Director of Civil Aviation – 2025 Annual Report

STATES OF JERSEY

DIRECTOR OF CIVIL AVIATION - ANNUAL REPORT 2025

Presented to the States on 9th January 2026 by the Minister for External Relations

STATES GREFFE

2026  R.2

The Office of the Director of Civil Aviation (oDCA) for Jersey 2025 Annual Report

1.0 Introduction

This year has seen some major changes in the aviation environment in Jersey with a new French operator now providing services to Jersey from Brittany and on to Alderney.

Most recently we have learnt of the unfortunate closure of the airline Blue Islands. Based in Jersey, Blue Islands was a highly popular Jersey UK airline, and we recognise the significant impact both to staff and to the traveling public following the closure of this long-standing operator.  We  also  recognise  the  swift  support  provided  by  Loganair,  Aurigny  and  the aerodrome operators in instigating their contingency planning measures to ensure air routes were maintained at such a challenging time.

Planning for contingencies is something the aerodrome operator routinely undertakes, and in 2025, this included a full emergency planning exercise. This is a regulatory requirement for the aerodrome approval and requires the support of aerodrome emergency services, as well as emergency services from across Jersey to demonstrate, in a mock event, how an air accident at the  aerodrome would be managed. The oDCA witnesses the event,  which demonstrated a high level of preparedness by Ports of Jersey (PoJ) should any such event occur in the future.

2.0 ICAO Compliance

Keeping to the theme of preparedness, from an aviation regulatory perspective, the oDCA is required to demonstrate that the aviation infrastructure in Jersey and the airspace managed by PoJ, in addition to the oDCA oversight processes meet or exceed the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements. We demonstrate such compliance on an ongoing basis both to the Government of Jersey (GoJ) and to the United Kingdom Department of Transport (UK DfT), as it is the UK DfT that represents Jersey, and other Crown Dependencies as an ICAO Member State.

The oDCA proves its compliance through independent audits, and by the production of mandatory ICAO documents and responses to ICAO questions including details of our team's competency, our oversight of approval holders and oDCA processes and procedures. Most of the evidence of compliance with standards and requirements is updated on a rolling three- year basis. Examples are documents such as our State Safety Plan (SSP) which is on our website at www.cidca.aero

The SSP is a public facing document, though the majority of such ICAO evidence is not published externally and has a restricted publication, examples are:

3.0 Audits Performed by the oDCA

During the year, the oDCA performed and supported a range of audit activities and aircraft safety inspections at Jersey Aerodrome.

This included routine safety and compliance audits of:

The air traffic management system

Aerodrome infrastructure and management

Wildlife management

Airport fire and emergency services

Aviation Security

Cargo handling

In-flight supplies

Inspections on aircraft as part of our sample programme

An audit of the Jersey international air display.

Many  audits  are  performed  by  the  oDCA,  though  for  some  specific  specialist  activities additional support is provided under contract by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA), or by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Details of the audits are confidential between the oDCA and audited entity and so cannot be shared in this report.

4.0 The oDCA Team

The oDCA budgeted headcount remains unchanged and with the recruitment of the Safety Programme Lead in 2025, the team is now complete.

Director of Civil Aviation

Operations Manager Support Officer Guernsey Base Jersey Base

Aerodromes & Air  Aviation Security  Safety Programme

Navigation Services  Head of Flight Operations  Head of Airworthiness Regulator & DDCA (J)  Regulator Lead & DDCA (G)

Working under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of Jersey (GoJ), State of Guernsey (SoG) and Director of Civil Aviation (DCA), the team continues its work across the Channel Islands, pooling resources on safety oversight activities in Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney.

The oDCA working cross-Island is one of a few examples of pan-Island cooperation, though this has provided significant benefit to those we regulate and engage with in the sharing of specialist knowledge and skills, in driving down our costs, providing financial savings by pooling resources and developing single processes. Subject to agreement, it is proposed that this may be developed further in coming years in those areas of aviation regulatory oversight that are common across the Channel Islands.

