Benjamin Hill, founder of Clear Harbour Airways, has been working on his plans for the past year and has been in discussions with Ports of Jersey, Ports of Guernsey and Customs, airport and government officials in both islands.
And Clear Harbour Airways is working with Canadian company Harbour Air Seaplanes, which claims to be the largest seaplane service in the world. Mr Hill, who moved to Jersey 15 months ago, believes that a seaplane service running out of the Albert Pier Terminal will allow business meetings to take place at short notice and help inter-insular sports fixtures.
He said he was looking at securing his first plane next month – a single Otter plane – and, if everything goes to plan, the first service could take place shortly after Easter.
Mr Hill said: ‘At the beginning of January, I started to actively look at setting up an inter-island seaplane service that is dedicated to islanders.
‘Seaplanes work at their best when there is demand and you are flying capital to capital. St Helier and St Peter Port are built around harbours and are very conducive to a seaplane operation.
‘A lot of people won’t necessarily have seen a commercial seaplane operation working but they work really well because we can get people to their destinations quicker than any other airline.’
Mr Hill said that he estimated that the flight time would be approximately 40 minutes. He added that unlike flying from the Airport, passengers would not have to arrive an hour before departure and could move through security much more quickly.
‘We can fly people door to door – office to office,’ he said. ‘It is getting a lot of traction with people in the business community. It means people can get there and back in a day on a flexible service.’
The service would carry 14 passengers per trip and while Mr Hill has not yet revealed how much a journey was likely to cost, he said that Islanders seemed to be more in favour of a fixed-rate service rather than a pricing structure which fluctuated on account of seasonality and times.
He added that his market research had shown that a large number of Islanders were keen to see the scheme launch, while discussions with government officials had been positive.
‘If everything goes to plan, I would like to think I would be operating shortly after Easter,’ he said. ‘Of course, there are still things to do – I haven’t bought my first plane yet – and there are so many variables.
‘But my goal would be to try to get it up and running as soon as possible. I want to get it running in optimum conditions and those conditions are not starting out in November – they will be in April or May time before the summer season.’
The first aircraft to land in Jersey was the Sanchez Besa seaplane piloted by Jean Benoit in 1912. It landed in West Park during an air race between St Malo and Jersey and back.
Seaplanes were used by a number of operators to provide services from Jersey to the French coast and the UK mainland until 1937, when the Airport opened.
