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Jersey is losing around 100,000 seats in airlift capacity to the destination this autumn and winter as three airlines pull certain routes.

Jersey Tourism director of tourism and marketing David de Carteret said Thomsonfly ended its Coventry Jersey route in October, the same time as bmi pulled two separate flights from East Midlands and Cardiff.

Meanwhile EasyJet has announced it will cease its route from Luton to the Channel island sometime after Christmas as airlines review their flight programmes in the wake of the economic downturn.

Now, de Carteret is holding a number of meetings with airlines at this year’s World Travel Market in a bid to persuade them to either reinstate old routes or reintroduce new ones.

He said: “We don’t talk to airlines just in terms of just having a conversation with them, we talk to airlines with offers on the table like financial assistance on landing charges and marketing support.”

De Carteret said the tourism board has set aside £1 million as a sweetener with the airlines, each of whose routes on average equate to 25,000 passengers annually, on top of around £4.5 million expected to be spent on marketing the destination in the UK.

More WTM 2008 coverage at travelweekly.co.uk/wtm2008

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