'Flymaybe' route doesn't take off as expected

Wednesday 15 August 2018

Islanders hoping to holiday in the land of Alan Partridge and Colman's Mustard will be left disappointed after Flybe cancelled their weekly Norwich route planned for next summer due to an apparent lack of demand - despite having only announced it last week.

The summer 2019 calendar announcement indicated that the Saturday flight service, which has been run for years, would continue next summer. The schedule was due to run between March and October.

However, less than a week later, Flybe informed customers that the service would no longer be running because take-up had been too low.

A Flybe spokesman said: “Flybe regrets to confirm the withdrawal of the Norwich to Jersey route from its 2019 summer schedule as it had become apparent that passenger demand for the weekly flights would not be sufficient to justify their continued operation.

"Those passengers who had made bookings have been offered the option of being re-booked with another airline at no additional cost or receiving a full refund."

Affected passengers included one customer from Norwich, who had been flying the route for a quarter century. He had already booked fares to Jersey for May 2019, but his travel plans were left up in the air after the flight was cancelled, local Norfolk press reported. He has since received a full refund. 

"Flybe would like to apologise for any inconvenience experienced as a result of this decision," the airline added.

Loganair will still be operating their Jersey to Norwich route.