Guernsey making progress on direct Paris air route

Wednesday 19 July 2023

Guernsey politicians are working with “an operator” to reintroduce a direct air link to the French capital on a three-year pilot basis – but needs £400,000 to make it happen.

President of the island's Economic Development Committee Deputy Neil Inder told the States Assembly on Tuesday morning that without the extra cash it won’t happen.

Deputies are currently in general discussion over what government should aim to achieve up to the next election in 2025, but any funding considerations are being agreed in a traditional debate in September.

If agreed and the unnamed operator remains keen, flights to Paris could start again next year, Deputy Inder added.

“As an island there are benefits for islanders themselves as well as benefits for the French to discover coming to Guernsey, with the obvious cultural links,” he said.

“Coming back in September, we are obviously going to want to ensure that we get a European link, and that obviously falls into our air policy framework, of which a European link was important.”

The now collapsed airline Flybe attempted to introduce flights between the Channel Islands and Paris in 2006, but the idea fell through with the company criticising a lack of joined-up thinking on air routes from the two islands. 

Flybe were requesting around a quarter of a million pounds from each island, but Jersey didn’t want to subsidise the route that heavily, especially since it had been predicted the route would lose £1.5m in its first year.

In 2019, then Economic Development President, Deputy Charles Parkinson said talks were underway with interested airports to establish a French air link, but finding an operator was proving difficult. 

Any route would require a subsidy, he added.

Blue Islands currently operates up to three direct flights to Rennes from Jersey per week throughout the summer months. 

Jersey's Economic Development Minister, Deputy Kirsten Morel, has previously said he believes that links to Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon and other major cities could be commercially viable, after easyJet confirmed it had received a positive response to its new service to Amsterdam, and said he would be "engaging with Ports [of Jersey] to encourage them to further the expansion of our European networks."