This approach continues to provide an example of pan-Island collaborative support and is successful  in  sharing  specialist  technical  resources  in  airworthiness,  flight  operations, aerodrome and air traffic and aviation security areas, while realising a sizeable cost saving to the benefit of Jersey and Guernsey.

5.0 Key Miles tones

With the recruitment of the Safety Specialist role, focused on ICAO Annex 19 work, (Safety Management systems), the oDCA now has in place technical competency in all domains.

This reduces our need to contract specialists for everyday regulatory matters and helps with engagement as a dedicated team builds working relationships with key stakeholders and specialists in organisations such as PoJ.

We now have a technically competent team leading on aviation safety oversight. We are overseeing areas in accordance with ICAO international obligations and sharing expertise and best practice to the benefit of the aviation community and travelling public across the Channel Islands.

Oversight is holistic and has provided a cost saving to Bailiwick entities.  

During the year, the ODCA developed an annual audit plan, in addition to key changes in audit and escalation processes,[1] while incorporating several additional areas of review.

6.0 Communication

Engagement with the aviation community and other stakeholders remains a key objective of our work.

In addition to regular meetings with aerodrome operators, and interest groups, the oDCA continues to provide updates to all three of the Aero Clubs in the Channel Islands, and has provided presentations to members in Jersey, Alderney and Guernsey during 2025.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss aviation issues with other key stakeholder groups if this would assist the aviation community; please contact the oDCA is we can assist.

7.0 Planned Activity

We anticipate that the publicized changes to the Aerodrome will continue to require additional oversight to ensure from a regulatory perspective that the approval holders maintain compliance during build and development. This will also provide an opportunity to develop in 2026 proportionate risk-based oversight processes.

Additionally,  as  we  continue  to  develop  our  processes  in  line  with  our  international obligations and best practice, we have several key focus areas in 2026:

• While in place and compliant with ICAO requirements, we will further develop our risk and safety management process using our existing information technology database and systems. As part of this activity, we intend to develop a National Aviation Safety Plan (NASP) for Jersey.  While not a mandatory  ICAO document, the NASP is  a recommendation to further expand on the planned safety initiatives shown in the State Safety Programme (published on www.cidca.aero ) and is intended to highlight key safety objectives and areas of improvement within the State.

• Working with the aerodrome operators and stakeholders, we will look to develop Ground  Handling  regulatory  requirements,  primarily  to  develop  a  regulatory framework  for  organisations  that  support operations  at  the  aerodrome,  such  as passenger support, baggage handling and aircraft handling.

• ICAO requires States to develop and issue regulatory requirements for such activities by November 2027, and so we will be developing and consulting on these during the coming year.

Develop Safety Programme, and National Safety Programme

Develop risk-based compliance processes.

2026 Changes at Ports of Jersey

Ground handing requirements Develop database systems

8.0 Engagement

Engagement continues to be an area of focus within the oDCA with regular dialogue with key stakeholders including the Jersey Aero Club, Ports of Jersey, business aviation providers, the Government of Jersey, Jersey Met and the UK Department for Transport.

We have also used our consultation process, to ensure changes to Regulatory requirements, or fees are properly consulted upon. Further details are on our website at www.cidcao.aero

We are keen to expand on our engagement activity and would welcome further requests.

The dedicated email addresses remain in place:

[email protected]  A general inbox for all ODCA [email protected]   Dedicated email for all Permit applications [email protected]  Dedicated email for all Consultation feedback. [email protected]   A dedicated email from UAS (done) users.

Applications are directed to group emails to avoid the risk of emails being unseen due to staff travel or annual leave. The following are highlighted for awareness:

9.0 Volumes & Metrics

The total number of Foreign Carrier Permits (FCP) issued to the date of this report in 2025 is currently at 827 FCP issued, this is up slightly from 2024, where 719 had been issued at the same time last year. This shows an increase in the number of private commercial flights into/out of Jersey in 2025.

Foreign Carrier Permits & Aerial Work Permits 2025

Jersey FCP Jersey AWP

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

J Nicholas 2025

[1] Note, audit reports are confidential between the ODCA and auditee.