Updates on aviation in the Channel Islands
Updates on aviation in the Channel Islands
How did the Channel Islands airports perform this June? CI Aviation examines the latest CAA data for the month.
As expected, Jersey’s busiest route in June was London Gatwick. CAA data shows 39,536 passengers used the service, up 20.5% compared with the same month last year. The picture was less positive for Jersey’s second-busiest route, Heathrow, where passenger numbers fell 12.5%. This drop was largely due to a cut in frequencies, from around 30 flights per week in summer 2024 to just 21 per week this season.
In total, across the three London airports Jersey is connected to (Gatwick, Heathrow, and Luton), 73,862 passengers were carried.
At the other end of the scale, the least busy route this year was also one of the most interesting. French carrier Finist’Air launched services in early June linking Brest, Jersey, and Alderney. While the first Alderney flight was cancelled due to fog, the Brest service did operate. The 9-seat Cessna Grand Caravan carried 19 passengers across four flights (two JER–BES and two BES–JER), giving a load factor of around 53%. Considering tickets only went on sale just three weeks before launch, these are encouraging signs. Alderney flights began 2 days later on the Sunday (29th June), but no passengers were recorded in the CAA statistics (possible error), July’s data should hopefully provide a clearer picture.
June also saw the addition of four brand-new routes compared to last June:
Paris (CDG): 550 passengers
Vienna (VIE): 264
Munster (FMO): 68
Brest (BES): 19
Vienna and Munster were charter services operated by Blue Islands on behalf of European tour operators.
However, some routes disappeared from the schedule. Most notably, Split/Zadar (BA CityFlyer for FlyDirect Holidays) and the Isle of Man (Blue Islands, trialling demand from the finance sector) were absent this June. There were other routes missing too, but these were all charters for German tour operator Globalis, and weren’t publicly available on sale.
For easyJet, Jersey operations were overall slightly disappointing compared with June 2024. Liverpool passenger numbers dropped 31.4%, Manchester 28.6%, and Glasgow 20.3%. These decreases, though, were mostly linked to reduced frequencies, with Manchester and Liverpool each operating just half the number of flights seen last June. There was positive news on other routes: Belfast, Luton, and Edinburgh all grew passenger numbers while maintaining similar schedules, suggesting stronger load factors.
Eastern Airways’ figures for Jersey don’t read well. Humberside passenger figures fell 26.8% and Teeside even more at 37.2% – the biggest percentage drop of all routes in the period (excluding routes that were cancelled).
Blue Islands had a mixed month, hampered by aircraft availability issues. Passenger numbers rose slightly on services to East Midlands, Guernsey, and Exeter, but fell on Southampton, Norwich and Bristol. Southampton remained its busiest Jersey route, carrying 8,134 passengers, the 4th busiest overall.
Overall, 137,968 passengers travelled through Jersey Airport in June (from the chart below), a slight decline on last year.
Guernsey’s busiest route in June was, as expected, London Gatwick, with nearly 22,000 passengers, around 500 more than the same month last year. Southampton followed with 8,333 passengers, a service jointly operated by Aurigny and Blue Islands. Manchester rounded out the top three, carrying 6,201 passengers, up 4.1% year-on-year.
Aurigny’s other London service, London City, recorded 4,888 passengers, a drop of 8.2% compared with last June. The airline nevertheless marked a milestone in the period, celebrating 75,000 passengers carried on the route since launch.
June also brought four new destinations from Guernsey:
Newcastle (NCL): 237 passengers
Nice (NCE): 145
Norwich (NWI): 124
Porto (OPO): 42
Blue Islands introduced Newcastle and Norwich, with flights linked via Jersey or as add-ons to Jersey services. Aurigny launched Nice and Porto as part of its seasonal European programme. While Porto had operated in October last year, this was its first June presence.
Some destinations, however, were absent from the schedule, including London Stansted, Faro, Mahon, and Prague.
The standout growth story was Exeter. Just 65 passengers used the route last June, but with both Aurigny and Blue Islands selling seats this year, passenger numbers soared by 2,391%. By contrast, the steepest decline was on East Midlands, with 871 fewer passengers, largely the result of Aurigny withdrawing from the route.
Aurigny’s Paris service also showed encouraging growth. Now in its second year, the route carried 911 passengers in June, with an average load factor of 70.3%. This compares with Jersey’s new Paris service, which handled 550 passengers in its first full month of operation.
Edinburgh also recorded healthy growth. The addition of Loganair to the route boosted passenger numbers by 196 in June.
In total, 63,484 passengers travelled through Guernsey Airport in June, a slight decline on last year.
There was little change in Alderney’s traffic profile in June. The busiest route remained Guernsey, followed by Southampton, with 1,801 passengers recorded. The Guernsey service fell 9.5% compared with last June, while Southampton grew modestly by 2.6%.
July’s figures will be more revealing with the addition of Finist’Air’s new Jersey service, which commenced at the very end of June.
In total, 4,386 passengers travelled through Alderney Airport in June, a slight year-on-year decline.
All data is sourced from the CAA’s UK airport data page and the data used is the data reported by either Jersey, Guernsey or Alderney. It uses the data from the Domestic Air Passenger Route Analysis by Each Reporting Airport and the data from the International Air Pax Traffic Route Analysis section.
The data combines both charter and scheduled figures and represents the data for all passengers between the airports, regardless of which airport of the pair was the origin. For example, a passenger travelling from Gatwick to Jersey would be included in Jersey’s passenger figure for Gatwick in the respective graph.
Domestic services are services flown entirely within the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands with International services being flown between the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and places outside.