This report covers March 2020 during which travel restrictions were introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by Jersey, as well as other jurisdictions which have travel routes serving the Island. The airline FlyBE also entered into administration early in the month with a resultant impact on many of Jersey’s regional air connections.

Employment guidelines led to a sudden cessation of the Travel Survey fieldwork on Saturday 14th March, meaning that a full month of data has not been applied to the monthly passenger figures for March. However, an analysis of daily scheduled passenger departures shows that 83% of the total monthly passengers departing by air and sea in March were accounted for by the 14th March with passenger numbers declining very quickly over the final two weeks of the month. Nevertheless, the total number of completed surveys over the first two weeks of March were small for some of the individual routes and contained some sampling bias due to the interview shift planning methodology being based upon a full month. Imputed data has been used for routes where sample sizes achieved over the first two weeks of March were insufficiently robust.

The figures within this report should therefore be treated as best estimates based upon the data available due to the early cessation of the fieldwork. Please also refer to the notes within the section on statistical reliability within the appendices when interpreting the data for March.

Summary

In March 2020: