In a letter to all staff, Neil Garwood, the airport’s managing director, said that passenger numbers for 2020 were likely to be half of previously forecasted levels following the loss of the regional carrier.
The Southampton-Jersey route is the second-most popular air route to the Island. According to Visit Jersey, 85,121 people arrived into Jersey from the Hampshire airport in 2018 and 81,304 arrived in 2019.
Hundreds also rely on the link to access specialist medical appointments at the city’s hospital.
Although Flybe only operated a handful of flights out of Jersey during its dying days, the airline was the dominant carrier at Southampton Airport.
Aurigny, Eastern Airways and Loganair have now announced they are to take on some of the defunct airline’s former routes from the airport to UK destinations. Blue Islands, a former Flybe franchise partner, continues to operate between the Hampshire airport and Jersey.
Mr Garwood’s letter to staff said: ‘Our passenger numbers, including the backfill [other airlines] we have secured so far, are now around half what they were forecast to be for 2020 and, crucially for our profitability, in the current market, airlines are in a position to pay us far less to operate than we’ve seen historically.
‘It is so significant across the AGS group [the airport’s owners] that our financial position is very threatened. The future shape and structure of our company will be very different to what it is now, in order to ensure the airport survives.’
He added: ‘You don’t need me to tell you that the world has changed completely for us following the sad demise of Flybe last week.
‘Whilst we have some welcome news of backfill coming through, this will unfortunately not be sufficient to prevent significant restructuring across every organisation involved with the airport, including our own. Our priority is to keep the airport open, and we just cannot withstand such huge change without making changes in response.’
Checker Cars, which ran a pre-booked cab service from the
airport, made all of its drivers redundant on the day of Flybe’s collapse.
Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith described the situation at the airport as a ‘hugely worrying time’, but said he hoped it could ‘grow and thrive’.
