Air Alderney approached to tender for routes
AIR ALDERNEY has indicated that it might tender for Alderney's lifeline routes to Guernsey and Southampton once its Jersey and Cherbourg links are established.
Alastair Ford, head of shareholder executive at States' Trading Assets, contacted the director of the fledgling airline, Julian Storey, as part of a 'soft market testing' exercise. Guernsey aims to develop a public service obligation deal with the airline operating the Alderney routes, which would set out agreed service levels and cap ticket pricing. The routes, to Guernsey and Southampton, would first be put out to tender.
The States of Guernsey has approached Air Alderney to see if it would be interested in tendering for the Alderney routes and what would be acceptable and unacceptable to them if they were to take them on.
The news that Guernsey had made the approach came as a surprise to the States of Alderney as they had not been informed about the process.
Mr Ford wrote: 'The States of Guernsey (the island's government) is giving preliminary consideration to the possibility of seeking tenders for the operation of air services between Alderney and Guernsey and between Alderney and Southampton on a public service obligation basis.'
He said the purpose of the communication was to enable them to develop their tender specification which would satisfy their requirements and what potential bidders would be able to offer. They wanted a show of 'market appetite' and details about the commercial model on which the bidder might base their offer.
