Blue Islands history

The history of Blue Islands stretches back just over two decades to 1999, with its name and operations being rather different to the carrier's current setup. It commenced operations informally that year as Le Coq's Airlink, with the formal establishment of the airline taking place just after the turn of the century, in 2001.

The trading name Rockhopper was adopted on 29 August 2003.

The trading name of Rockhopper was adopted, and carried 20,000 passengers in that year, prior to Healthspan Leisure taking ownership in 2004 with Derek Coates as Chairman.

The company moved its main operating base from Alderney to Jersey in January 2006.

Its passengers on the Guernsey to Jersey route accounted for almost 70% of all journeys between them by 2009.

In 2010, the airline added an ATR 42-320 to its fleet. It emerged in July 2010 that Blue Islands had launched a bid with the States of Guernsey to buy its competitor, Aurigny.

In March 2011, it announced a twice-daily weekday route (with a once-daily flight on Sundays) from Jersey to London City Airport, and in April a route to Bristol was announced.

To further supplement its fleet, Blue Islands purchased an ATR 42-320 from Air Atlantique Assistance, entering service on 23 August 2012.

A key part of this was the arrival of its first ATR 72 in 2013, offering more capacity on a new route from Guernsey to Southampton.

Blue Islands achieved its goal of an all-ATR fleet in 2014, and has since boosted capacity by replacing several ATR 42s with the larger ATR 72 model.

In November 2016, one of Blue Islands' ATR 72's was damaged by Storm Angus whilst parked at Guernsey Airport.

In January 2017, a Guernsey-based firm announced it would begin flying between Jersey and Guernsey, a route which Blue Islands and Flybe had a duopoly on at the time.

Waves acquired the required licenses in March 2018, and restarted selling seats on the Guernsey-Jersey route, as well as seats on two new routes from Alderney.