Cross-channel disruption boosts demand for charter

With no end in sight to the cross-Channel disruption, a Kent-based air charter company is reporting a major increase in demand for services. World Executive Airways has seen enquiries and business soar at a time when rail and ferry services linking Kent with Calais have suffered long periods of paralysis over the past six weeks.

The double whammy of militant French seafarers and thousands of migrants attemp-ting to get into Britain via Eurotunnel and ferry has resulted in the frequent imposition of Operation Stack, the procedure of parking lorries on the M20 in Kent when cross-channel services are disrupted, causing gridlock on the county's roads. Now World Executive Airways, which is based at London Ashford Airport at Lydd, has revealed that more cust-omers are turning to its services in a bid to avoid the cross-border transport misery which has so far cost the British economy tens of millions of pounds.

The company operates a fleet that includes jet, turboprop and piston-type aircraft seating up to nine passengers. Managing director Jonathan Gordon says: “Unfortunately 2015 will be remembered as a summer of misery for so many people caught up in this awful transport mess. And while we have massive sympathy for everyone affected, it has generated a considerable amount of extra business for us.”