Blue Islands (SI, Jersey) has dropped plans to operate services out of Guernsey to each of London City, London Luton, and Dublin International as the Committee for Economic Development of the States of Guernsey rejected the carrier's bid for a subsidy, the Guernsey Press has reported.

"Following Aurigny Air Services' cessation of the Guernsey to London City route late last year, Blue Islands engaged with the Committee for Economic Development when it was in discussion with other operators about reinstating a service to London City. Despite competitive pricing, the ever-present issue of operating to and from Guernsey’s sub-scale market meant there was no standalone commercial viability and all routes were forecast to be loss-making," the carrier has said.

The Jersey-based regional specialist planned to operate an 11x weekly service between Guernsey and London City, with double-daily services during working days. In addition, the carrier would also have operated 6x weekly to each of London Luton and Dublin. In order to launch these routes, Blue Islands planned to add a sixth aircraft to its fleet. Business cases included options of either an ATR42 or a larger ATR72.

Currently, the carrier operates an ATR - Avions de Transport Régional-only fleet of one ATR42-300, one ATR42-500, and three ATR72-500s.

Since the proposal did not receive a go-ahead from the regional government, Blue Islands will not be expanding its fleet in the near future.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Guernsey currently sees London traffic with 40 flights per week to London Gatwick and seven flights per week to London Southend operated by Aurigny Air Services. There are no direct flights to Ireland out of Guernsey at the present time.