The decline comes despite there being an additional 10,000 passengers during May compared to last year.
Harbour visitors fell five per cent between January and May compared to the same period last year.
However, confidence is high that the summer season will help to make up some of the shortfall.
The figures from Ports of Jersey come as the organisation’s chief executive, Doug Bannister, has spoken of the challenges of running the Island’s key gateways, as well as the new businesses the body is developing to diversify revenues and increase resilience.
A Condor spokesman said: ‘The fall in sea arrivals during the first four months of 2018 is due simply to the poor weather which hampered travel. A succession of inclement conditions and storms including Storm Eleanor and the “Beast from the East” all contributed to unprecedented disruption to both high-speed and conventional sailings.
‘However, Condor’s carryings over Easter and in May were up on last year and our forward booking figures for both visitors and residents indicate increased confidence in sea travel and are extremely encouraging.
‘We are looking forward to a positive summer season in the islands.’
Mr Bannister added: ‘Condor has implemented new products and pricing structures and the marketing team have a pretty high confidence it’s going to be a good year.’
Ports of Jersey is currently undertaking a £350,000 refurbishment of the Elizabeth Terminal to improve the passenger experience. It is due to be completed by mid-July.
During the same January to end-of-May period this year, Airport passengers rose a modest 2.4%, in part due to the resumption of German routes.
However, Mr Bannister said it was not all good news, with the German charters which Ports of Jersey had worked hard to bring back having also hit trouble.
‘One of the challenges the German charters had was waiting for the distribution of aircraft following the collapse of Air Berlin. That didn’t conclude until after German tour operators had published their programmes, therefore the uptake in booking has been slow.’
The Stuttgart route has already been pulled along with a couple of one-off flights and there is an alert on the Hamburg route.
Adam Caerlewy-Smith, the head of marketing for Visit Jersey, said: ‘We work in partnership with many travel and tour operators throughout Europe on marketing campaigns and route development. This year European visitors have improved direct air connectivity to the Island from a number of German airports, while the operator of the weekly service from Zurich reports passenger numbers 18% up on last year. There has been a reduction in overall sea passengers in the past 15 years as the Island’s air connections have been dramatically enhanced – giving both Islanders and visitors greater choice in how they travel from and to Jersey.’
Last year was the busiest year for the Airport in 17 years, despite there being no German route capacity. The majority of air traffic is via the UK. There has been a steady decline in numbers of sea passengers since 2014, however.
