Hospitality boss wants to 'draw line under 2025'

JHA Chair, Malcolm Lewis said the industry has had a tough year but needed to draw a line under it and look ahead to 2026

A Jersey hospitality boss has called on the industry to draw a line under issues with the island's travel, including shortcomings in the service of ferry provider DFDS and the recent collapse of the Blue Islands airline.

On Tuesday, the Jersey Hospitality Association (JHA) hosted a trade lunch where business leaders met to discuss how the future of ferry travel affects the industry.

JHA president Malcolm Lewis said the hospitality industry has had a "difficult year" but they "need to draw a line under 2025 and look forward to 2026".

The trade lunch was attended by Economic Development Minister, Deputy Kirsten Morel and Chris Parker, the Jersey Route Director for DFDS.

'A very credible' airline

The focus of the trade lunch was unpicking what had gone wrong for the industry since DFDS took over and what lessons could be learnt.

In August the Jersey Hospitality association wrote a letter to the chief minister which said their confidence in awarding DFDS the contract was falling as the company paused high speed ferry routes to the UK over winter.

Malcom Lewis said: "The industry has had a difficult year some of which can be attributed to the ferry issue.

"But we need to learn from the lessons that we have learned and we need to draw a line under 2025 and collaboratively look forward to 2026 together with DFDS and government and the industry and move forward in a positive way."

The trade lunch happened after the recent collapse of Blue Islands but Malcolm Lewis was optimistic about the future of the island's air links.

Logan Air stepped in to provide rescue services and is in talks to take over Blue Island routes in the long term.

Mr Lewis said : "There were issues with Blue Island which we have now found out - financial issues which clearly made the airline untenable and unviable.

"We know that Logan Air is a very credible, very well respected airline and has a fantastic track record and wins all sorts of accolades for customer service and punctuality."