MORE than 4,500 visitors from Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland could travel to the Channel Islands this summer as part of a charter programme announced by Blue Islands.
The airline has been working with Visit Jersey and representatives from Guernsey on the initiative, which will cover 67 inbound flights and up to 33,000 bed nights for the 4,690 visitors.
Rob Veron, chief executive of Blue Islands, said: “We are thrilled to work with our valued tour operator partners to deliver inbound European charter programmes, enabling visitors from Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland to discover the unique charm and beauty of Jersey and Guernsey this summer.
“We have been operating series charter to the islands for over 15 years and are proud of the role we play in supporting the inbound visitor economy – an important sector of our islands’ wider economies.”
New routes and expanded services are a feature of the programme, which comprises:
– Twenty weekly departures from the Dutch cities of Groningen and Rotterdam.
– Seven inbound flights from the Austrian capital Vienna.
– Services from five regional airports in northern and central Germany, including Hannover and Bremen.
– A new route serving Bern in Switzerland, complementing Blue Islands’ existing Zurich flights.
In a recent JEP interview, Tricia Warwick, chief executive of Visit Jersey, said work to build back the volume of charter passengers to pre-Covid levels had been a focus for her organisation, alongside route development work for scheduled flights to mainland Europe, in partnership with Ports of Jersey.
She said: “The German market has been slower to rebound since Covid, and that’s what we want to encourage.
“The positive thing is that these charter visitors from Germany and Switzerland stay for a week and are typically very active while they are here, spending more on average per day than British visitors.”
A spokesperson for Blue Islands said it was not yet known how the total number of European passengers on the charter services would be split between Jersey and Guernsey.
A limited number of seats are available from Jersey to Bern and Zurich on a flight-only basis and are bookable at blueislands.com.
