British Airways is going through a relaunch phase. Kuala Lumpur flights were restored last year. Colombo returns to the BA route network in autumn. From January 2027, the long-dormant Heathrow-Melbourne link will be revived, with the refuelling point switched from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.
Yet none of these longhaul routes will be as emotional as the return of British Airways’ 170-mile connection between London Heathrow and Guernsey.
At lunchtime on Sunday an Airbus A319 commanded by a Guernseyman took off for the second-largest Channel Island.
Captain Stef Loveridge announced: “This is a special day for Guernsey, for British Airways, and also for some of us on board as we are returning to serve the island after more than 40 years.”
The cabin crew serving champagne on the flight were not yet around in 1980 when BA left the route. All but one were born and bred on Guernsey (the odd one out was conferred with honorary citizenship of the island for the afternoon).
Now, Melbourne has around 80 times more people than Guernsey (which has a population of approximately 65,000). So why the big fuss about a small island?
Over to David and Sarah McGreevy, who live in Guernsey and were on the flight. I met them at the terminal on arrival, where an excellent school choir sang aviation classics to passengers, meeters and greeters.
“Fantastic,” they chorused.
But Guernsey has long been connected with the world by its own airline, Aurigny. The departures board showed multiple departures to Southampton, Gatwick, London City, Manchester…
So what has BA brought to the table? “It’s really nice to have the connection going to the rest of the world,” said Sarah. “Going in and out of Heathrow is a game-changer.”
Rival – sorry, sister – island, Jersey already has multiple daily flights to LHR. The biggest Channel Island has a substantially bigger population (about 105,000) than Guernsey and, crucially, a much larger financial services sector. Many of the passengers on the 7am departure from Jersey to Heathrow are connecting to longhaul destinations, a highly lucrative link for British Airways.
Judging by the traffic in Guernsey, the people here are not short of a few bob either. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Range Rovers in the wild. (This is an island where the average road is a country lane and the maximum speed is 35mph.)
BA’s Guernsey restoration is the answer to an operational question: “What can we do with this Airbus A319 for a quick there-and-back in the middle of the day?”
The link might prove a damp, loss-making squib. But it could instead prove to be a big commercial success. Within a couple of hours of arrival at Heathrow Terminal 5 from Guernsey, passengers can connect to New York, Los Angeles, Delhi and Mumbai.
While Aurigny offers a spread of six flights during the day to Gatwick, the Sussex airport simply cannot offer anything like the same intercontinental connectivity.
“For the consumer choice is everything,” Zoe Gosling told me. She is lead marketing officer for the States of Guernsey. “If this provides an easier way for people to reach us, then that can only be a good thing for the islands.”
“Easier” is good – and so is “cheaper”. I paid £84 to fly from Gatwick to Guernsey on Aurigny, but only £37 back to Heathrow on British Airways. The Club Europe cabin was completely full; down the back, about one third of the seats were empty. “That’s Guernsey for you,” a senior aviation figure told me.
Aurigny is not exactly delighted that BA is now parking Airbuses on its lawn. The home team airline faces financial challenges, and will not wish its poshest passengers to switch to British Airways. But the evidence is that everyone benefits from increased competition.
For now, those empty economy seats on BA are yours for the taking. Right now you can pay £107 return from Heathrow to Guernsey on the weekend of 9 to 11 May – an ideal introduction to the island that was the first place to which I ever flew, aged six.
Read more Plane and Train Talk from Simon Calder here
