05 June 2014
The number of passenger travelling through Jersey Airport in 2014 to date is up by +3.3% compared to the same period in 2013.
Up to the end of May this year, there were 521,707 passengers compared to 505,041 in 2013, and increase that Group CEO for Ports of Jersey, Doug Bannister, attributes to more capacity on some routes and the addition of routes.
“Although it is still early days we are confident that 2014 will be a positive year for the Island in terms of passenger numbers, and if passenger demand continues to grow as it has done, so will capacity," he said. "Notably Gatwick services with British Airways and EasyJet have seen a rise in passenger numbers, but on other summer only routes such as Dublin, we have seen services increase from three times a week to five.
"We have also welcomed new carriers to Jersey with the reintroduction of a direct Cardiff service and competition is now offered on East Midlands and Manchester, with the recent launch of summer flights by low-cost carrier Jet2.com. We also continue to have strong demand in the German market with competition offered on a number of routes by Lufthansa and Air Berlin.”
Increased passenger numbers on Saturdays
Saturday continues to be the busiest day of the week for flights in and out of the Island, says Group Customer Relations Manager for Ports of Jersey, Rosemarie Grimster, who has responsibility for the airport terminals.
“While the increase in air services is a very positive thing for the Island it does mean that, similar to many other airports, more people travelling at the same time of day, will result in queues easily forming at busier times. Therefore, our advice to departing passengers travelling on a Saturday, especially at the peak time of the day, which is currently between 12 noon and 3pm, is to allow extra time for transiting central security.”
Security lanes
Last Saturday, 31 May, was exceptionally busy as it was the end of the school half term holiday. Between 2pm and 3:30pm, more than 1,500 passengers passed through central security search and, although all security lanes were open and sufficient staff available to assist, queues did build up.
With just weeks to go to the busy summer months, Jersey Airport is arranging to ensure queue times are kept to a minimum and if necessary, will create additional security lanes in other parts of the airport to cope with any potential overload.
Mrs Grimster said “Like many airports around the world at busy times of the day, queues can quickly form, often leading to frustration and anxiety among some passengers. However, by issuing this advice to passengers to allow extra time to pass through security, especially those who are infrequent travellers or who use the airport at other times of the week when it is not quite as busy, we hope to minimise this frustration in the queues.”
Summer 2014 will see Jersey Airport served by 48 departure points across the UK and mainland Europe, with both scheduled and charter air services arriving. In 2013, Jersey Airport handled 1.42 million passengers.
gov.je