Lease plane failed to inspire confidence

Dear sirs,

I had the misfortune to fly on the aircraft you are using from this operator on the last flight from Southampton last night. I assume it is a wet lease as the crew were from the operator as well.

How long do you propose to use this wreck? Its interior condition is disgraceful and inspires no confidence.

The crew did not perform the safety briefing adequately and didn't make any attempt to check seat belts or luggage stowage before either take-off or landing.

I do not appreciate having my safety compromised in this way.

When can we expect normal service to be resumed as I feel compelled to find alternative transport arrangements until they are?

What makes it worse is the fact that there has been no publicity about this change, either in the media or by email to those of us who are your frequent flyers and have supported you since Jetstream days.

I look forward to your early response and before I need to book my next batch of flights, although I also note that, coincident with the arrival of this airframe and the reduction of Flybe flights on the SOU-GCI route, you have inflated the fares considerably, which therefore no longer makes it my automatic choice anyway.

ALAN MUIR,

alanmmuir@

btinternet.com.

Editor's footnote: Rob Veron, managing director of Blue Islands, responds: 'Thank you for giving us the opportunity to reply to this letter. Blue Islands totally rebut these comments.

The reader has chosen to discuss safety standards without providing any indication of his or her qualification, training or experience of these matters within the highly regulated commercial aviation sector, and this is clearly of great concern to us.

We would not want the many hundreds of customers we carry each day to be alarmed by inaccurate and wholly inappropriate comment made without foundation or knowledge.

The aircraft in question has been leased from our carefully selected partners, Danish Air Transport (DAT), while our ATR-72 aircraft undergoes scheduled maintenance requirements.

DAT CEO Jesper Rungholm said: "DAT is a Danish airline operating scheduled, charter and freight services, with activities across Europe, Middle East and Africa, employing over 300 staff, with a fleet of 15 aircraft flying over 525,000 passengers per year. Safety is of the utmost importance in our business and our primary concern at all times."

Being a European operator, DAT has to comply with the same safety standards as ourselves – the safety of passengers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. Blue Islands cabin crew have also been present on flights operated by DAT as an additional measure.

To date, we have carried more than 10,000 passengers on this lease aircraft on our Guernsey/Southampton service with no other complaints. In fact, we have received a number of positive letters from our passengers regarding this aircraft and service, such as: "Having travelled with the DAT service... I just want to say what a delightful and professional cabin crew... who managed a fairly full flight so competently and charmingly."

It should be noted that when Flybe significantly reduced its service with little notice, Blue Islands immediately stepped in to rescue Flybe customers.

Blue Islands is proud to offer this lifeline route to the islands and our pricing structure and service continues to win passengers from the Gatwick service as more and more people travel on our highly competitive air-rail Waterloo service via Southampton airport.'