Buying Aurigny 'correct decision'

GUERNSEY'S decision to purchase its own airline remains the correct one. 'The States purchased Aurigny in order to secure the strategically essential Gatwick link,' Treasury and Resources minister Lyndon Trott said yesterday.

'That was the correct decision at the time and remains so today.

'With regard to other routes it's a matter for the executive board of directors of Aurigny and its associated companies to ensure that the group is operated in a manner that is of benefit to the people of Guernsey, not a burden. The shareholders' direction is clear.'

His department has shareholders' responsibility for Aurigny, which yesterday announced it was withdrawing from two of its Jersey routes and was losing money on other key routes.

It is now to review its whole flights network. It blamed competition from Rockhopper for scrapping the services.

Recently, its rival has been granted permission to compete with it on the Guernsey-Alderney route.

'These two Jersey services have, in fact, been under review for some time. Their cessation is simply a reflection of the changes that have taken place over the last 10 days,' said managing director Malcolm Hart.

'The arrival of full and free competition on all inter-island routes means that Aurigny can no longer be all things to all people.'

He said that the review would be full, far-reaching and would not be rushed.

'Aurigny was bought by the States to outlast the ups and downs of just this sort of competition. And we shall. The suggestion that stopping these two Jersey routes, which represent under 3% of our total projected passenger numbers, might actually spell the beginning of the end for Aurigny has brought a wry smile here.

'However, to quote someone else who took on the competition, it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.'

Rockhopper has stepped in to take Aurigny's place on the dropped routes.

It said it would take on reservation staff and baggage handlers and pilots to fly two extra aircraft.

From 4 October, the day after Aurigny pulls out, it will start a twice-daily service between Jersey and Alderney, four times a week.

The number of Jersey-St Brieuc flights will also increase following the withdrawal of Aurigny's Jersey-Dinard service.

'This slash and burn approach to their network makes it even more important for the taxpayers of Guernsey, who own Aurigny, to see some accounts,' said Rockhopper's chief executive Noel Hayes.

'They've blamed increased competition for this decision to cut services when even the most cursory glance at the facts shows this argument to be at best fatuous and, at worst, misleading.

'All Aurigny has done here is to seize a golden opportunity to shed loss-making services and then lay the blame firmly at the door of the people who licensed competition. But once you look at the facts, that argument just doesn't stand.

'Blaming increased competition is no more than a convenient fig leaf for Aurigny.

'They must be the last state-owned airline in modern aviation to think they have a God-given right to fly routes without having to compete.'

Rockhopper chairman Derek Coates said: 'Aurigny is putting more spin into its media releases than its aircraft propellers.

'Perhaps it's all part of a bigger PR exercise to soften up the States for the losses that they are going to make this year and as a way of convincing their poor, disgruntled staff that these route reductions were not of their making.

'They also recently announced a revenue decline on the Guernsey-Jersey route of £560k.

'We estimate that they lost £200,000 of revenue from the decision of Channel Island Traders to buy its own aircraft rather than pay Aurigny prices,' he said.