Blue Islands

[TheLocalYokel]

A poster on the Dried Plum reckons that Blue Islands is seeking a buyer. Most of this poster's posts in the past have been in connection with the Channel Islands so he/she is unlikely to be a troll.

I wondered about alternatives if for any reason BI ceased to serve BRS to Jersey. There aren't many small airlines left.

easyJet would be a possibility but, if it wished to serve JER from BRS, would it bother waiting until BI left the route? easyJet flies to JER from EDI, GLA, LPL, LGW, MAN, BFS, SEN, LTN and NCL with some of the routes being summer-only.

An easyJet BRS-JER route would be unlikely to be daily I would have thought, and winter might pose a question mark. The airline serves IOM year-round from BRS but only 2 x weekly, although from the coming winter it increases to 3 x weekly. Have we mentioned that before in the BRS easyJet thread? The IOM increase is news to me. I only discovered it when checking the easyJet site in connection with BI and JER.

I can't see BRS not having some sort of JER connection. It's a route that's been around for ever it seems, with the so-called honeymoon specials 50-60 years ago prior to the Costas bursting into popularity.

 

[superking]

More news the airport has not posted with the extra IOM route. I would have thought the more news items they could post the more people would have BRS in their mind for the use of the airport. I admire CWL as they post news how ever important it is and again keeps airport in the minds of people. It wonders how much longer Blue islands will have a tie with Flybe.

 

[Marko1]

The Isle of Man increase came at the release of the winter flights as was increases to Lyons, Athens and Funchal .

How about aurigny for jersey. They did fly twice a day some years back

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Further to the last few posts in this thread, a poster on the DP says he was told by a senior figure in Blue Islands that the airline will close next February if a buyer cannot be found.

You mentioned the 2 x daily Aurigny route to Jersey in the past. It was a double drop first to Jersey then on to Guernsey. My wife and I used that route to get to GCI with Aurigny getting on for 15 years ago.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I wonder what will happen with the Blue Islands/Flybe link-up now that Virgin Connect has been announced. BRS-JER isn't a route that will connect into any Virgin long haul, although there are Flybe routes at other airports that seem set to continue under the Virgin Connect banner that don't connect into Virgin long haul either.

 

[Scottie Dog]

But don't forget this part of their announcement:

We’ll be saying goodbye to purple and hello to red. We’ll also be offering our customers an enhanced customer experience, whilst continuing to connect the regions & our passengers to what matters most.

 

[superking]

If as expected Flybe goes under in the near future.It wonders if Blue airlines go back to the routes they franchise on . It would only affect 1 route to Jer out of BRS.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

If as expected Flybe goes under in the near future.It wonders if Blue airlines go back to the routes they franchise on . It would only affect 1 route to Jer out of BRS.

I'm not sure that Blue Islands is in the best of financial health itself. The Flybe partnership seemed to be a way of helping both airlines.

 

[andrewgreen]

Would easyJet be likely to step in on the jersey route ?

 

[superking]

Would easyJet be likely to step in on the jersey route ?

Every chance that could happen. I don't know if Easyjet has any gaps to do that.

 

[andrewgreen]

With the Thomas cook slots still not used and the route only needing a relatively small gap I’m sure they could fit it in

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A few years ago there was a strong rumour that easyJet was going to operate BRS-JER. If they wanted to would they find it necessary from a commercial angle to await a possible pull-out by Blue Islands? I wouldn't have thought so. I don't know how strict the States of Jersey are when it comes to issuing route licences, if indeed they issue them in the same way as Guenrsey. Probably seven or eight years ago, perhaps a bit longer, Blue Islands wanted to fly GCI-BRS in competition with Aurigny. The States of Guernsey licensing authority was not keen and eventually Blue Islands withdrew their application.

I remember easyJet coming onto some Flybe French routes from BRS, probably nearly 15 years ago, that caused Flybe to pull their own routes. This is rumoured to be part of the ill-feeling that is said in some quarters to have existed between BRS and Flybe.

