BLUE ISLANDS SPECIAL
A LOCAL aviation professional with decades of experience in the sector said he was shocked but not surprised by Blue Islands’ demise.
Captain Lee McConnell is director of Ortac, a private aircraft operator based in Jersey. He has spent his entire career in aviation, which began in ground handling at the Airport and took off to include flying locally and internationally, and well as holding a senior position at Ports of Jersey.
Sharing his views on this weekend’s news, he said: “I don’t know exactly what’s going on inside the Blue Island management and decision making, but they’ve obviously had some cost issues.
“It’s always a challenging environment. Looking back in time, we’ve had several airlines flying the Jersey-Southampton, including Air UK, which I used to fly for. Running a local airline is challenging with increasing costs; something that we at Ortac have faced.
“We’ve had to increase our salaries and offer better terms and conditions, which puts up all the costs of running the business from an operational perspective, in terms of the staffing of operations, sales teams and aircrew etc pilot. Your costs are increasing all the time.
“What happens then is that people can’t commit to the islands, because they realise that it is an expensive place to live and they are better off in the UK.”
He said: “When you think about Blue Islands, they have their whole operation in Jersey, with all the challenges around crewing and retention that brings. It is really difficult for local airlines now, especially as you’re battling with bigger, low-cost entities like Easyjet, who have more aircraft and can offer better terms and conditions and different bases.
Capt McConnell added: “Changes in the way we communicate has also impacted all airlines, but that can have a greater effect on the smaller airlines.
“There are still people who always want to have face-to-face meetings, but that’s obviously tailed off. And I think that’s about price: people are not prepared £200 or £300 on a ten-minute flight so will simply opt for Teams.
“If the price was a bit more affordable, then I’m sure more people would make the effort to meet face to face, but pricing is prohibitive, and it just stops people from travelling.”
Capt McConnell said that Blue Island’s problems in May – when the airline had to temporarily reduce its services between Jersey and Birmingham, Bristol and Exeter due to one aircraft being damaged and the arrival of a new plane being delayed – would not have helped.
He said: “When you have aircraft down with maintenance, that dents your revenue and then it can take months to recover those dents because when your aircraft are grounded, you are still paying crew salaries, parking fees and maintenance.
“Fundamentally, you know you’re not recovering that revenue, and sometimes it can fall into the next year of expenditure, and those black holes sometimes can be hard to fill.
Capt McConnell said that he was not surprised that Blue Islands had ceased trading but he was shocked how quickly it would have happened.
He said: “The fact that people found out via a politician and not the company, and the way it was leaked was not great for the staff. My heart goes out to all staff because that is a terrible way to find out that you haven’t got a job. It’s difficult to contain these things, I suppose.”
On Blue Island’s speedily arranged replacement, Capt McConnell said: “Loganair is a very reputable airline. They have been going a long time and I remember working on load sheets for Loganair BaE146s, and ATPs back in the 1980s.
“It knows about local scenarios: they fly up in the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, and they’re experienced operating in local areas up there. It’s a very solid airline with a very good management structure and it has a very good reputation in the industry.”
Capt McConnell said he has spoken to Blue Islands’ director of flight operations on Friday evening.
“He was obviously pretty upset and shocked; he had no clue that this was about to happen; the writing was not on the wall.
“For a lot of staff, this means they have to move out of Jersey, which is heartbreaking. I’ve had to go through it myself, when KLM UK closed its base here. You don’t want to leave your home with your family and your friends, but the options in aviation in Jersey are so short.
“It’s one of the reasons I set up Ortac in Jersey, because I wanted to make something work at my home, but it is very challenging with the costs and lack of support.”
More in the JEP’s Blue Islands fall-out special e-edition.
