Channel Islands airline Blue Islands has today announced a substantial boost to Guernsey’s air connectivity from March 2025 with the introduction of three new air links to provide options for travellers to and from the island.
The airline operates a fleet of five ATR aircraft, four based in Jersey and one based in Guernsey and already flies one in four passengers at Guernsey Airport. From March 2025, it will maintain Guernsey’s connections to East Midlands and Exeter and will continue links between Guernsey and Norwich for the summer.
The three new Blue Islands routes will be on sale from Wednesday 11 December, with flights commencing from March and May 2025:
- Guernsey-Exeter will have up to six weekly flights year-round from March 2025, with daily service except Saturdays. There will be direct non-stop Guernsey-Exeter links on Thursdays and Sundays from 22 May to 28 September, served by flights routing from Jersey. On other days, flights will have a short 30-minute stop in Jersey during which Guernsey customers can remain on the aircraft. Journey times from Guernsey to Exeter will be 40 minutes on non-stop services and for flights routing via Jersey, 1 hour 35 minutes including the ground time in Jersey.
- Guernsey-East Midlands will have three weekly year-round flights from March 2025 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There will be flights on other days of the week during the spring and autumn. All flights will have a short stop in Jersey during which customers can remain on the aircraft, and overall journey times from Guernsey to East Midlands will be 2 hours 10 minutes.
- Guernsey-Norwich will have two weekly flights–on Saturdays from 10 May to 20 September and on Tuesdays from 27 May to 16 September. Both will have a short stop in Jersey during which customers can remain on the aircraft, with overall journey times of 2 hours 20 minutes.
The introduction of the new routes will also enable Blue Islands to maintain higher service frequency on the vital inter-island Guernsey-Jersey connection than would otherwise be possible. Inter-island frequency will remain at current levels of three flights each way on weekdays for Summer 2025, with two flights each way per day at weekends.
Introducing the new services, Ronnie Matheson, Chief Revenue Officer Blue Islands’ said: “We’re delighted to be increasing Blue Islands’ services from Guernsey next year with no fewer than three new routes to complement existing Blue Islands flights to Jersey and Southampton. Exeter, East Midlands and Norwich are all long-standing destinations from Guernsey, and our new flights will be on sale from next week – providing plenty of opportunity to plan for 2025 whether travelling for leisure, to and from university, visiting friends and relatives or for business.
“Connectivity is essential for island communities, and providing that year-round connectivity is a key part of Blue Islands’ DNA. Alongside today’s announcement, we’re looking forward to announcing further exciting developments in the coming weeks.”
Blue Islands already serves the lifeline Guernsey-Southampton route jointly with Aurigny, and the airlines intend to provide full optionality to customers by enabling the new Guernsey connections to be booked via either airline’s system in due course.
Blue Islands will recruit additional Guernsey-based aircrew ahead of Summer 2025 to service its expanded route network. It continues to serve high-frequency flights to Jersey and Southampton on a year-round basis and makes an important contribution to the island’s inbound visitor economy with regular charter services from the Netherlands and Switzerland in the summer for its tour operator partners.
