9th December 1933

Jersey Airways is founded

Jersey Airways flew its first commercial flight between Jersey and Portsmouth on 18 December 1933, just nine days after it was founded by Walter Thurgood. However, air transport was still in its infancy and the de Havilland Dragon aircraft that it operated had to land on and take off from the beach at St Aubin. Jersey Airport wouldn’t open for another four years, but was requisitioned for military use during the occupation, bringing commercial air travel to a pause.

The airline’s name disappeared in 1947 when the British government nationalised all airlines within its domain, and Jersey Airways was subsumed into British European Airways.