The Scottish airline, which was encouraged into Jersey by that island’s government after it foresaw the demise of Blue Islands, immediately tried to take over the local airline’s Guernsey routes too.
But it was advised that it could not run to and from Southampton without a licence, and then the Economic Development Committee made inter-island services a lifeline link, also requiring a licence.
Loganair went head-to-head with Aurigny, but once the local airline had been awarded a route licence for Guernsey-Jersey, the writing was on the wall.
It announced last night that the Transport Licensing Authority had said that it had provisionally reached a decision to deny an operating licence on both routes.
The airline’s response was that it would focus on Jersey services.
‘We are not surprised at this outcome; however, we remain resolutely of the belief that Loganair should play a part in serving the Channel Islands community beyond our base in Jersey. We are disappointed not to be able to serve the Guernsey community,’ it said.
It said it would be cancel and refund customers booked to travel inter-island from 15 January, when Aurigny’s licence comes into effect.
‘We’ll show in Jersey what our customer-first approach looks like,’ said CEO Luke Farajallah. ‘If we do our job well, we hope Guernsey will soon enjoy the same standard of service. Our door remains open for dialogue with the States leadership.’
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