Advertisement

Guernsey Air Route Survey results released

Guernsey's Commerce and Employment Department have released the results of an air route survey conducted during May and June 2014 that enabled it to gather information regarding air movement behaviour by business travellers and the general public.

The survey aims to understand the reasoning behind the reasons for travel and also provides information to help consider opportunities for the development of new or enhanced air route links in the future.

The main findings of the survey are as follows:

  • The most popular destinations for Leisure travellers, in terms of the total number of trips made, were London Gatwick airport (38.4%), Southampton airport (17.9%) and Jersey airport (11.0%). Not surprisingly these airports were also viewed as the most important by survey respondents.
  • For business travellers, London Gatwick airport accounted for nearly half of total trips made (47.0%), underlining the importance of this airport for the business community. The next most popular airport was Jersey (as a final destination) at 24.5% of total business trips.
  • Jersey airport as an “en-route” destination is popular both for leisure and business travellers.
  • For those travelling onwards to further destinations, Heathrow airport was the most popular UK destination both for leisure travellers and business travellers. For leisure travellers, Geneva, Paris and Zurich were the most popular European onward destinations. For business travellers, the most popular were Amsterdam, Zurich and Paris.
  • For those travelling to onward destinations (both in the UK and further afield), London Gatwic airport and Southampton airport were the popular choices.
  • Price, convenient flight times and a choice of flights were considered either very important or critical to most leisure travellers in terms of their choice of airport. For business travellers, price was less important, whereas convenient flight times and choice of flights were.
  • Leisure travellers are more sensitive to price increases in airfares than business travellers.

The information gleaned will help the Department with formulating strategies which will secure and enhance the provision of air links to and from Guernsey. The Department is firmly of the view that this will be essential to ensure that Guernsey is able to capitalise on economic growth opportunities.

The findings of the survey really confirm what we suspected – that London Gatwick remains the most important destination for air travellers, but that other routes, such as Southampton airport are becoming increasingly popular.

The survey also highlighted the desirability of introducing a link to London City airport and it is very pleasing to see that this route is now up and running.

– Deputy Kevin Stewart, Minister for Commerce and Employment