Having nearly completed a three-month trial of offering special delivery by air to the UK for customers wanting guaranteed next-day delivery, it has recognised that the demand from customers is not there.
The company said its Special Delivery by Air service, launched as a trial in early July after the evening mail plane was finally withdrawn, would end after the final scheduled flight on 2 October, after a review found that most customers had chosen cheaper sea-based options instead.
The trial had been launched alongside new sea-based Special Delivery and Tracked services. It used scheduled Aurigny flights to carry the post.
The company found that just 5% of customers opted for the guaranteed next-day air service, with the other 95% choosing either Special Delivery by Sea, a guaranteed two-day service, or the Tracked option, which typically delivers within three days.
Guernsey Post chief executive Steve Sheridan said the trial showed ‘limited demand for a premium air-based option’.
‘Given the limited uptake during the trial, customer demand has not been sufficient to justify continuing the air-based service beyond the trial period,’ said Mr Sheridan.
Next-day delivery remains available through DHL Express, which customers can contact directly.
The decision marks the end of a long retreat from air mail. Royal Mail withdrew the island’s incoming morning mail plane in April 2025, as part of cost-cutting and net-zero measures, at a time when about half of all incoming mail was still flown in.
Guernsey Post kept a chartered aircraft running to export post – chiefly to support bulk customers such as greeting card firms Moonpig and Funky Pigeon – flying between four and six tonnes a day to East Midlands airport in an ATR-72.
But earlier this year the company announced that the dedicated export plane, too, would be withdrawn, saying the rising cost of the air network meant it was no longer financially sustainable and that sea freight offered a ‘robust, cost-effective alternative’ to air mail.
From 6 July, standard mail switched to sea, with incoming post already arriving on the overnight ferry Condor Islander, and the company tested the appetite for continued air services.
Guernsey was the last of the three Crown Dependencies to complete the move away from air.
Royal Mail withdrew Jersey’s mail plane in August 2023 and the Isle of Man’s mail place two months later.
The shift reflects a steady decline in demand. Air mail tonnage to and from Guernsey fell to 2,151 tonnes in 2024 – a 3% drop on the year before and the lowest in at least a decade, down from a peak of 2,948 tonnes in 2016.
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