Aurigny bookings for first two weeks of July take off

Border restrictions are due to be relaxed from 1 July and for the first time in more than a year, people will be able to travel into Guernsey from the UK without testing or going into quarantine.

An Aurigny spokeswoman said that in recent days, the bookings had been flying in.

‘For July and August, the bookings are really up,’ she said.

‘The first two weeks of July are really busy and then we have normal loads for the summer.’

Travellers have already been growing in confidence, even before 1 July.

Aurigny has been largely running its ATR-72s over the last year because they have a smaller capacity than the 122-seat Embraer 195 jet.

But the jet will be busy this weekend, offering services to and from Southampton on Friday and Monday.

The airline said there was a mixture of locals going away for the weekend and UK people popping over to visit. That meant the ATR flights had been filling up and the extra capacity of the jet was needed instead.

There has been caution among islanders looking to book further ahead, but the spokeswoman said that was changing.

‘The Civil Contingencies Authority has given people confidence by saying that that on 1 July the borders should be open,’ she said.

‘That is less than 30 days away now, so people are feeling that it is relatively safe to travel.’

Currently people who have been in category two areas only in the last 14 days – which include the south-east and south-west – need to quarantine only until they receive a negative result from their test on arrival.

They then need to take another test on day seven or, if they leave after less than a week, on their departure.

The results from the tests on arrival can take up to 48 hours, but the Aurigny spokeswoman said so far the system seemed to be working very smoothly, with many travellers getting their result on the day they arrive.