Airport sees 11,000 rise in passengers in 2019
GUERNSEY AIRPORT has enjoyed a strong start to the year, with 11,000 more passengers in the first five months of the year, compared with the same period in 2018.
Just over 307,000 people have passed through the island’s airport so far – up by 3.7% from the 296,106 of January to May 2018.
The largest rises have been on the Exeter route, which saw a 12% increase to 12,071 passengers, and Manchester, a 5% rise to 24,758.
On the Gatwick route there were 126,339 passenger movements – just 57 fewer than the same period last year.
Guernsey and Alderney airports head of aviation services, Ash Nicholas, said he was pleased with the figures.
‘It is welcoming to see to see positivity concerning air travel out of Guernsey Airport since the beginning of 2019,’ he said.
‘This is due to a number of factors.
‘Guernsey Airport has frozen its charges for landing fees in 2019 and we have continued to apply our discount policy for new destinations out of Guernsey Airport.
There is also the establishment of a quasi-open skies policy on all routes, excluding London Gatwick and Alderney.’
He said the route discount policy was already bearing fruit with the establishment of the London Southend and London Heathrow routes.
A daily service to Southend was launched by Blue Islands on 20 May. In the remaining 12 days of that month 857 passengers used the service.
‘Regionally, new routes to Newquay, Edinburgh, and Bournemouth have added more confidence in the air travel market for attracting tourists
to visit Guernsey as well as for local residents to visit new regions,’ Mr Nicholas said.
‘It is also pleasing to see confidence returning with extra services to Jersey and Southampton.’
He said that Bristol, East Midlands, Manchester and Exeter all achieved encouraging percentage growth during the first five months of 2019.
‘On all our UK routes, 9,110 extra passengers have travelled to and from the island compared to the first five months of 2018,’ he said.
‘There were however reductions on both Birmingham and London Stansted routes.’
On inter-island routes, services to Alderney saw an increase of 532 passengers – to 11,507 – resulting in a 5% increase compared to 2018.
‘Guernsey Airport is very pleased with these figures, given the longer-term downward trends on Alderney passenger movements over recent years,’ Mr Nicholas said.
‘Jersey too saw an increase with a 4% increase in passenger traffic over the first five months of 2019.’
