Blue Islands

[Aviador]

Indeed, it will be sad to see another livery disappear.

 

[Aviador]

Indeed, it will be sad to see another livery disappear.

 

[Marko1]

Blue islands/flybe appear to have added a second Saturday service to jersey in peak summer although their winter season appears to be reduced compared to the blue islands schedule last winter

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Reported elsewhere that the included-in-the-fare light refreshments and hold baggage that was one of Blue Islands' selling points have been discontinued following the Flybe franchise.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Blue Islands' morning Jersey rotation has been cancelled today.

Lots of posts on another forum in recent days about Blue Islands with many cancellations reported in the Channel Islands; shortage of aircraft; an elderly fleet. There is speculation that the Flybe franchise might be the last throw of the dice. If it doesn't work out there might be nowhere else to turn.

Blue Islands has been a consistent airline at BRS for several years with its 2 x daily Jersey operation. It would be a great shame if that was to end.

I suppose that bmi regional would be the logical carrier to move in if, for whatever reason, Blue Islands gave up the route.

A couple of years ago there were strong rumours that easyJet would commence a BRS-JER. Given that they began an Isle of Man route from BRS last year and it runs year-round, although now at only 2 x weekly, JER would not be unrealistic with a potentially much bigger market, although it might not sustain an Airbus on a daily schedule in winter. easyJet already operates to Jersey from such airports as Liverpool, Newcastle, Belfast Int and Glasgow, as well as London (Gatwick, Luton and Southend).

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2016

Blue Islands/Flybe seems to be operating only a single daily Jersey service this summer. The morning rotation appears to have been cancelled.

The winter just ended saw only a single daily rotation for much of the time.

There now seems to be a lack of capacity on this route compared with the past, albeit Blue Islands/Flybe now seem to be using an ATR 72 on the BRS route instead of the 42 some of which I believe have left the fleet. There was talk a year or so ago of easyJet operating BRS-JER.

easyJet surprised many by commencing BRS-IOM and this has remained now for a couple of years, albeit reduced in capacity to 2 x weekly, but it is year-round.

If IOM attracts sufficient punters to easyJet from BRS to keep the route solvent JER ought to be a better bet. It might not be daily even in summer, perhaps 5-6 weekly, and less in winter. I was against the idea of easyJet operating BRS-JER last year because I feared it would impact adversely on Blue Islands' double-daily route. Now that they are in bed with Flybe and have reduced BRS-JER anyway that fear is largely irrelevant. easyJet operates from Jersey to the likes of Liverpool, Glasgow and Gatwick with seasonal flights to Belfast Int, Luton, Southend and Newcastle.

 

[Marko1]

When I heard about blue islands going into a franchise arrangement with Flybe I think it was only a matter of time before the route would be downgraded to be honest. The obvious choice would now be easyJet and personally it would definitely boost what is a declining route from brs. by the way easyJet's second instalment for winter 17/18 is launched this Thursday.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

In summer 2004 there were four JER rotations each day by four separate airlines:

Aurigny (ATR - not sure which series) - dep BRS 0825
Air Southwest (Dash 8-300) - dep BRS 1015
BA Citiexpress (E145) - dep BRS 1100
Flybe (Dash 8-300, before the -400) - dep BRS 1300

Now that was probably a bit overserved. Currently I believe it's underserved.

 

[Jerry]

It could mean Aurigny increasing as well?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Aurigny don't operate from BRS to JER any more, just BRS-GCI.

 

[Red Flyer]

SI will be adding an extra JER on a Sunday for the main summer peak

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It remains to be seen how Blue Islands will come out of any Virgin consortium purchase of Flybe and what affect it might have on the BRS-JER route.

 

[Marko1]

Blue islands had a much better frequency of service before the Flybe franchise so hopefully if the franchise goes the service will improve again

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Jersey

https://www.bristolairport.co.uk/about-us/news-and-media/news-and-media-centre

5,000 extra seats added to Bristol this summer

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I was looking at the BRS website arrivals page today and noted that BE6482 scheduled arrival time 1540 is showing Guernsey as the origin of the flight. I'd forgotten that Blue Islands/Flybe are now incorporating GCI on the former JER-BRS-JER service. The Flybe booking engine confirms a GCI-JER-BRS routing.

The return BE6483 at 1630 is showing Jersey as the destination but the Flybe booking engine suggests the flight goes on the Guernsey after the JER stop, unless on the outbound from BRS there is a change of aircraft at JER for those passengers going on to GCI.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/blue-islands-flight-bristol-airport-2833049

A Blue Islands ATR42 operating JER-BRS had to return to JER because a 'flap' that facilitates connection to ground power had not been properly closed. After inspection at JER the aircraft flew to BRS.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Flybe's winter 2019/2020 schedule is being loaded into their system today with it being reported that the official launch will be tomorrow.

The Blue Islands BRS-JER route operated by Flybe appears to be available only until 25 October when checking the Flybe web booking engine (dates after 25 October are greyed-out).

However, if a date is selected before or on 25 October it's possible when the selected test booking appears to move the date into November where fares and times are shown.

The Flybe online timetable similarly shows dates into November.

I wondered what would happen if Flybe pulled out of their Blue Islands arrangment. Presumably either Blue Islands would take the route back itself or another carrier would have to be found, perhaps easyJet who fly to Jersey from other UK airports and were rumoured to be looking at BRS-JER a few years ago. The snag might be that an easyJet route might see a lesser frequency than Blue Islands/Flybe.

Anyway, at the moment it appears that the Blue Islands/Flybe arrangement will continue into next winter.

 

[Jerry]

The Flybe online timetable similarly shows dates into November.

It looks like it'll be 6 weekly with no flights on Saturdays according to their timetable.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It looks like it'll be 6 weekly with no flights on Saturdays according to their timetable.

There were no Saturday flights last winter (18/19) either.

 

[superking]

With the extra daily flight to JER I wonder why they did not make it a morning flight..Perhaps slots at JER was not there if there is slots at JER.