BLUE Islands is to come under scrutiny in the States Assembly as politicians quiz ministers about the embattled airline and a loan from government worth more than £8 million.
Treasury Minister Elaine Millar was due to face an oral question from former Chief Minister Kristina Moore this morning about the £8.5 million loan, taken out in 2020 to help Blue Islands recover from the financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deputy Moore will ask the minister about what communication has taken place with the airline about its performance or – if there’d been no communication – what plans were in place to initiate such a discussion.
Meanwhile Deputy Tom Coles is to challenge Health Minister Tom Binet about recent disruption to service – and in particular the impact on Islanders travelling with Blue Islands in order to attend appointments for medical treatment at hospitals in England.
The questions follow recent difficulties for the airline, which announced on Friday 23 May that it would be reducing services on four of its 18 routes as a result of challenges relating to its fleet, with a newly-ordered plane having been delayed for several months and a further aircraft requiring parts and maintenance.
Two days after the announcement, a Blue Islands plane bound for Jersey was forced to make an emergency landing at Birmingham Airport shortly after take-off having suffered the partial failure of one of its engines.
Over the past ten days there have been delays to a significant proportion of Blue Islands’ services, and several cancellations, in spite of arrangements being made by the airline to lease additional aircraft until the fleet challenges had been resolved.
Islanders have taken to social media to complain about the disruption, including one passenger whose Sunday flight from Bristol was rescheduled by five hours at just a day’s notice, and others who had endured difficulties with trips to Southampton General Hospital.
Two Jersey services were cancelled yesterday: the afternoon flights to Birmingham and Exeter, and the return flights to the Island later in the day.
Last year, a Freedom of Information request showed that out of an original cap for the borrowing of £10m, a total of £8.5m had been loaned to Blue Islands, of which £1,425,653 of the capital sum had been repaid by September 2024.
With the airline – along with many others – facing an existential crisis during the pandemic, with most flights grounded except lifeline services, the government agreed to invest in the airline, with Blue Islands moving its operational base to Jersey as part of the deal.
Originally, the loan had to be repaid by the end of 2026 but after the second wave of Covid hit over the winter of 2020/21, the final repayment date was extended to 31 December 2028.
The JEP has asked Blue Islands for an update about service disruption and the issues with aircraft in its fleet.
