G-Joey's last flight: Aurigny Trislander retirement 'end of an era'

An aircraft that has served the Channel Islands for nearly 40 years completed its final flight on Sunday.

G-Joey, which has a fan club, flew from Southampton to Alderney and then to Guernsey, arriving 10 minutes late at 19:40 BST after celebrations en route.

The Trislanders, operated by airline Aurigny, are due to be phased out next year, and replaced by Dornier 228s.

Pilot David Rice described the atmosphere on the final flight as "strange" and "interesting".

The red nose appeared on the plane as part of the first Comic Relief

Capt David Rice said he had become "emotionally attached" to the Trislanders

Capt Rice, flight operations director, said in Alderney "people were quite chatty on the aircraft and all waving as we taxied out".

"We landed in Guernsey, had the water salute, and as we taxied round and eventually parked on stand, I shut the engine down and the whole aircraft was just silence - it's really quite surreal," he said.

"I did notice several of [the passengers] just sort of patting Joey on the nose before they went off."

Susie Gallienne, author of the book Joey and the Penguins, has flown about 1,500 times on Trislanders commuting to Alderney once a week.

She said it was "the end of a bit of an era - it's a little bit sad".

The plane was met by fire crews carrying out water salutes at all three airports

Capt Rice said books about the plane with the registration G-Joey were first released in 1982.

He said: "The red nose was done back in 1988 when the BBC did their very first Comic Relief... later that year our engineers decided to paint the rest of the face.

"It's just grown since then with Joey flights, Joey certificates, Joey club and for the last few weeks we've had people coming from all over... to come and do a flight before he retires."

Capt Rice said: "I really wanted to do this last flight myself. I've been flying Joey and the other Trislanders for over 26 years and you do get emotionally attached."

It's not yet clear what the future holds for the little yellow plane - but more than 5,300 Facebook users hope for a "fitting place to rest".

Joey has a fan club, those who travelled on board could get a certificate and stars in seven books