Channel Islands-based businessman Noel Hayes has added a B-N Trislander to the Islander he bought 15 months ago. Hayes said he was unhappy with the Channel Islands’ sole operator, Aurigny. “They were charging high prices and providing poor service, airfreighting fresh produce onto the island for my retail

business, so I decided to do it myself,” Hayes explained.

Aurigny’s marketing manager, Ian Le Moigne responded: “We used to transport freight for Mr Hayes but I’m not aware of any problem he had with our service; I think he just wanted to set up his own.”

Hayes continued: “The business has expanded so we recently added the Trislander to our fleet. We needed additional capacity both for our own freight and also a number of locals were asking me to restore the Alderney to Cherbourg service.”

Aurigny flew this service until around four years ago. Le Moigne said: “We operated a Channel Islands to Cherbourg service for 25 years and felt eventually that it was a service we couldn’t continue. We’d experienced a fall in passenger numbers over many years. Mr Hayes is welcome to offer the route and if he can build it up, good luck to him.”

Hayes said: “We chose the Trislander because operating out of Alderney we needed short take-off and landing capabilities. We also wanted something the passengers would be familiar with, and having a years experience with the Islander we were very familiar with the economic and maintenance requirements.” The company has been happy with the reliability, performance and cost of the Trislander so far. It paid just under £200,000 for the turboprop.

“We expect our fare to be cheaper than the existing inter-island fares which are currently £63, but we can’t publish a fare until we have CAA approval,” said Hayes. There are also plans for a second route in the New Year and a route licence has been applied for to carry freight between Guernsey and Alderney for the

post office.

“We’re modelling ourselves as a fairly low cost operation. With a single Trislander we can hardly claim to be an easyJet, although we had thought of calling ourselves ‘Easyprop’ but we thought we might get a letter of complaint,” he added.