Blue Islands’ corporate lunch chez Christophe. Left to right: Beth McGonnell and Claire MacNab of Investec, Ann Booth of Credit Suisse and Ian Le Moigne of Blue Islands. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0544950)
BLUE ISLANDS’ corporate bookings service has been praised by its business clients.
The company launched its online reservations in April 2006 to give its customers a quick and efficient way to organise their travel arrangements.
Businesses have accounts which they can fully control themselves and choose whether to pay as they go or on a monthly basis. Commercial manager Ian Le Moigne said the service was created as a direct response to customers’ demands.
‘We put ourselves in their shoes and asked ourselves what we would want and the answer was a service that allowed our clients to independently manage their own travel arrangements,’ he said.
‘People don’t want to be phoning up all the time because it is a waste of time and money.
‘It’s only been in existence for a couple of years and already we have made tremendous progress.’
The airline hosted a tour of the Fermain Valley Hotel, which is owned by its parent company, Healthspan, and a thank you lunch at Christophe restaurant for its business clients.
Jersey Telecom PA Sarah Bradford was impressed by Blue Islands in general.
‘Because they have small planes, our people are able to disembark and get into the City within half an hour, which is really impressive.’
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ PA Baiba Darzine was similarly in favour of the corporate bookings service.
‘I can change travel details at no extra cost and it’s very easy to use.
‘It’s also much faster than sending faxes all the time. I have no complaints.’
Blue Islands has expanded its Swiss links to six days a week and will start a Dublin service at the end of the month.
The airline is flying direct to Zurich and Geneva and to the Irish capital after market research of 1,500 customers revealed the demand.
‘Dublin has an appeal to both leisure and business passengers,’ said Mr Le Moigne.
‘We anticipate the service will grow from three days a week to six in a relatively short period of time, just as the Swiss routes have.
‘Our vision is to link up all the jurisdictions in Europe.
‘Potentially this could include new routes to Luxembourg, Edinburgh and Nice for Monaco in the future.’
Healthspan is 100% Guernsey-owned and has offices in the Grange, a distribution centre at Le Pitronnerie, a disaster-recovery centre at the airport and a call centre in Gosport.
It started with 10 products in 1996 and now sells 150 nutritional supplements and skin-care, cosmetic and veterinary products, with more than 45% of the direct-to-consumer market in the UK.
In 2006, it bought airline Rockhopper, which it rebranded as Blue Islands, and it also owns the Fermain Valley in Guernsey and Braye Beach hotels in Alderney.
Chairman Derek Coates said the new routes would appeal to business travellers looking to avoid the UK because of new non-dom rules.
‘The new schedule takes account of very real concerns within the business community about changes to UK legislation in respect of non-domiciled persons.
‘The new rules will penalise passengers when they enter
the UK even if it is only for transit.
‘Their visits could affect their non-domiciled status and so more and more businessmen will seek to avoid UK airports.
‘Zurich and Geneva are excellent UK-free hubs connecting our islands to the rest of the world.’
Article posted on 12th March, 2008 - 2.30pm
Most Commented: