Locals on the Isles of Scilly have blasted Skybus after flights to the islands were suspended earlier this year, while the airline also signed a deal to run flights to the Channel Islands
People living on the Isles of Scilly have said they are “extremely unhappy” with the service they are getting from an airline linking them to the mainland.
Skybus said it was forced to suspend its flights from Exeter to the Isles of Scilly in early May after a “turbulent start” to the year in which aircraft suffered damage at Land’s End Airport during Storm Goretti in January.
The airline’s managing director Jonathan Hinkles said flights were due to resume on Thursday. However tourism and business leaders in the Isles of Scilly have criticised the airline, which has signed a deal to run flights to the Channel Islands.
Mr Hinkles insisted the new deal would bring in more cash and “enable further investment” to support flights to and from the Isles of Scilly.
The airline has been hit with other problems, including cancellation of its daily Newquay to London flights two months ahead of schedule.
Tourist board Visit Scilly said the cancellation of the Exeter flights was “clearly very concerning”, as some critics blamed the deal with Guernsey-based airline Aurigny which would see a Skybus plane used for flights to Alderney from Guernsey and Southampton, the BBC reports.
Tourist board chairman Andrew Sells said a letter signed by 150 residents showed how “let down the community feels”, with fears over the reliability of freight and passenger flights to the Isles of Scilly. He said the island’s economy was predominately based on tourism and that a number of people were “extremely unhappy”.
Members of the Council of the Isles of Scilly blasted the airline’s lack of service at the start of the tourism season, saying it “undermines the ability to retain and attract new visitors” to the islands as a whole.
Hinkles said: “We’re on track to resume flights to and from Exeter from 4 June, as promised,” he said.
“It is a regrettable yet unavoidable consequence of change to any airline’s schedules that customer contact teams must update customers with often-unwelcome news.
“We are hugely grateful to the dedicated teams working to keep customers informed in advance of their planned journeys.”
The Mirror has contacted Skybus for comment.