Blue Islands removes 28 flights from schedule

The Channel Islands' airline Blue Islands is to remove 28 flights from its summer schedule due to one aircraft being damaged and another new addition to its fleet being delayed.

A spokesperson for the airline said one of its planes had suffered damaged to its newly-installed engine after it ingested debris at an airport.

While another new aircraft, which had been due to join the fleet in the first quarter of the year, had been delayed by almost four months due to "an intensive programme of maintenance".

Blue Islands said four of its 18 routes would be affected by the temporary changes - which will be in place until 21 July.

The airline said the new plane which had been delayed was now ready to join its fleet, and following final approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, it could enter service "in a matter of days".

Services from Jersey to Birmingham, Bristol and Exeter are to be affected by the temporary changes, as well as the Guernsey service to Southampton.

In a statement, the firm said: "We understand the inconvenience this causes, and we wish to assure our customers and stakeholders we are working hard to resolve these fleet issues and fully restore our usual high on-time performance levels."

The airline apologised to those affected, and said steps had been taken to safeguard essential morning and evening connectivity for "key island services", including hospital patient transfer and freight.

The company added customers booked on flights affected by the upcoming changes would be contacted directly.

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