Air travel reached its highest levels since 2019, sea travel was also up, and both of the key months of July and August saw significant year-on-year increases.
‘July was Guernsey Airport’s busiest month since the Covid-19 pandemic, with passenger numbers up 10% compared with July 2025, and monthly travellers exceeding 75,000 for the first time since 2019,’ said Guernsey Ports managing director Ross Coppolo.
‘That strong demand for air travel continued into August, with passenger numbers increasing by 7% year-on-year. The airport again welcomed more than 75,000 passengers during the month.
‘Growth has also continued across ferry services. Passenger numbers on Guernsey’s northern and southern sea routes during July were 3% higher than July 2025, and 14% higher than July 2024.’
Guernsey’s marinas also continued to perform strongly in 2026, with visiting vessel and passenger numbers remaining close to the high levels achieved in 2025, which in turn followed several consecutive years of growth.
Mr Coppolo said he was hoping for an equally strong finish to the boating season.
Subject to weather conditions during the remainder of the season, year-end totals for visiting leisure craft are expected to be close to those recorded in 2025, when approximately 7,800 private vessels brought around 20,000 visitors to the island.
The ports manager said the strong performance across all routes was down to many people pulling together.
‘These figures reflect the efforts of our teams and partners to strengthen connectivity and improve the customer experience for residents and visitors alike and demonstrates the sustained demand for travel to and from the Bailiwick.’
Despite a relatively soft start to the year, the boom in travellers over the summer season will almost certainly mean that total passengers numbers for 2026 will prove to be the highest since the pandemic.
Traffic between London and Guernsey was significantly up
Sitting underneath the impressive headline figures for air passenger numbers last month is a mixed picture in relation to the performance of individual routes.
The new subsidised Heathrow link seems to have quickly settled into a spring and summer pattern. Numbers remained very similar to recent months during August at 7,760 passengers.
Despite that, Aurigny still managed modestly to increase the number of travellers carried on its Gatwick service during the month to 23,506.
Once again, there was a big drop in numbers using London City, which were down 42%. Aurigny has taken the commercial decision to reduce capacity on this route to reflect the new market realities. However, the total number of passengers travelling between London and Guernsey was significantly up.
The results for regional air travel were mixed. Both Birmingham and Bristol saw drops on the same month last year but Manchester, Southampton and Exeter were all up. The combined figure for all air travel between Guernsey and the UK was a healthy 9% up on August 2025.
Closer to home, fewer people travelled between Guernsey and Alderney but there was a big increase on the Guernsey-Jersey route.
You need to be logged in to comment.