28th June 2015

G-JOEY completes his last flight

G-JOEY, Aurigny’s red-nosed Trislander, completed its last regular flight on Sunday 28 June 2015. It had served Guernsey for almost 40 years.

Piloted by David Rice, the final flight took it from Southampton to Alderney, then on to Guernsey, where it arrived at 7.40pm. It was 10 minutes behind schedule.

Although he featured in his own series of children’s books, Joey hadn’t always had his distinctive red nose. The scarlet paint was added in 1988 on the occasion of the BBC’s Comic Relief appeal. It was only logical that the eyes and smile should be added shortly after.

Joey flew as part of the Aurigny fleet for 34 years. However, he started his commercial life in Canada, where he flew from 1975 until 1979. Auriginy had originally leased the aircraft for two years from manufacturer Britten Norman, and bought it outright in November 1981.

End of an era

The Trislander fleet were true workhorses, both connecting the Channel Islands to the mainland, and providing some inter-island flights.

G-JOEY’s sister aircraft, G-RLON, joined the Aurigny fleet in 1981. It would go on to spend more than 32,600 hours in the air, and perform 105,130 landings for Aurigny, according to the BBC.

The airline, which was once the world’s largest operator of Trislanders, retired its entire fleet due to rising operating costs. Although some of the aircraft were sold overseas following their retirement, G-JOEY was sold locally to form the centrepiece of a Joey World attraction at Oatlands.