SCRAPPED routes to and from Jersey are often down to airlines making “brutal” decisions to move to more profitable links, the head of Ports of Jersey has said.
Matt Thomas said that while it was disappointing that direct routes to Europe had come and gone in recent years, there was little that Ports of Jersey could do.
He was referencing easyJet’s decision to scrap direct flights from Jersey to Amsterdam in 2024 after running the route for just one summer season in 2023.
In a public hearing with the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, Mr Thomas said that aircraft numbers were not meeting global market demands, which have resulted in airlines prioritising the most profitable routes.
The hearing formed part of the PAC’s ongoing review into the governance surrounding government-owned arm’s-length bodies and organisations.
Although the route had previously been described by Mr Thomas as “a major milestone for Jersey’s connectivity”, when quizzed on how the States-owned body is boosting travel connection, he stressed to members that decisions to cut routes did not necessarily lie with Ports of Jersey.
“Within the industry, when you start a route it typically takes three years to mature,” he said. “If after three years it’s not matured, it probably means [the route] is not going to be successful.”
He added: “Simply post-pandemic, we have seen the challenges that Boeing, and to a lesser extent Airbus, have been having. There are not as many new aircraft coming to the market as the market requires.
“What’s happening at the moment is the airlines are being quite brutal in terms of moving aircraft to the routes that are most profitable.”