Ironically, Flybe then did exactly the same themselves at CWL when they came on to CityJet's routes there following a deal with the Welsh Government that led to CityJet pulling out. CityJet was critical of its treatment by the CWL owners with more irony in that CityJet's CEO went on to become CEO of Flybe.

All this is business surely.

Going back to easyJet, they operate BRS/Isle of Man year-round with either 2 or 3 weekly rotations, depending on season, so Jersey would not be a huge surprise. Perhaps though the drawback might be that it would not be a daily service, especially in winter. easyJet operates from Jersey to nine UK airports, most year-round, with the number of rotations varying widely according to UK airport served from 2/3 weekly up to 4 daily from LGW at certain times of the year.

 

[andrewgreen]

Yes that is drawback as even an A319 daily would probably be to much .

 

[superking]

I see the Jersey flight that operates to Jersey on Flybe flight numbers have reverted back to Blue island flight numbers.I feel so sorry for the Flybe staff that will lose their jobs and can get jobs else where.

 

[superking]

The local breakfast news by Points west saying all Flybe routes operated out of BRS are cancelled. The 1 route connected with Flybe to Jersey from BRS is not cancelled as it was a franchise route and operated by Blue island has reverted to a Blue island flight code.What terrable reporting with no research no doubt.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The local breakfast news by Points west saying all Flybe routes operated out of BRS are cancelled. The 1 route connected with Flybe to Jersey from BRS is not cancelled as it was a franchise route and operated by Blue island has reverted to a Blue island flight code.What terrable reporting with no research no doubt.

This notice is on the Bristol Airport website.

Flybe update: Bristol Airport are sorry to learn that Flybe have ceased trading with immediate effect. The Jersey service was operated by Blue Islands under a franchise agreement with Flybe. Blue Islands will continue to operate the Jersey route independently and customers will be unaffected flying to or from Bristol Airport. We ask customers with bookings for travel to check in at the airport as normal.

 

[superking]

There is about 70 booked on todays flight to Jersey.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Interesting post on the Dried Fruit today about BRS-JER. I don't always take notice of posts on that site but this one was by a regular poster who invariably posts sensibly and with thought.

With a new Blue Islands Exeter-Jersey route being commenced he muses that the BRS-JER could be switched to become CWL-JER. That could then provide an opportunity to use the aircraft to cover one of the currently unserved former Flybe routes, eg EXT-CWL-BHD-CWL-EXT.

BRS would be left with no Jersey route. The idea is that the South West and South Wales would be covered by the airports on either side of BRS instead of, as is often the case, a route operating just from BRS that draws in passengers from both the EXT and CWL catchments.

Recent annual stats show that EXT-JER carries more passengers than either BRS-JER or CWL-JER.

Whether Blue Islands would desert BRS and hope that travellers in the BRS primary catchment would to turn to EXT or CWL instead is a debatable point. A year or two ago there were strong rumours that easyJet was to come on to BRS-JER which would certainly have seen the end of Blue Islands on the route as they could not possibly compete. I'd be surprised if JER, a route that has been operated almost continually since the 1960s, was left unserved - as recently as around 15 years ago there were four carriers competing on it.

I'm not suggesting that easyJet would step in just because Blue Islands pulled out. Had easyJet fancied the route they would have started it and not cared a fig about Blue Islands.

To confirm, this is not a Blue Islands proposal but something a Dried Fruit member suggested might be a consideration.

 

[superking]

As the route is run now from BRS it shows tha pax are happy to travel to BRS for the flight to JER from Wales.With the coronavirus going on i cant see a airline on a established route upping sticks to go to a airport that has to start afresh in building a route,that would be suicide.

 

[Jerry]

As the route is run now from BRS it shows tha pax are happy to travel to BRS for the flight to JER from Wales.With the coronavirus going on i cant see a airline on a established route upping sticks to go to a airport that has to start afresh in building a route,that would be suicide.

Well they haven't really much choice have they at the moment? Jersey is a route that has been able to operate from both airports reasonably well.