsey route

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Aurigny are dropping out of the Jersey-Guernsey route in mid-March, meaning that Flybe will have the route to themselves from May.

The news – announced just a week after the other operator Blue Islands announced it would become a franchise of Flybe later this year – brings to a close the “code share” agreement between Blue Islands and Aurigny.

And it means that from May, the only aircraft flying the inter-island route will be Flybe planes.

A joint announcement from Blue Islands and Aurigny said that code-share deal was going to be ended in March, and all flights booked with Aurigny after that date will be transferred to Blue Islands.

In their own statement, Blue Islands said that the Jersey-Guernsey service was a key route.

In May, Blue Islands will become the third “franchise partner” of Flybe, with their aircraft flying under Flybe livery with the tickets booked through the Flybe website.

Managing Director Rob Veron said: “The inter-island service is a key strategic route for Blue Islands, serving our business, tourism and leisure travelling communities, including of course our sporting groups.

“As a local airline we can assure all customers and stakeholders that Blue Islands is fully committed to delivering a long-term robust and sustainable inter-island service that fully meets the needs of the travel market.

“Furthermore, our back-up ATR aircraft provides essential reliability for this vital service. For example between March 2014 and December 2015, 96% of all inter-island flights operated by Blue Islands departed within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.”