Former airport workers reunite
A REUNION of staff who worked for businesses at the airport reunited colleagues who had not been together for almost 20 years.
Many of those who attended had worked for ground handling company Servisair.
The company operated at Guernsey airport from 1977 to April 2004 and event organiser Geoff de Carteret said they had not been together since then.
‘Servisair was a family and it was great to get everyone in the same room again,’ he said.
‘It was a smashing night with lots of reminiscing.’
Mr de Carteret said the idea for the reunion had come after he had bumped into a former colleague at a funeral.
‘We realised we hadn’t seen each other for years and said why don’t we get everyone together? And it just started there.’
About 50 former Servisair staff attended the event at the Guernsey Aero Club, along with air crew from Air UK and Jersey European, which became Flybe.
They included 92-year-old Dave Jarvis and Roland Duquemin, 90, who came in his original Servisair uniform.
A raffle raised more than £500 with the proceeds split between Les Bourgs Hospice and Guernsey Cancer Research.
Mr de Carteret went on to start Rock Aviation with colleagues Ken Staples and Steven Le Tocq, which was a forerunner of Blue Islands.
‘We still have no idea why Servisair was shut down, we were the best station on the network,’ he said.
‘We handled everything that came through that airport when tourism was at its height. It was a gut-wrencher to close and we all just went our separate ways.
‘People said the reunion was so good we should do it all again next year.’
