Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
FEATURE<br />
GUERNSEY<br />
Airport Director Colin Le Ray. (Guernsey Airport)<br />
in Jersey, but also serving Guernsey,<br />
and in 1973 both islands were linked with<br />
Amsterdam/Schiphol by the four-engine<br />
turboprop aircraft. That same year saw<br />
the merger of BEA and the British Overseas<br />
Airways Corporation (BOAC), and British<br />
Airways Regional became a familiar sight<br />
at GCI, its stylised red tails replacing the<br />
other carriers’ long-standing ‘Red Square’<br />
logo and the shorter lived blue and red<br />
‘speedjack’ fin design.<br />
Since those heady days, mainline activities<br />
have fluctuated; British Airways axed all<br />
its Channel Islands routes except Jersey<br />
to Heathrow and Manchester in 1980.<br />
Some services were later restored only<br />
to be dropped once again and the link to<br />
Heathrow was awarded to what became<br />
Air UK. In 1998 Air UK moved its London<br />
route from Heathrow to Stansted and<br />
subsequently abandoned its Guernsey<br />
connections altogether.<br />
Over two decades, an array of airlines<br />
had come and gone, including Dan Air,<br />
Intra Airways, Jersey Ferry Airlines,<br />
Brymon Airways and Guernsey Airlines.<br />
By 2003 the two main carriers were<br />
Aurigny and Flybe, being joined by what<br />
had started as Le Coq’s Airlink based<br />
on Alderney, becoming Rockhopper and<br />
known today as Blue Islands.<br />
Infrastructure improvements<br />
Despite terminal extensions and<br />
improvements taking place over several<br />
years, and runway re-surfacing and widening<br />
in 1974/1975, there was little doubt that the<br />
airport was lagging behind<br />
An image from<br />
1960 – as the<br />
hard runway was<br />
completed, the<br />
dip was levelled<br />
enough to allow<br />
safe operations, but<br />
remained a feature<br />
of the airport until<br />
the 2013 rebuild.<br />
Note the taxiway<br />
was still much lower<br />
than the runway.<br />
(Guernsey Airport)<br />
The modern<br />
terminal opened<br />
in 2004 and still<br />
has plenty of<br />
spare capacity to<br />
accommodate traffic<br />
growth. (Author)<br />
others, particularly Jersey. As a result<br />
Kensington Taylor Architects was selected<br />
in 1999 to design a completely new terminal.<br />
Built by Hochtief (UK) Construction, the<br />
new building opened on <strong>March</strong> 25, 2004,<br />
heralding a new beginning for GCI.<br />
With a price tag of £18m, the terminal<br />
offered a dramatic improvement in facilities,<br />
with baggage belts, a larger departure<br />
lounge, enlarged duty-free outlet, a bigger<br />
restaurant and bar, wheelchair and disabled<br />
access to all areas, lifts and a covered<br />
walkway to aircraft parking stands.<br />
The terminal was only the start; a longterm<br />
plan for the airport’s development<br />
culminated in 2013 with completion of<br />
the Airport 2040 project,<br />
involving the<br />
Blue Islands ATR 72 G-ISLI (c/n 529), at GCI on June 14 last year. The carrier serves Jersey as well as<br />
Bristol and Southampton in the UK. (AirTeamImages.com/Simon Wilson)<br />
(Not for airborne/operational<br />
use – Navtech Aerad)<br />
62 airports of the world
Change language