STSB put on spot over Aurigny’s growing losses
IT is ‘high time answers were sought’ about how Aurigny’s losses are mounting, according to Vale deputy Neil Inder.
He sent 16 written questions to the States’ Trading Supervisory Board on Monday, asking about Aurigny’s finances and its board members’ experience in the aviation industry. Economic Development president Deputy Charles Parkinson has said that the Aurigny board needed to adapt in order to play its part in government’s vision for the island’s air links.
‘It’s high time answers were sought about how Aurigny has gone from £4m. to £7m. to a predicted £9m. loss position in 18 months,’ wrote Deputy Inder on his Facebook page ahead of making his questions public.
Several of Deputy Inder’s questions relate to the airline’s financial reports and forecasts and its reported losses, and the timeframes involved in the STSB being informed of these figures.
He also asked what the airline had done in response to the reported rise in losses and how those reportedly due to the rival Guernsey-Heathrow link had been calculated, and what they were exactly.
Similar questions seeking figures about the rival airline-operated Guernsey-Southend route are also asked, as well as a request for profits or losses due to Aurigny’s operation of the Jersey-Guernsey and Southampton-Guernsey routes.
He also wanted to know if the STSB had been asked to approve the airline taking on these routes, and if it had supported the move, on what this decision had been based.
There is a further question asking for justification of the airline’s accounts not being published, given that it is taxpayer-funded.
Relating to the board specifically, he asked what experience the members had of the industry, for details of the chairman, directors and non-executive directors’ salaries and additional payments from 2017 to 2019 and what the criteria was for their appointments.
