Air Alderney flies

The Channel Islands' newest airline – Air Alderney – has finally got into the air.

The gestation period has been somewhat protracted, the airline first announced in 2017.

Whilst it does not as yet have route licences it has an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and announced last week it is "now operating, offering charters" and said that "very soon" it will be "offering on-demand services".  Air Alderney's initial charter services are between Alderney, Jersey and Brighton’s Shoreham-by-Sea airports.  It hopes to reconnect Alderney to Jersey with direct flights between the two islands for the first time in many years.

In November, Air Alderney announced that it was on the verge of starting passenger services to the UK and Jersey, but hours later the States of Alderney said the airline still had no route licences.

Andrew Eggleston, the President of the Alderney Chamber of Commerce, said that it was encouraging finally to see progress after the airline “coming across blocks over an inordinate amount of time".

Eggleston acknowledged that the airline still cannot provide scheduled passenger services and is limited to offering charter services for the time being.

“They’ve got their Air Operator’s Certificate, but they still haven’t applied for the route licences”, he said.

“They need to sort out the licences with the States of Alderney”.

Eggleston said that Air Alderney's proposed routes between Alderney, Jersey and Shoreham-by-Sea were “an interesting triangle".

"The Jersey reconnection would be welcomed by the people of Alderney", he said.

He also recalled previous attempts by small, start-up carriers to fly routes in the Channel Islands – for example, Waves, which was unable to secure route licences and ultimately went into voluntary liquidation.

www.airalderney.co.uk

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

Mike , Jersey

You'd think the States of Alderney would be falling over themselves to welcome new air links given the state of the island's economy and the way that Aurigny is trying to dump them.

Peter SMART, United Kingdom

What goes around comes around! I'm sure I can remember as a kid (60++ years ago) there being a scheduled flight from Shoreham-by-Sea to the Channel Islands, perhaps with a bi-plane? and maybe with a stop at the long defunct Portsmouth airport on route? And that's long before Shoreham got a tarmac runway.