RE: Isle of Man / IOM
Mongu,you may be interested to hear that they are looking in to the possibilities in the next couple of months of expanding their service to Jersey (According to thisisjersey.com)
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Jersey lost its direct Manx link earlier this year when British Airways cut the route as part of its Future Size and Shape restructuring programme. But a new airline, Euromanx, could fill the void.
Launched last month, Euromanx has started flying twice-daily services between the Isle of Man and Dublin and Edinburgh. It currently operates a single leased 18-seat Beech 1900D but the airline plans to extend both its capacity and schedule.
‘We aim to consolidate our position for the first two or three months and then review the business at that stage,’ said the airline’s sales and marketing manager, Seamus Byrne. ‘But we are currently investigating possible future routes and Jersey is certainly on the list. We are obviously aware that the islands have no direct link and they are closely tied by finance, but our board will make a decision after a thorough review.’
Mr Byrne added that, so far, business had exceeded expectations and Euromanx was attracting trade from both executive and leisure passengers.
‘Our initial focus has been on stimulating business traffic as the island’s finance industry has strong links with both Edinburgh and Dublin, but our low fares are proving popular with leisure passengers as well,’ he said. ‘Previously, the Isle of Man had no direct link to Edinburgh and British Airways has recently cut one of its flights to Dublin and we hope to plug that gap.’
The news that Jersey could once again have a direct link with the Isle of Man was welcomed with caution by the chairman of the Jersey Air Passengers’ Association, Rev Anthony Swindell.
‘The Island needs to develop a strategy that ensures the long-term viability of key routes and while I would welcome a direct service to the Isle of Man, we need to know what effect that would have on the London City route, which passengers currently have to transit through,’ he said
‘We are seeing a huge decline in passengers to Jersey and, in this age of deregulation, we need to be aware of airlines coming in and cherry picking the most profitable routes but failing to provide a consistent year-round service. The industry is experiencing a high degree of fragmentation at the moment and it is essential that Jersey keeps its focus on the big picture.’
In March, a Stansted-based airline called Love Air applied to the Jersey Transport Authority to fly directly between Jersey and the Isle of Man but the service never took off.
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