"Half an hour isn't long enough": Jersey Airport warns travellers to arrive on time

Passengers are being advised to turn up at Jersey Airport in plenty of time after some people missed their flights this week when a broken scanner led to long queues at security.

Airport bosses have apologised after a reported 17 people missed their plane on Thursday morning (13 November).

Only one scanner was in action.

The airport had posted a message about the situation on its social media on Wednesday, but is being criticised for not doing enough to warn people in advance.

Passenger Steve Wise said: "It was a shambles. There was minimal communication. I arrived at 6am and the queue was at the door. We were told that no one would miss their flight and then told if we had a 7am departure to move through the queue.

"The problem was there were 3 full flights at 7am and most of the queue were waiting for those flights.

"It’s not good enough and the management need to do better in future, particularly with regards communication."

All affected passengers did eventually get away, and, in a statement, the airport expressed regret:

"We’re sorry for the disruption this morning at Jersey Airport.

"We know that queues at security were longer than normal, and unfortunately a small number of people missed their flights. That’s not the experience we want for anyone. All affected passengers are now on their way.

"One of our security scanners was out of service, which caused longer than usual time to get through security for the early flights. We deployed extra team members to help, but we recognise that for some, it wasn’t enough."

Sarah-Louise Stubbs, Head of Terminal and Customer Operations, told Channel 103  that passengers always need to leave room for potential disruption as, if they arrive with enough time there will be less of an impact.

"People do leave it to the last minute to come to the airport for check-in and to get through security, and often our passengers are rather shocked when there are queues.

"We do know that passengers sometimes leave it half an hour before, which will obviously lead to disappointment.

The terminal building opens at 5:30am, which Sarah says is the ideal time for 'red eye' passengers to arrive.

Later in the day, it is advised that passengers arrive at the airport two hours before their flight, unless they are flying with Blue Islands, which suggests 90 minutes.

"Unfortunately, our passengers feel that, because it's winter there are not going to be queues, but we are still just as busy."

The scanner is now repaired and back in service.